Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of looked after children in children’s homes inside and outside the borough who were reported missing by a) duration of missing incident and (b) age of child at the start of missing incident and (c) went missing more than once during the year for each year since 2015.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department publishes information on looked after children who go missing from care in Tables G1 and LAG1 statistical release, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children.
A further breakdown of data regarding looked-after children who go missing in children’s homes is available in the attached tables. The data in the attached tables are experimental statistics and are not comparable between years as changes may be due to improved data recording. Local councils have improved their reporting of missing incidents through increased collaboration with partner organisations and carers, updated recording systems, and further training for carers to improve understanding of reporting processes.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside the local authority responsible, (b) outside the local authority responsible and (c) nationally (i) were reported missing by (A) duration of missing incident and (B) age of child at the start of missing incident and (ii) went missing more than once during the year for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside the local authority responsible, (b) outside the local authority responsible and (c) in each local authority area (i) were reported missing by (A) duration of missing incident, (B) age of child at the start of missing incident and (ii) went missing more than once during the year, for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children in (a) foster placements and (b) children’s homes were placed (i) inside and (ii) outside of the local authority responsible; and for those children placed outside of the local authority responsible what the average distance the placement was from the placing authority in each local authority area for each year since 2012.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant the Answer of 14 October 2017 to Question 106132 on Children in Care, what progress his Department has made on the assessment of data on the use of out of area placements.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department continues to collect, review and publish data on local authorities’ use of out-of-area placements. From our latest publication, 19% of all children in care were in a placement more than 20 miles from their home at 31 March 2018.
The department is currently supporting a number of projects aimed at increasing capacity locally. Through our children’s social care Innovation Programme, we are providing £5 million of funding to 3 projects in London and the South East that will increase the capacity of residential and fostering placements in the area. We are providing 3 local authorities with seed-funding to explore the possibility of setting up new secure provision, where our data shows that out of area placements are particularly common. Later this year we will also be offering all local authorities the opportunity to bid for seed funding to develop new approaches to increasing the sufficiency of foster parents.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2018 to Question 130996, what progress has been made in appointing board members to the Residential Care Leadership Board.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have delayed recruiting board members to the Residential Care Leadership Board until it is agreed how the remit of the board will fit into the newly created National Stability Forum. The appointed Chair has continued to seek views from experts across the sector to enable the Department for Education to move forward with the agreed programme of work.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside and (b) outside the borough of the authority responsible for their care were reported missing in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on the number of missing and away without authorisation incidents of looked after children in children’s homes by the location of the placement is shown in the attached table. The location reflects whether the child’s placement is inside or outside the boundary of the authority responsible for care.
This information was collected for the first time in 2014-15 and so figures for 2013-14 are not held centrally.
These statistics are experimental statistics based on data collected for the first time in 2015 and should be treated with caution. The figures are therefore not comparable between years and any assessment of trends should take this into account. The information provided does not mean that the number of children going missing or away without authorisation is changing in the volumes indicated in the table.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 April 2018 to Question 134364, on runaway children, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside and (b) outside the borough of the authority responsible for their care were reported missing.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on the number of missing incidents of looked after children in children’s homes by the location of the placement is shown in the attached table.
These statistics are experimental statistics based on data collected for the first time in 2015 and should be treated with caution as local councils’ recording of this information is improving over time. The figures are therefore not comparable between years and any assessment of trends should take this into account. The information provided does not mean that the number of children going missing is increasing in the volumes indicated in the table.
Local councils have improved their reporting of missing incidents through increased collaboration with partner organisations and carers, updated recording systems, and further training for carers to improve understanding of reporting processes.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of looked after children who were reported missing from their placement by (a) placement type, (b) placement provider, (c) distance from placing authority in the last 5 years for which figures are available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on the number of missing incidents of looked after children in each of the last three years by their placement type has been published in Table G1 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2016 to 2017’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.
Information on the number of missing incidents of looked after children by provider and the distance from the placing authority are provided in the attached table. In 2016/17, missing incidents were reported for 10,700 children, some of whom will have multiple missing incidents.
This information was collected for the first time in 2014-15 and so figures for earlier years are not available.
These statistics are experimental statistics based on data collected for the first time in 2015 and should be treated with caution as local councils’ recording of this information is improving over time. The figures are therefore not comparable between years and any assessment of trends should take this into account. The information provided does not mean that the number of children going missing is increasing in the volumes indicated in the table.
Local councils have improved their reporting of missing incidents through increased collaboration with partner organisations and carers, updated recording systems, and further training for carers to improve understanding of reporting processes.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the membership is of the Residential Care Leadership Board.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Sir Alan Wood was appointed as chair of the Residential Care Leadership Board on the 7 November 2017. Sir Alan Wood is a public appointee and his selection followed a competitive recruitment process. Further appointments of unsalaried board members will be made in due course by the department, in consultation with the chair.
In order to make sure that the board’s efforts are focused on the areas that will have the most impact, Sir Alan Wood is undertaking a programme of engagement with the sector to understand the key issues. This will enable us to determine the right membership to take forward the work programme.