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 (a) local authority, (b) private and (c) other care homes in England have been rated as requires improvement by Ofsted by provider for every year for the past five years for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the information requested is held by Ofsted, the regulator for children’s social care. The Chief Inspector of Ofsted will write to you with this information. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House libraries.
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 local authority children's care homes in England have closed in each region in each year for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the information requested is held by Ofsted, the regulator for children’s social care. The Chief Inspector of Ofsted will write to you with this information. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House libraries.
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 children's homes in England are (a) local authority-owned, (b) privately-owned and (c) other for each year for which data is available since the publication of the Children's Homes Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the information requested is held by Ofsted, the regulator for children’s social care. The Chief Inspector of Ofsted will write to you with this information. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House libraries.
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 and what proportion of looked-after children were in out of borough placements in (a) England, (b) the North West and (c) Stockport for each year since 2011.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The information requested is provided in the table below.
Numbers and percentages of children looked after at 31 March who were placed outside local authority boundary1, 2, 3
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Numbers |
|
|
|
|
|
|
England | 23,120 | 23,700 | 24,480 | 26,840 | 27,720 | 28,290 |
|
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|
|
|
|
|
North West | 3,620 | 3,570 | 3,850 | 4,370 | 4,550 | 4,510 |
|
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|
|
|
|
Stockport | 75 | 65 | 70 | 90 | 80 | 85 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
Percentages |
|
|
|
|
|
|
England | 35 | 35 | 36 | 39 | 40 | 40 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
North West | 32 | 31 | 33 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
Stockport | 25 | 23 | 24 | 30 | 27 | 29 |
Source: SSDA903
1. England and regional totals have been rounded to the nearest 10. Local authority numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
2. Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements children whose LA of placement is not known.
3. Percentages are based on the total number of children looked after at 31 March.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide an estimate of the number of looked-after children who have special educational needs, for each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department publishes data on numbers of looked after children who have special educational needs, for children who have been looked after continuously for at least twelve months at 31 March. Figures for the last five years for which information is available have been summarised in the table below.
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Children looked after1 with special educational needs2 | 20,740 | 22,030 | 21,890 | 21,070 | 20,220 |
1. Children looked after continuously for at least twelve months as at 31 March excluding children in respite care. Only children who have been matched to census data and are aged 4 or above (at 31 March) have been included.
2. Children matched to school census and AP census, with known SEN status.
The figures are from the 2012 to 2016 Outcomes for children looked after by LAs: 31 March statistical first releases, which are available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children.
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 much has been spent on (a) care homes and (b) residential care by local authorities in England for each year for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Our data collection on local authority spend does not differentiate between spend on care homes and residential care.
Total local authority spend on residential care for children looked after from 2013-14 to 2015-16 is shown below. These figures are published as part of the Department’s Section 251 collection.
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
Local authority spend on residential care, £ million (gross rounded) | 1,021 | 1,016 | 1,103 |
The section 251 return collects local authority spend on the following items specifically for looked after children: residential care, fostering services, adoption services, special guardianship support, short breaks (respite) for looked after disabled children, children placed with family and friends, education of looked after children, leaving care support services, asylum seeker services – children.
The Department publishes estimates of the weekly unit costs of residential care in the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT), which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.
To access the relevant information, select ‘All LAs level’, then Topic ‘Children’s Service Finance’ then Indicator ‘Residential Care’. The 2015-16 figures are provisional estimates based on a proxy (2014-15 care days). The unit costs will be recalculated once 2015-16 care day figures are available.
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 she has made of the average cost of residential care provision per child per week for each year for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Our data collection on local authority spend does not differentiate between spend on care homes and residential care.
Total local authority spend on residential care for children looked after from 2013-14 to 2015-16 is shown below. These figures are published as part of the Department’s Section 251 collection.
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
Local authority spend on residential care, £ million (gross rounded) | 1,021 | 1,016 | 1,103 |
The section 251 return collects local authority spend on the following items specifically for looked after children: residential care, fostering services, adoption services, special guardianship support, short breaks (respite) for looked after disabled children, children placed with family and friends, education of looked after children, leaving care support services, asylum seeker services – children.
The Department publishes estimates of the weekly unit costs of residential care in the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT), which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.
To access the relevant information, select ‘All LAs level’, then Topic ‘Children’s Service Finance’ then Indicator ‘Residential Care’. The 2015-16 figures are provisional estimates based on a proxy (2014-15 care days). The unit costs will be recalculated once 2015-16 care day figures are available.
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 proportion of looked-after children went missing from placements in (a) England and (b) the North West for more than 24 hours for each year for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The department does not collect hour-specific data on duration of missing episodes. It collects the date a looked-after child went missing, and the date the child returned to their placement so we cannot provide figures for children who were missing over 24 hours. The available information, covering children who went missing one day and returned on or after the next day is provided in the table. Figures are not comparable between 2015 and 2016.
Percentage of all looked after children during the year1 who went missing2 and returned on or after the following day3
Years ending 31 March 2015 and 2016
Coverage: England
Note: These figures are experimental – 2016 figures should not be compared to 2015 (see footnote 4).
| 20154 |
| 2016 |
England | 5 |
| 7 |
North West | 5 |
| 6 |
Source: SSDA903 | |||
1. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Expressed as a percentage of the total number of looked after children during the year. | |||
2. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be (e.g. a school) and their whereabouts is not known. This does not include children who were away from their placement without authorisation where the child’s whereabouts was known. | |||
3. Incidents of a child going missing where the end date of the missing period was after its start date. This will include short missing periods where the child went missing late at night but was found in the early hours of the following morning. | |||
4. These figures are experimental statistics. 2016 is the second year the statistics have been collected in this way and local authorities reported some significant improvements in consistency and completeness of the data; figures for 2015 and 2016 are not comparable. | |||
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 care homes there were in (a) England and (b) the North West broken down by (i) local authority ownership, (ii) private ownership and (iii) other for each year for which information is available since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the Department does not hold the information requested.
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 average number was of looked-after children that local authorities placed in children's homes for each year for which information is available, since the publication of the Children's Home Data Pack in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Information on the number of looked-after children by placement type is published in table A2 of the statistical first release Children looked after in England including adoption: 2015 to 2016, which is available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016.