Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in care were recorded as having gone missing (a) once, (b) twice, (c) three times, (d) four times, (e) five times, (f) six times, (g) seven times, (h) eight times, (i) nine times, (j) 10 times and (k) more than 10 times in the last five years.

The Department for Education does not hold the requested information in the correct format. However, the department has published data on the percentage of children going missing from foster homes and regulated children’s homes in the year ending 31 March 2013, once, twice, three times, and four or more times. This is available on slide 17 of the Children’s homes data pack published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/388701/Childrens_Homes_data_pack_Dec_2014.pdf

Additionally, information on the numbers of children who were missing from care for the latest 5 years are available in table B1 of the Statistical First Release ‘Children looked after in England, year ending 31 March 2014’, however, this does not provide information on the number of times each child went missing. This can be found online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities