Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers there are aged 19-21 years in the Dorset County Council area.

The latest national information on the number of care leavers aged 19 to 21 and the percentage in touch with their local authority can be found in table F1 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018. These figures are also disaggregated at local authority level for 2018 in the underlying data tables that accompany this statistical release.

The department does not hold data on care leavers below local authority level.

The department does not hold information centrally on the number and proportion of care leavers who have specifically had contact with a personal advisor within a local authority.

Paragraph 4.38 of the Children Act (1989) volume 3 statutory guidance provides further information on how the duty on local authorities to keep in touch with care leavers should be implemented. A copy of the guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/397649/CA1989_Transitions_guidance.pdf.