Children in Care
Education and Skills
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills
(1) how many children under the age of five were taken into care in each year ended 31 March since 1990, broken down by (a) ethnic origin and (b) age;
(2) how many children under five years of age were adopted from care in each year ending 31 March since 1990, broken down by (a) ethnic origin and (b) the age at which they entered care .
Parmjit Dhanda (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Skills; Gloucester, Labour)
The available information on (i) the number of children under the age of five who were taken into care broken down by ethnic group and broken down by age on starting their first period of care in the year is presented in Table 1; and (ii) the number of children under five years of age who were adopted from care broken down by ethnic group and broken down by age on starting their final period of care in the year is shown in Table 2.
Tables 1 and 2 are not comparable partly because the ages shown are calculated on different periods of care.
| Table 1: Children looked after by local authorities aged under five years who were taken into care during the years ending 31 March 1992 to 31 March 2006, by age on starting the first period of care in the year and by ethnicity( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) (England) | ||||||||
| Numbers | ||||||||
| 1991-92( 8) | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | |
| All children looked after aged under five who were taken into care in the year(1, 2) | 830 | 1,900 | 2,500 | 2,900 | 2,900 | 3,200 | 3,500 | 3,600 |
| Age on starting the first period of care In the year( 3) | ||||||||
| Under 1 | 310 | 730 | 1,000 | 1,200 | 1,200 | 1,300 | 1,400 | 1,600 |
| 1 | 160 | 330 | 440 | 480 | 490 | 520 | 530 | 550 |
| 2 | 130 | 270 | 420 | 450 | 440 | 480 | 560 | 510 |
| 3 | 120 | 280 | 330 | 390 | 390 | 440 | 450 | 510 |
| 4 | 120 | 250 | 320 | 370 | 360 | 410 | 480 | 420 |
| Ethnicity( 4) | ||||||||
| White | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Mixed | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Asian or Asian British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Black or Black British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Other Ethnic Groups | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Numbers | |||||||
| 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
| All children looked after aged under five who were taken into care in the year(1, 2) | 4,000 | 3,700 | 4,000 | 4,200 | 4,100 | 4,200 | 4,100 |
| Age on starting the first period of care In the year( 3) | |||||||
| Under 1 | 1,900 | 1,800 | 1,900 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,100 |
| 1 | 610 | 530 | 560 | 630 | 580 | 650 | 620 |
| 2 | 620 | 520 | 570 | 560 | 550 | 540 | 560 |
| 3 | 450 | 480 | 420 | 510 | 500 | 510 | 450 |
| 4 | 440 | 390 | 490 | 530 | 440 | 420 | 400 |
| Ethnicity( 4) | |||||||
| White | — | 3,100 | 3,200 | 3,300 | 3,200 | 3,300 | 3,200 |
| Mixed | — | 290 | 460 | 530 | 440 | 450 | 450 |
| Asian or Asian British | — | 110 | 120 | 140 | 110 | 130 | 120 |
| Black or Black British | — | 120 | 200 | 220 | 280 | 270 | 290 |
| Other Ethnic Groups | — | 60 | 50 | 70 | 60 | 50 | 60 |
| (1) Source: DfES, SSDA903 return which between 1992 and 1997 and since 2004 covered all children looked after by local authorities. SSDA903 covered only a sample of third of children looked after by local authorities between 1998 and 2003. (2) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. (3) Only the first occasion on which a child was taken into care in the year has been counted. (4) Information on ethnic origin only started to be collected on 1 April 2000. (5) "Children taken into care" are children who started to be looked after under the following legal statuses: interim or full care orders, and police protection or emergency protection or child assessment orders. They exclude children freed for adoption or for whom a placement order was granted, they exclude children under voluntary accommodation and they also exclude children under youth justice legal statuses. (6) To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 or to the nearest 10 otherwise. Where the number was five or less (other than zero) this has been suppressed and replaced with a *. (7) Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. (8) Due to the implementation of the Children Act (1989), figures on children looked after are not available before 14 October 1992 and figures for the year ending 1992 only cover the period from 14 October to 31 March 1992. | |||||||
| Table 2: Children looked after by local authorities aged under five years who were adopted during the years ending 31 March 1992 to 31 March 2006, by age on starting the final period of care and by ethnicity( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) (England) | ||||||||
| Numbers | ||||||||
| 1991-92( 7) | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | |
| All children looked after aged under five who were adopted in the year(1, 2) | 600 | 1,300 | 1,100 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,300 | 1,400 |
| Age on starting the final period of care in the year( 3) | ||||||||
| Under 1 | 430 | 990 | 880 | 810 | 810 | 790 | 1,100 | 1,100 |
| 1 | 90 | 220 | 150 | 140 | 140 | 150 | 130 | 180 |
| 2 | 40 | 90 | 60 | 60 | 50 | 70 | 70 | 60 |
| 3 | 30 | 30 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 4 | * | * | * | * | * | * | 0 | 0 |
| Ethnicity( 4) | ||||||||
| White | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Mixed | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Asian or Asian British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Black or Black British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Other Ethnic Groups | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Numbers | |||||||
| 1999-2000 | 2000-01( 8) | 2001-02( 8) | 2002-03( 8) | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
| All Children looked after aged under five who were adopted in the year(1, 2) | 1,800 | 2,100 | 2,200 | 2,400 | 2,400 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| Age on starting the final period of care in the year( 3) | |||||||
| Under 1 | 1,400 | 1,600 | 1,700 | 1,900 | 1,900 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 1 | 240 | 320 | 340 | 340 | 350 | 340 | 360 |
| 2 | 100 | 120 | 180 | 140 | 150 | 170 | 150 |
| 3 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | 0 | * |
| Ethnicity( 4) | |||||||
| White | — | 1,800 | 1,900 | 2,100 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 2,100 |
| Mixed | — | 140 | 200 | 220 | 220 | 250 | 270 |
| Asian or Asian British | — | 30 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 40 | 40 |
| Black or Black British | — | 40 | 60 | 50 | 70 | 50 | 60 |
| Other Ethnic Groups | — | 40 | 30 | 20 | 40 | 30 | 20 |
| (1) Source: DfES, SSDA903 return which between 1992 and 1997 and since 2004 covered all children looked after by local authorities. SSDA903 covered only a sample of third of children looked after by local authorities between 1998 and 2003. (2) Figures for children looked after in this table exclude agreed series of short term placements. (3) Only the last period of care in the year on which a child was looked after has been counted. (4) Information on ethnic origin only started to be collected on 1 April 2000. (5) To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 or to the nearest 10 otherwise. Where the number was five or less (other than zero) this has been suppressed and replaced with a *. (6) Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. (7) Until 31 March 1991 Statistics were collected on children in care under the legislation that preceded the Children Act. The number of children looked after collected from 14 October 1991, is not directly comparable with the number of children in care under the old legislation. Therefore figures are only shown for 1991-92 onwards. Figures for year 1992 only over the period from 14 October to 31 March 1992. (8) Figures are derived from SSDA 903 return and grossed up against the AD1 return. | |||||||