Children in Care

Education written question – answered at on 15 November 2010.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of John Hemming John Hemming Liberal Democrat, Birmingham, Yardley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children were (a) taken into care (excluding respite care), (b) left care and (c) were adopted in each year from 1980 to 2005; how many left care through adoption in each such year; and how many were in care on 31 March in each such year.

Photo of Tim Loughton Tim Loughton The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education

The information requested on (a) the number of children taken into care (excluding respite care) from 1980 to 2005 can be provided only at a disproportionate cost. Information on the number of children who were taken into care was published for the first time in 2010. This table shows information for year ending 31 March 2006 to 2010 and can be found in table C4 (in the excel link titled "England Summary tables") available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000960/index.shtml

Information on the number of children (b) who left care, (c) who were adopted and the number who were in care on 31 March can be found via the "Children Looked After" publications, as follows:

"Children Looked After by Local Authorities Year ending 31 March 1998", England available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000506/index.shtml

Table A: Number of children who were looked after at 31 March for year ending 31 March 1988 to 1998.

Table H: Number of looked-after children adopted during year ending 31 March 1994 to 1998.

"Children Looked After by Local Authorities Year ending 31 March 2001", England available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000509/index.shtml

Table S: Number of children who ceased to be looked after during the year ending 31 March 1997 to 2001 by duration of latest period of care.

Table H: Number of looked-after children adopted during the year ending 31 March 1997 to 2001.

"Children Looked After by Local Authorities, Year Ending 31 March 2005" available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000646/index.shtml

Table AB: Children who ceased to be looked after during the year ending 31 March 2001 to 2005 by gender and age on ceasing.

Table AM: Looked-after children adopted during the year ending 31 March by gender, age at adoption, final legal status, duration of final period of care, age on starting final period of care and time between best interest decision and placement for adoption, 2001 to 2005.

Both of these tables can be found in the additional information titled "Volume 1-National Tables".

Number of children looked after at 31 March by local authority, 1997 to 2005. This can be found in the additional information spreadsheet titled "Children looked after at 31 March by local authorities, 1997 to 2005".

Information on the number of children looked after at 31 March is not available prior to 1988. Information on the number of children who ceased to be looked after prior to 1997 and information on the number of looked-after children adopted prior to 1994 can be provided only at a disproportionate cost.

Historical data in the above statistical releases may differ from that included in 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.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes2 people think so

No1 person thinks not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.