Education written question – answered at on 29 March 2011.
Chris Ruane
Labour, Vale of Clwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of girls (a) in care and (b) not in care aged between 13 and 19 gave birth in each of the last 10 years.
Tim Loughton
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
Information on the number of looked-after girls who are mothers is available in table A5 of the Department's Statistical First Release Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending
http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000960/index.shtml
The earliest year for which this information is available is 2005. The percentage of looked-after girls aged between 13 and 19 who are mothers, for the year 2005 to 2010 is included in table 1.
| Table 1: Proportion of girls in care aged between 13 to 19 who gave birth during the year ending 31 March 2005 - 10, England | |
| Percentage | |
| 2005 | 3 |
| 2006 | 3 |
| 2007 | 3 |
| 2008 | 3 |
| 2009 | 3 |
| 2010 | 3 |
| Notes: 1. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. 2. Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. 3. 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. Source: SSDA903. | |
Information on the proportion of girls not in care who gave birth is not available. Estimates for all girls aged 14 to 19 who have given birth have been provided by the Office for National Statistics, this is shown in table 2. Please note that comparable information for girls aged 13 to 19 is not available.
| Table 2: Estimated women and mothers aged 14 to 19, England and Wales | |||||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Female population aged 14 to 19 inclusive (from ONS mid-year population estimates) | 2,045,590 | 2,049,770 | 2,050,620 | 2,039,520 | 2,024,420 |
| Estimated number of women aged 14 to 19 who have had at least one live birth | 45,600 | 44,330 | 44,150 | 43,130 | 42,630 |
| Percentage of women aged 14 to 19 who have had at least one live birth | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Notes: 1. Estimates of the number of women who have had at least one live birth are from an ONS birth order model that combines data from birth registrations with survey data on fertility histories to estimate birth order, and then combines these with population estimates to produce the female population by parity. 2. The percentage of women in a particular age group who have had at least one live birth (i.e. are mothers) is not the same as a birth rate for that age group, which would show the proportion of women who give birth in a specific calendar year. 3. Because the percentage of women with at least one birth increases with age, any comparison of the figures above with figures for females in care may be affected if the female population in care aged 14-19 has a different age structure from the overall female population aged 14-19. 4. Estimates have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Fertility and Family Analysis Unit, Office for National Statistics. | |||||
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