LA - Official Statistics - Children looked after who were missing or away from placement without authorisation
Note: These statistics are published as Official Statistics. Users should be cautious making comparisons between local authorities, or across years due to changing reporting practices - see the methodology document for further information.
Children looked after who were missing or away from placement without authorisation. Data formerly in table LAG1.
Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation' but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of the number of children with missing incidents of up to 8% in 2018, 10% in 2019 and 13% in 2020; suggesting the true figures could be more like 10,700, 10,800 and 11,000. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of the number of children with away without authorisation incidents of up to 18% in 2018, 22% in 2019 and 29% in 2020; suggesting the true figures could be more like 4,700, 4,700 and 4,800. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this has been included in the away from placement without authorisation table.
Footnotes:
1. National and regional numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
2. For some local authorities, such as Kent, the figures may be impacted by significant numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
On this page
Data set details
- Theme
- Children's social care
- Publication
- Children looked after in England including adoptions
- Release
- Reporting year 2020
- Release type
- Geographic levels
- Local authority, National, Regional
- Indicators
- Number
- Filters
- Children who are missing or away without authorisation
- Time period
- 2018 to 2020
Data set preview
| time_period | time_identifier | geographic_level | country_code | country_name | region_code | region_name | old_la_code | la_name | new_la_code | CLA_group | Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Reporting year | Regional | E92000001 | England | E12000001 | North East | Children looked after during the year | 7050 | |||
| 2018 | Reporting year | Regional | E92000001 | England | E12000002 | North West | Children looked after during the year | 18560 | |||
| 2018 | Reporting year | Regional | E92000001 | England | E12000003 | Yorkshire and the Humber | Children looked after during the year | 10860 | |||
| 2018 | Reporting year | Regional | E92000001 | England | E12000004 | East Midlands | Children looked after during the year | 7710 | |||
| 2018 | Reporting year | Regional | E92000001 | England | E12000005 | West Midlands | Children looked after during the year | 13060 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| CLA_group | Children who are missing or away without authorisation |
| Number | Number |
Footnotes
- Before using this data, please check the metadata guidance document for important information such as definitions, limitations and caveats.
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