Data set from Children looked after in England including adoptions

LA - Official Statistics - Children looked after who were missing or away from placement without authorisation

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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.


Data set details

Theme
Children's social care
Publication
Children looked after in England including adoptions
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

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data
time_periodtime_identifiergeographic_levelcountry_codecountry_nameregion_coderegion_nameold_la_codela_namenew_la_codeCLA_groupNumber
2018Reporting yearRegionalE92000001EnglandE12000001North EastChildren looked after during the year7050
2018Reporting yearRegionalE92000001EnglandE12000002North WestChildren looked after during the year18560
2018Reporting yearRegionalE92000001EnglandE12000003Yorkshire and the HumberChildren looked after during the year10860
2018Reporting yearRegionalE92000001EnglandE12000004East MidlandsChildren looked after during the year7710
2018Reporting yearRegionalE92000001EnglandE12000005West MidlandsChildren looked after during the year13060

Variables in this data set

Table showing all 2 variables
Variable nameVariable description
CLA_groupChildren who are missing or away without authorisation
NumberNumber

Footnotes

  1. Before using this data, please check the metadata guidance document for important information such as definitions, limitations and caveats.

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