CLA on 31 March - social worker stability
Latest data
Published
Last updated
Number of social workers during the year and previous 2 years (social worker stability) for CLA on 31 March by sex, age, ethnicity, first legal status and placement during the year/previous 2 years, UASC/non-UASC.
On this page
Data set details
- Theme
- Children's social care
- Publication
- Stability measures for children looked after in England
- Release
- Reporting year 2025
- Release type
- Number of rows
- 1,716
- Geographic levels
- National
- Indicators
- Number
- Percentage
- Filters
- CLA population
- Characteristic
- Number of social workers
- Time period
- 2024 to 2025
Data set preview
| time_period | time_identifier | geographic_level | country_code | country_name | cla_group | characteristic | breakdown | social_worker_stability | children_count | children_percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | CLA 12 months on 31 March | Age group | 1 to 4 years | Total children | 6360 | 100 |
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | CLA 12 months on 31 March | Age group | 1 to 4 years | With 1 social worker during the year | 2390 | 38 |
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | CLA 12 months on 31 March | Age group | 1 to 4 years | With 2 social workers during the year | 2420 | 38 |
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | CLA 12 months on 31 March | Age group | 1 to 4 years | With 3 or more social workers during the year | 1550 | 24 |
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | CLA 12 months on 31 March | Age group | 10 to 15 years | Total children | 25270 | 100 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| breakdown | Characteristic |
| children_count | Number |
| children_percent | Percentage |
| cla_group | CLA population |
| social_worker_stability | Number of social workers |
Footnotes
- Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number. Figures in some tables may be suppressed, denoted by a 'c', percentages <0.5% are denoted by a 'k' . Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases of this publication. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
- Includes children looked after on 31 March each year who also spent at least one day in care in the previous year ending 31 March.
- First placement and legal status during the year, excluding a small number of children for whom placement on 31 March of the relevant year and corresponding legal status has been used instead. See methodology document for further information.
- First placement and legal status during the previous 2 years, excluding a small number of children for whom placement on 31 March of the relevant year and corresponding legal status has been used instead. See methodology document for further information.
- Youth Justice legal statuses' refers to children: remanded to LA accommodation or youth detention accommodation under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012; placed in LA accommodation under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984; or, sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order with residence or intensive fostering requirement under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (as amended).
- Figures for 2024 exclude Barnet who did not complete a social worker data return, and a small number of other children from other LAs who were missing from the data collection, or missing social worker episodes for the correct period.
- In the 2025 data collection, local authorities provided updated social worker episodes between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 for children who were CLA on both 31 March 2024 and 2025. These updated social worker episodes have been used to produce the 2024 one-year measure and the 2025 two-year measure. A small number of LAs did not provide all their social worker episodes for these children in the 2025 data collection, so their missing data has instead been taken from what they provided in the 2024 data collection.
- Social workers are only counted once for each child during the year. For example, if a child had a social worker, moved to a different social worker, then back to the original social worker during the course of the year, then this would count as 2 social workers during the year.
- Social workers are only counted once for each child during the previous 2 years. For example, if a child had a social worker, moved to a different social worker, then back to the original social worker during the course of the previous 2 years, then this would count as 2 social workers during the previous 2 years.
Using this data
Download the underlying data as a compressed ZIP file
View or create your own tables
View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool
Download this data using code
Access this data using common programming languages using the URL below.
Example code
Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about CLA on 31 March - social worker stability statistics and data:
Children Looked After data team
Email: cla.stats@education.gov.ukContact name: Karen Attew