CLA starting during the year - characteristics - by local authority
Latest data
Published
Last updated
LA data for CLA starting during the year by: age group, category of need, sex, legal status, numbers taken into care, UASC.
On this page
Data set details
- Theme
- Children's social care
- Publication
- Children looked after in England including adoptions
- Release
- Reporting year 2025
- Release type
- Number of rows
- 29,225
- Geographic levels
- Local authority, National, Regional
- Indicators
- Number
- Percentage
- Filters
- Characteristic
- Time period
- 2021 to 2025
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 | characteristic | breakdown | children_count | children_percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age on starting | 1 to 4 years | 4430 | 14 | |||||
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age on starting | 10 to 15 years | 8660 | 27 | |||||
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age on starting | 16 years and over | 9110 | 28 | |||||
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age on starting | 5 to 9 years | 4920 | 15 | |||||
| 2025 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age on starting | Total | 32270 | 100 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| breakdown | Characteristic |
| children_count | Number |
| children_percent | Percentage |
Footnotes
- National and regional 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.
- Category of need is the main category of the eight “need codes” at the time the child started to be looked after.
- Following the introduction of the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) in 2016, there has been an agreement between local authorities to transfer UASC to ensure a more equitable distribution of UASC across all local authorities. This means that some UASC will be counted more than once in the national and regional CLA starting and ceasing figures if they started or ceased to be looked after within more than one local authority during the year. In 2020, the number of UASC starts included 140 young people who had transferred from another LA; this had increased to 1,970 in 2024 following the mandation of the NTS in February 2022.
- 'Taken into care' includes children and young people starting to be looked after under a care order or are detained in local authority accommodation on child protection grounds.
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 starting during the year - characteristics - by local authority statistics and data:
Looked-after children statistics team
Email: cla.stats@education.gov.ukContact name: Justin Ushie