Official Statistics - CLA who were missing or away from placement without authorisation - LA
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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.
For some local authorities, the figures may be impacted by significant numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children
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Data set details
- Theme
- Children's social care
- Publication
- Children looked after in England including adoptions
- Release
- Reporting year 2023
- Release type
- Geographic levels
- Local authority, National, Regional
- Indicators
- Number
- Filters
- Children who are missing or away without authorisation
- Time period
- 2019 to 2023
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Average number of away from placement without authorisation incidents per looked after child | 4 | |||||
| 2023 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Average number of missing incidents per looked after child who went missing | 6.4 | |||||
| 2023 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement without authorisation at 31 March | 70 | |||||
| 2023 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children looked after during the year | 114670 | |||||
| 2023 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children missing at 31 March | 240 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| CLA_group | Children who are missing or away without authorisation |
| number | Number |
Footnotes
- National and regional numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number. 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.
- Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney and figures for 2023 exclude data for Barnsley as the LAs were unable to provide data in these years.
- Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
- Away from placement without authorisation is defined as a looked after child whose whereabouts is known but who is not at their placement or place they are expected to be and the carer has concerns or the incident has been notified to the local authority or the police.
- 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 missing incidents of up to 10% in 2019, 13% in 2020 and 2021, 10% in 2022 and 11% in 2023; suggesting the true figures could be more like 10,800, 11,000, 9,600, 11,100 and 11,500. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 22% in 2019, 29% in 2020, 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022 and 32% in 2023; suggesting the true figures could be more like 4,700, 4,800, 3,800, 3,600 and 3,900. 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.
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