National - Official Statistics - Children who were 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 away from their placement without authorisation. Figures by duration of period away from their placement without authorisation, placement and age of child at the start of the incident. Data formerly in table G1.
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.
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
- National
- Indicators
- Measure
- Filters
- Children looked after who were away from placement
- Time period
- 2018 to 2020
Data set preview
| time_period | time_identifier | geographic_level | country_code | country_name | missing_status | characteristic | Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement by gender | Females | 1650 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement by gender | Males | 2220 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement by gender | Total Children who were away from placement without authorisation during the year | 3870 |
| 2019 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement by gender | Females | 1580 |
| 2019 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Children away from placement by gender | Males | 2020 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| characteristic | Children looked after who were away from placement - by missing status |
| Number | Measure |
Footnotes
- Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number. See the methodology document for further information. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication.
- 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.
- 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.
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