Official Statistics - CLA who were away from placement without authorisation - NATIONAL
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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, such as Kent or Croydon, 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 2022
- Release type
- Geographic levels
- National
- Indicators
- Measure
- Filters
- Children looked after who were away from placement
- Time period
- 2018 to 2022
Data set preview
| time_period | time_identifier | geographic_level | country_code | country_name | missing_status | characteristic | number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age of children who were away from placement without authorisation | 1 to 4 years | 10 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age of children who were away from placement without authorisation | 10 to 15 years | 5080 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age of children who were away from placement without authorisation | 16 years and over | 10560 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age of children who were away from placement without authorisation | 5 to 9 years | 20 |
| 2018 | Reporting year | National | E92000001 | England | Age of children who were away from placement without authorisation | Total incidents | 15670 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| characteristic | Children looked after who were away from placement - by missing status |
| number | Measure |
Footnotes
- Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney who were unable to provide figures.
- Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number. 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 missing incidents of up to 8% in 2018, 10% in 2019, 13% in 2020 and 2021 and 10% in 2022; suggesting the true figures could be more like 10,700, 10,800, 11,000, 9,600 and 11,100. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 18% in 2018, 22% in 2019, 29% in 2020, 32% in 2021 and 30% in 2022; suggesting the true figures could be more like 4,700, 4,700, 4,800, 3,800 and 3,600. 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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