Data set from Children looked after in England including adoptions

CLA who were away from placement without authorisation - OFFICIAL STATISTICS

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Published
Last updated
OFFICIAL STATISTICS. Users should be cautious making comparisons across years due to changing reporting practices - see the methodology document. Figures by duration of away without authorisation periods, placement and age.

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
315
Geographic levels
National
Indicators
  • Number
Filters
  • Children looked after who were away from placement
Time period
2021 to 2025

Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data
time_periodtime_identifiergeographic_levelcountry_codecountry_namemissing_statuscharacteristicnumber
2025Reporting yearNationalE92000001EnglandAge of children who were away from placement without authorisation1 to 4 yearsc
2025Reporting yearNationalE92000001EnglandAge of children who were away from placement without authorisation10 to 15 years2720
2025Reporting yearNationalE92000001EnglandAge of children who were away from placement without authorisation16 years and over10400
2025Reporting yearNationalE92000001EnglandAge of children who were away from placement without authorisation5 to 9 yearsc
2025Reporting yearNationalE92000001EnglandAge of children who were away from placement without authorisationTotal incidents13130

Variables in this data set

Table showing all 2 variables
Variable nameVariable description
characteristicChildren looked after who were away from placement
numberNumber

Footnotes

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. 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.
  4. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about CLA who were away from placement without authorisation - OFFICIAL STATISTICS statistics and data:

Looked-after children statistics team

Email: cla.stats@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Justin Ushie