Table Tool

Create your own tables

Choose the data and area of interest you want to explore and then use filters to create your table.
Once you've created your table, you can download the data it contains for your own offline analysis.

1. Step 1

   • Publication: Children looked after in England including adoptions

2. Step 2

   • Data set: Official Statistics - CLA who were missing from placement - NATIONAL

3. Step 3

   • National:
     • England

4. Step 4

   • Time period: 2018 to 2021

5. Step 5

   • Indicators:
     • Measure
   • Children looked after who were missing from placement:
     • 1 to 4 years
     • 10 to 15 years
     • 16 years and over
     • 5 to 9 years
     • Total incidents

6. Step 6 Explore data

   This data is not from the latest release

   View latest data: Reporting year 2023

   Measure for 'Official Statistics - CLA who were missing from placement - NATIONAL' for 1 to 4 years, 10 to 15 years, 16 years and over, 5 to 9 years, All children looked after during the year and 28 other filters in England between 2018 and 2021

   		2018	2019	2020	2021
   Children missing from placement by gender	Total children who were missing during the year	11,520	11,880	12,430	10,880
   	Males	6,440	6,610	7,090	6,140
   	Females	5,080	5,270	5,340	4,740
   Children missing from placement	All children looked after during the year	104,250	106,640	108,670	108,070
   	Percentage of children looked after during the year who were missing	11	11	11	10
   Missing from placement incidents	Total number of missing incidents during the year	70,170	73,670	81,080	71,470
   Children missing from placement	Average number of incidents per looked after child who was missing	6.1	6.2	6.5	6.6
   	Children missing more than once during the year	7,440	7,680	8,010	7,020
   	Children missing at 31 March	300	260	190	220
   Durations of missing from placement periods	Total incidents	70,170	73,670	81,080	71,470
   	Less than 1 day	24,370	25,430	26,650	24,660
   	Between 1 and 2 days	38,070	40,160	45,530	39,930
   	Between 3 and 7 days	5,730	6,170	6,930	5,340
   	Between 8 and 10 days	640	620	740	550
   	Between 11 and 15 days	500	460	470	380
   	Between 16 and 20 days	230	200	190	170
   	Between 21 and 30 days	180	190	180	140
   	More than 30 days	460	430	390	320
   Children missing from placement	Average (mean) number of days per missing incident	2.6	2.2	2.2	2.1
   	Average (median) number of days per missing incident	1	1	1	1
   Age of child missing from placement	Total incidents	70,170	73,670	81,080	71,470
   	Under 1 year	40	30	20	20
   	1 to 4 years	40	60	50	30
   	5 to 9 years	190	160	180	100
   	10 to 15 years	33,490	33,690	34,930	26,680
   	16 years and over	36,410	39,740	45,900	44,640
   Placements from which children were missing	Total incidents	70,170	73,670	81,080	71,470
   	Foster placements	20,590	19,690	20,510	13,960
   	Placed for adoption	0	0	0	0
   	Placed with parents	840	990	1,300	1,070
   	Living independently	12,320	13,030	11,450	7,920
   	Secure units, children's homes and semi-independent living accommodation	34,760	38,220	45,680	46,360
   	Other placements	1,660	1,750	2,140	2,160

   Footnotes

   1. 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.
   2. 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 and 13% in 2020 and 2021; suggesting the true figures could be more like 10,700, 10,800, 11,000 and 9,600. 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 and 32% in 2021; suggesting the true figures could be more like 4,700, 4,700, 4,800 and 3,800. 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.

   Save table

   Related information

   • Release type:
   • Publication: Children looked after in England including adoptions, Reporting year 2023

   Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)