This document describes the data included in the 'Children accommodated in secure children's homes: 31 March 2025' National Statistics release’s underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in a new tab)and is intended to meet at least three stars for Open Data (opens in a new tab).
The methodology document for this subject should be referenced alongside this release. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality and how the data is produced.
Coverage
This release contains statistics on children accommodated in secure children's homes in England and Wales, including:
numbers of approved and available places
availability and occupancy rates
children accommodated by sex, age, ethnicity and length of stay.
Information is taken from the DfE SA1 data return collected from secure children's homes.
Figures relate to the position at 31 March except for 2020 when the reference date was changed to 29 February to reflect the position in secure children's homes before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the national lockdown.
Individual home notes are:
Beechfield was undergoing renovation between 2017 and 2019 whilst unoccupied. It closed in 2019.
Swanwick Lodge reported in 2018 ongoing staffing issues and building works.
Leverton Hall closed on 31 July 2014.
Red Bank closed on 31 May 2014. It included the homes Newton House, Willows House and Vardy House.
Adel Beck was previously known as East Moor until January 2015.
Marydale Lodge was previously known as St Catherine's until 2020.
Lansdowne was temporarily closed at the date of the 2023 collection and at the time it was approved for 7 places. It had reopened by the 2024 collection.
Hillside is the secure children's home in Wales.
Clare Lodge was temporarily restricted to 5 places in 2023, but returned to 16 places in summer 2023.
File formats and conventions
The following symbols have been used in this release:
‘c’ figure suppressed to protect confidentiality. There may be some secondary suppression.
‘z’ for not applicable
‘x’ not available.
For percentages:
figures may be suppressed with a ‘c’ to protect confidentiality
they may not sum to 100% due to rounding
Please note: Users are advised to be cautious if pivoting the csv tables in Excel – suppressed and not applicable cells may be represented as ‘0’ (zero).
Data files
All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.
National totals of places and children accommodated
Filename
sa2025_national_data.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2010 to 2025
Content
Numbers of secure children’s homes, places approved and available for use, children accommodated, places contracted to the MoJ, availability and occupancy rates, number of Youth Custody Service placements, for England / England and Wales.
Variable names and descriptions
Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:
Variable name
Variable description
availability_rate
Percentage of approved places available (availability rate)
children_accommodated
Number of children accommodated
children_placed_ycs
Number of children placed by YCS
moj_places
Number of places contracted to the MoJ
number_of_secure_homes
Number of secure children's homes
occupancy_rate
Percentage of approved places occupied (occupancy rate)
perc_approved_moj
Percentage of approved places contracted to the MoJ
places_approved
Number of places approved
places_available
Number of places available
Footnotes
Figures are at 31 March each year, except for 2020 where figures are at 29 February to reflect the position before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the national lockdown.
Percentages in charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Where percentages apply to a group of categories they may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Characteristics of children placed in secure children's homes
Filename
sa2025_characteristics.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2010 to 2025
Content
Children accommodated by sex, age of child, length of stay, placement type, ethnicity, for England and Wales.
Variable names and descriptions
Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:
Variable name
Variable description
characteristics
Characteristics
children_accommodated
Number of children accommodated
percentage_children_accommodated
Percentage of children accommodated
Footnotes
Figures are at 31 March each year, except for 2020 where figures are at 29 February to reflect the position before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the national lockdown.
Ethnicity was reported for the first time in 2021.
Percentages in charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Where percentages apply to a group of categories they may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Places approved, available and children accommodated in each secure children's home
Filename
sa2025_individual_home.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2010 to 2025
Content
Data (including occupancy rate) for individual secure children's homes.
Variable names and descriptions
Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:
Variable name
Variable description
children_accommodated
Number of children accommodated
occupancy_rate
Percentage of approved places occupied (occupancy rate)
places_approved
Number of places approved
places_available
Number of places available
secure_home
Secure children's home name
Footnotes
Figures are at 31 March each year, except for 2020 where figures are at 29 February to reflect the position before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the national lockdown.
Percentages in charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Where percentages apply to a group of categories they may not sum to 100% due to rounding.