Reporting year 2024

Stability measures for children looked after in England

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Introduction

This release brings together information on the stability of children looked after (CLA) in England, including stability in their placements, at school and in their professional support into one place for the first time.

Data is taken from the annual SSDA903 data collection which is collected from local authorities in England, and from the termly school census data collection. Each year local authorities can revise previous years' CLA data. The latest statistics relate to CLA on 31 March 2024 and comparisons are made to CLA on 31 March 2023 unless otherwise stated. 

This release is published as official statistics in development, which means that these statistics are undergoing evaluation for quality and user need. As the social worker data collection is new, we expect the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. We welcome feedback on these statistics from users via the details in the “contact us” section below. 

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Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2024

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About these statistics

Placement stability data is a five-year time series covering 2020 to 2024. School stability data is a four-year time series covering 2021 to 2024 - data for 2020 is not available due to the pandemic. Social worker stability data is only available for 2024 as the data was collected by DfE for the first time in 2024.

Statistics on the stability of CLA were previously published in the ‘Stability Index’ by the Children's Commissioner's Office (opens in a new tab) (CCO). The most recent publication was the 2020 Stability Index (opens in a new tab), relating to the stability of CLA on 31 March 2019. DfE has continued to publish placement (up to 2024) and school stability (up to 2023) in the Children looked after including adoptions publication. In the 2022 release of this publication, DfE published social worker stability data collected by CCO for 2019 and 2020 on their behalf.

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Placement stability

The number of placements experienced by children looked after (CLA) in a one-year period has remained broadly stable over the past 5 years, with a slight increase in stability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

High placement instability

High placement stability is defined as a looked after child experiencing 3 or more placements during the year ending 31 March.

1 in 10 CLA experienced high placement instability (3 or more placements) - 10% - broadly stable from 11% in 2023 and 11% in 2020 (figures based on unrounded numbers).

A lower proportion of CLA experience high placement instability when focusing on those who have been in care for 12 months or more (9%) compared to those who have been in care for less than 12 months (14%).

Characteristics of CLA with high placement instability

Legal status and placement type for CLA with high placement instability

CLA who were initially detained for child protection reasons had the highest proportion experiencing high placement instability (26%). This was followed by CLA who were detained under youth justice legal statuses (18%). CLA whose first legal status in the year was a placement order (placed for adoption) were the least likely to experience high placement instability (6%). Other than an increase seen for CLA detained for child protection reasons, proportions are similar to those seen last year.

Placements which don't fall into the main placement categories are grouped within 'Other placements'. These tend to be placements by the courts (s38(6)) with a relative or non-assessed person, placements with other unregistered carers or unregulated placements (for example whilst awaiting availability of an alternative placement, if it's in the child's best interests or the child's choice).

CLA whose first placement in the year was ‘Other residential settings’ (including care homes or custody) experienced the highest placement instability - 23% - unchanged from last year. This was followed by those with a first placement of ‘Other placements’. High placement instability was experienced by 9% of CLA whose first placement in the year was a foster placement - unchanged from last year.

Long-term placement stability

The number of placements experienced by CLA over a two-year period has been broadly stable over the past 5 years - in 2024, 23% of CLA experienced high placement instability (3 or more placements during the previous 2 years), up from 22% in 2023 but the same as in 2020 (figures based on unrounded numbers). 

Of those CLA aged under 16 on 31 March who had been looked after continuously for at least 2.5 years, 68% had lived in the same placement for at least 2 years.

Further information on placement stability can be found in the ‘P’ highlight tables accompanying this release.

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School stability

High school instability is defined as a looked after child experiencing at least one mid-year school move during the year ending 31 March - a move at any point in the year excluding the period 1 August to 30 September.

The proportion of CLA experiencing at least one school move in a one-year period (between 1 April and 31 March) has been stable since 2021 at 11% each year.

High school instability

The proportion of CLA experiencing high instability in 2024 was 8%  - unchanged from 2023 and broadly stable since 2021 (7%). 

Characteristics of CLA with high school instability

Looking at gender and the major ethnic groups, there is little change over time or across different characteristics.

CLA aged 4 to 9 years experience the highest school instability each year - 12% in 2024, compared to 8% of CLA aged 10 to 15 years. 

CLA in special schools are less likely to experience high school instability - 2% in 2024, compared to 11% of CLA in state-funded primary schools and 7% in state-funded secondary schools.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are less likely to have a mid-year school move - 4% in 2024 - than CLA who were not unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Legal status and placement type for CLA with high school instability

CLA with a first legal status of ‘placement order granted’ (a court order allowing a local authority to place a child for adoption) during the year were more likely to experience a mid-year school move - 20% in 2024, up from 19% in 2023 and 16% in 2021.

CLA placed for adoption (a looked after child who goes to live with their prospective adopters) for their first placement during the year were more likely to experience at least one mid-year school move during the year in 2024 - 23% - up from 10% in 2023 and up from 15% in 2021. However these percentages are liable to change year on year due to the size of the underlying numbers of children. This higher level of instability is perhaps not surprising as looked after children who are adopted are more likely to be placed outside the local authority boundary than other looked after children.  

CLA with high school instability by Special Educational Need (SEN)

CLA with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan were less likely to have a mid-year school move - 6% in 2024 - compared with those who had some SEN support or with no identified SEN - both 9%, likely to be because a particular school can be requested in the child’s EHC plan.

Long-term school stability

The proportion of CLA experiencing a school move over a two-year period (between 1 April of the previous year ending 31 March and 31 March of the relevant year) has been broadly stable over the past 4 years – in 2024, 20% of CLA had at least one school move during the previous 2 years, unchanged from 2023 and decreasing slightly from 21% in 2021.

The proportion of CLA experiencing high instability over a two-year period (at least one mid-year school move - a move at any point in the year excluding the periods 1 August to 30 September in each year) has also been broadly stable over the past 4 years – in 2024, 15% of CLA had at least one mid-year school move during the previous 2 years, a slight increase from 14% in both 2021 and 2023.

Further information on school stability can be found in the ‘S’ highlight tables accompanying this release.

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Social worker stability

High social worker instability

High social worker instability is defined as a looked after child experiencing 3 or more social workers during the year ending 31 March.

The proportion of CLA experiencing high social worker instability in 2024 was 27% (figures based on unrounded numbers).

Characteristics of CLA with high social worker instability

Looking at gender and the major ethnic groups, there is little variation between these characteristics groups.

CLA aged under 1 year experienced the highest social worker instability in 2024 - 34%. The proportion of CLA experiencing high social worker instability decreases as age increases - 24% of CLA aged 16 or over experienced high social worker instability.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are less likely to experience high social worker instability (20%) than CLA who were not unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (27%).

Legal status and placement type of CLA with high social worker instability

Placements which don't fall into the main placement categories are grouped within 'Other placement'. These tend to be placements by the courts (s38(6)) with a relative or non-assessed person, placements with other unregistered carers or unregulated placements (for example whilst awaiting availability of an alternative placement, if it's in the child's best interests or the child's choice). 

CLA with a first legal status during the year of ‘detained for child protection’ were more likely to experience 3 or more social workers - 42% in 2024. 

CLA whose first placement in the year was ‘Other placement’ experienced the highest social worker instability - 35%. This was followed by those with a first placement of ‘Other residential settings’ (including care homes, schools or custody) - 34%.

Reason for social worker change

The most common reason a looked after child was assigned a social worker during the year was the previous social worker leaving the role - 17% of reasons for a child being assigned a social worker were for this reason. This was followed by a social worker being assigned following child transfer due to standard process (a transfer to another service within the local authority, for example from an assessment team to a child protection team) - 16% - and managing caseloads - 13%.

A number of local authorities reported issues with providing the reason a looked after child was assigned a social worker. Where local authorities were unable to provide the reason a child was assigned a social worker, these are generally included within the 'Other reason' category. Further details can be found in the methodology document.

Further information on social worker stability can be found in the ‘SW’ highlight tables accompanying this release.

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Combined measures of stability

The percentage of CLA experiencing high instability in all three measures of stability (placement, school and social worker stability) was 1% in 2024. There is little variation between different characteristics groups.  CLA are only included in this measure if they were in all three of the placement, school and social stability cohorts.

Further information on combined stability can be found in the ‘C’ highlight tables accompanying this release.

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Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are undergoing a development. They have been developed under the guidance of the Head of Profession for Statistics and published to involve users and stakeholders at an early stage in assessing their suitability and quality.

They have been produced as far as possible in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Stability measures for children looked after in England statistics and data:

Children Looked After data team

Email: cla.stats@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Karen Attew

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