July 2022

Vulnerable children and young people survey

Data guidance

Published 15 December 2022

Description

This page describes the data included in the ‘Vulnerable Children and Young People’ release’s underlying data files. 

The publication methodology, available on the publication report, should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data source, it's coverage and quality.

Coverage

This release provides information collected from Local Authorities between May 2020 and July 2022 on: 

• Contact with children supported by the local authority Children’s Social Care
• Children’s Social Care workforce
• System pressures

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.

Number of children supported by local authority children's social care

• Filename: number_of_cpp_and_cla.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 to 2022
• Content:

  Percentage difference in the number of children on a Child Protection Plan and Children Looked After recorded on the 'vulnerable children and young people’ survey, compared with the same time in 2019-20.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
csc_group	Social care group
percentage_difference_to_201920	Percentage difference compared to the same time in 2019-20
wave	Wave

Footnotes

1. See Methodology for the number of local authorities that responded to the question per wave.
2. The survey was collected on a fortnightly basis between May 2020 and March 2021, a monthly basis between April and December 2021, fortnightly in January 2022 and then returned to monthly from February 2022. There was no collection during August 2021.
3. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number

Contact with children supported by local authority children’s social care

• Filename: contact_with_social_worker.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 to 2022
• Content:

  The proportion of children on a Child Protection Plan, Children Looked After and all other Children in Need who had been in contact with a social worker in the previous 4 weeks.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
csc_group	Social care group
percent_of_children_in_contact_with_a_social_worker_in_the_last_4_weeks	Percentage of children in contact with a social worker in the previous 4 weeks
wave	Wave

Footnotes

1. Guidance to local authorities on the correct methodology to calculate 'other CIN' was improved in early June 2020. Local authorities were prompted again in July 2020. This may explain decreases in percentages for this group over time.
2. See Methodology for the number of local authorities that responded to the question per wave.
3. The survey was collected on a fortnightly basis between May 2020 and March 2021, a monthly basis between April and December 2021, fortnightly in January 2022 and then returned to monthly from February 2022. There was no collection during August 2021.
4. Date of wave refers to the 'last 4-week' period.
5. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number

Children’s social care workforce

• Filename: workforce_absence.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 to 2022
• Content:

  The proportion of local authorities that reported over 10% of social workers and residential care staff unavailable to work due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
percent_of_local_authorities_with_more_than_10percent_absence_due_to_coronavirus	Percentage of local authorities with over 10% of workforce absent due to COVID-19 (coronavirus)
staff_group	Staff group
wave	Wave

Footnotes

1. The figures from 1 June 2020 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier waves for residential care staff.
2. See Methodology for the number of local authorities that responded to the question per wave.
3. The survey was collected on a fortnightly basis between May 2020 and March 2021, a monthly basis between April and December 2021, fortnightly in January 2022 and then returned to monthly from February 2022. There was no collection during August 2021.
4. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number

Referrals to children’s social care services

• Filename: referrals.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 to 2022
• Content:

  Percentage difference of the number of referrals reported in the ‘vulnerable children and young people’ survey compared with a 3-year average of the same weeks across 2017 to 2020. Includes breakdown by referral source.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
percentage_difference_to_201720	Percentage difference compared to the same week in 2017-20
referral_source	Referral source
wave	Wave

Footnotes

1. *These comparisons should be treated with caution due to the timing of school holidays from year to year.
2. The figures from 18 May onwards are not directly comparable to earlier waves.
3. See Methodology for the number of local authorities that responded to the question per wave.
4. Survey data for some local authorities was removed due to known data quality issues. Comparator data for these LAs was also removed.
5. Comparator data was only included for LAs that responded to each wave.
6. The survey was collected on a fortnightly basis between May 2020 and March 2021, a monthly basis between April and December 2021, fortnightly in January 2022 and then returned to monthly from February 2022. There was no collection during August 2021.
7. Other sources include local authority services, legal agencies and children’s centres.
8. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number

Children starting to be looked after

• Filename: children_starting_to_be_looked_after.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 to 2022
• Content:

  Number of children starting to be looked after as reported in the ‘vulnerable children and young people’ survey and a 3-year average of children starting to be looked after in the same week across 2017 to 2020.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
number_of_children_starting_to_be_looked_after_in_survey_wave	Number of children that started to be looked after in survey wave
number_of_children_starting_to_be_looked_after_in_the_same_week_in_201720	Number of children that started to be looked after at the same time in 2017-20
wave	Wave

Footnotes

1. The figures from 18 May onwards are not directly comparable to earlier waves.
2. See Methodology for the number of local authorities that responded to the question per wave.
3. Comparator data was only included for LAs that responded to each wave.
4. The survey was collected on a fortnightly basis between May 2020 and March 2021, a monthly basis between April and December 2021, fortnightly in January 2022 and then returned to monthly from February 2022. There was no collection during August 2021.