This page is a guide to the children looked after (CLA) placement location statistics. It sets out information on:
This is an ad hoc statistical release with no date set for the next publication. Following this release, further work may be carried out to continually review the statistics of CLA by placement location.
The statistics within this release are based on information collected in the SSDA903 (CLA) data collection, it is a child level dataset collected from local authorities in England annually. Details of how the data is collected, and the history behind the collection, can be found within the associated methodology.
The SSDA903 data is collected in a longitudinal database, with one record for every episode of care. Local authorities update the database every year, including making amendments to previous years’ records where there have been changes. The SSDA903 collects information about the child - for example gender, date of birth and unique pupil number - and details about the child’s episodes in care. When a change in legal status or placement (or both) occurs, a new episode of care is started and the date and reason for the change are recorded. Information on the coverage of the SSDA903 collection can be found in the data guidance for the ‘Children looked after in England’ publication.
Statistics on the Special educational needs (SEN) status for CLA are produced by linking the SSDA903 collection to the SEN data from the 'Outcomes for children in need' publication.
SEN data is sourced from both the school census and alternative provision census. Further information on the SEN data can be found in the data guidance for the ‘Outcomes for children in need’ publication.
A number of automated data validation checks are carried out at the point of data entry to identify and remove:
Any record which fails the validation checks is highlighted and must be corrected. An explanation of each validation check and guidance on how corrections can be made are documented in the list of validation checks available on the DfE children looked after collection website (opens in new tab).
The Department currently publishes two annual statistical releases that relate to this publication:
These are accredited official statistics - accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the ‘Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007’. Further information on accredited official statistics can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation (opens in new tab) website.
These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2015. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
This can broadly be interpreted to mean that the statistics:
The ‘Children looked after in England including adoption’ statistical release provides information - for the year ending 31 March - on:
This publication is the main information source on the numbers of looked after children in England; it is used to inform policy decisions to improve outcomes for this vulnerable group of children. It is also used extensively by other organisations interested in this subject.
The ‘Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England’ publication provides a range of outcome measures at national and level authority level for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England.
In this release, population estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are used for comparison within the age and ethnicity breakdowns.
On 23 November 2023, ONS published mid-2022 population estimates (opens in new tab) and rebased population estimates for mid-2012 to mid-2021 (opens in new tab) by local authority and individual age. We have used these estimates to update the CLA on 31 March, CLA starting during the year and CLA ceasing during the year rates in the 2023 release.
The latest release of these population estimates (opens in new tab) covering estimates for mid-2023, published on 15 July 2024 were used to produce rates for 2024.
The introduction of Ofsted URN for placements on or after 1 April 2015 means users should interpret changes to placement type over time with caution.
Ofsted unique reference number (URN) was collected for settings subject to Ofsted inspections for the first time in the collection year 2015 to 2016. For example, for children’s homes this would be the URN of the individual home, and for foster or adoptive placements this would be the URN of the relevant service or agency providing the placement. This data - which covers around 90% of placements - is required for any relevant placement that was ongoing on 1 April 2015, or for any new placement after 1 April 2015.
The in-built system validation checks the placement type submitted by local authorities corresponds with the placement type for the given URN. This meant there were some corrections of placement types reported by local authorities in 2016 and 2017. In particular, there were cases where children previously recorded as being in residential schools in 2015, were recorded as being in children’s homes in 2016 and 2017 - in many cases this was because the provider may have been dual-registered.
Whilst there are always small annual revisions to previous year figures, it's possible that changes by placement type in these years may be a result of improvements in the accuracy of reporting placement types, due to collecting URN. Older placements are more likely to be misreported - a placement which was coded with the incorrect URN will not have been corrected if it ended in 2016 to 17. So, any decrease, or increase in placements over time should be interpreted cautiously.
The Department for Education has introduced mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers of supported accommodation which accommodate children looked after and care leavers aged 16 and 17. Providers began registering as supported accommodation providers from 28 April 2023, and registration became mandatory from 28 October 2023. The legislation permits transitional arrangements whereby providers who had submitted their full application to Ofsted before the October deadline could continue to operate until that application has been determined. Where the deadline was not met, placements at these providers who were not registered with Ofsted or had not submitted a completed application by the deadline, are reported within the 'Other' category in the 2024 data.
For the CLA collection, local authorities were expected to identify providers who had submitted an application by cross referencing their records to existing monthly lists of valid URNs provided to LAs by Ofsted. These lists included all Ofsted registered providers, but also providers who were operating as supported accommodation providers under the transitional arrangements. On acceptance of an application, a provider is issued a URN by Ofsted. However, there was some confusion in some instances on identifying when providers had applied, as depending on the monthly list used, a provider could disappear (if for example they had withdrawn their application) or not appear at all on the list (for example if the application was accepted after the 27 October and so the provider could not operate under the transitional arrangements).
Analysis of contextual information provided by local authorities when signing off their data return suggests the following:
And the additional information below was provided to explain some of the increase in ‘Z1-Other’ placements:
As such we recommend users are cautious when analysing the ‘supported accommodation’ and ‘other placement’ types in 2024.
Rounding and suppression is applied to the data. The National Statistics Code of Practice requires that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that all published or disseminated statistics produced by the DfE protect confidentiality. The publications follow the DfE policy statement on confidentiality.
National and regional figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Local authority figures are unrounded.
Where any number is shown as zero, the original figure submitted was zero.
The following symbols have been used in the releases (to align with GSS standards):
For percentages:
For averages:
The SSDA903 return collects information on the distance of a child's placement from their home, as well as whether the placement falls within or outside the boundary of the responsible local authority. This data has been transformed to derive additional variables, including categorisations of placement distance and locality groups, alongside placement types. Aggregated summaries are then produced, presenting counts, proportions, and average distances for children looked after in each reporting year. A similar approach was taken for the age, ethnicity, UASC status and SDQ scores grouping for children looked after.
The measure considering placement distance against number of placement moves uses the same methodology presented within the recent Stability measures for children looked after in England publication.
The underlying data tables contain a breakdown of child characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and SEN provision for CLA at 31 March 2024 by placement type.
The special educational needs (SEN) status is taken from both the school census (SC) and the alternative provision (AP) census. If the entries differ for a single child, a hierarchical structure is applied and an education health and care (EHC) plan is given a higher priority than SEN support. The information is stored together in the social care outcomes data set.
The table titled ‘Number of CLA placed inside or outside the LA boundary, by LA,’ which is linked to the LA placer map shows the following:
Secondary suppression has been applied to the table. Note that the definition of 'Net CLA movement across LAs differs slightly to the published table in the CLA annual publication.
Under the Children Act 1989, LAs must place place a CLA in the most appropriate setting, giving preference to placements with relatives or connected persons. Where reasonably practicable, the placement should enable the child remains close to their home, education, siblings, and support network.
CLA are defined as placed 'outside the neighbouring LAs’ when all three of the following placement criteria are met:
An internal Department for Education tool was used to identify local authorities which shared a physical border. Based on this, a 2024 neighbouring local authority lookup file was created and joined to the existing children looked after data set to identify the children looked after who met the criteria above.
Definitions:
Episode of care: When a change in legal status or placement (or both) occurs, a new episode of care is started and the date and reason for the change are recorded.
Period of care refers to the duration during which a child is looked after by a LA. This includes both children who newly enter care and those whose care arrangements are transferred between LAs. Where the care of a young person is transferred between LAs, the initial period of care ceases and a new period of care will start at the LA the child transfers to.
CLA placed outside the LA boundary during their period of care were considered, rather than also incorporating a placement distance variable, in order to ensure a sufficient sample size for further breakdowns.
The first instance where a child had an outside the LA boundary placement was used to determine:
The re-entry to care measure considers CLA who left that period of care from an outside the LA boundary placement (not necessarily their first outside the LA boundary placement) and determined whether they re-entered care during the subsequent eight-year follow-up period.
Children looked after in England including adoptions: Children looked after, care leavers and children adopted in England. Annual statistics including characteristics, placement information and health outcomes.
Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England: a range of outcome measures at national and level authority level for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England.
Children in need and child protection statistics for England: Information on referrals, assessments and children who were the subject of a child protection plan (opens in new tab) (taken from the Children in Need census) are published annually.
Local authority children in care and adoption statistics: Children in care and adoption performance tables (published within the local authority interactive tool (opens in new tab) show how local authorities and looked after children’s services compare with others in England.
If you have a specific enquiry about Children looked after: A focus on placement location statistics and data:
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Telephone: 020 7783 8300
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