Methodology

Vulnerable children and young people survey

Published

Background

The Department for Education (DfE) established a survey of local authorities in England to help understand the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on children’s social care. Survey returns are referred to as ‘waves’ in this report. This report summarises the survey returns between Wave 1 (May 2020) and Wave 39 (July 2022). The charts show data from all waves of the survey, however previous publications (opens in a new tab) contain detailed analysis including open text questions from earlier waves of the survey that are not repeated here.  

The survey alternated between fortnightly and monthly collections. The exact dates that each wave refers to and the questions asked can be found in the methodology section, alongside details on the number of local authorities that responded to the survey. Local authorities were asked to report on the following areas: 

  • Contact with children supported by the local authority children’s social care 
  • Children’s social care workforce 
  • System pressures 

The ‘Characteristics of children in need (opens in a new tab)’ and ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions (opens in a new tab)' publications contain statistics on children’s social care that partially overlap with this survey. Figures may differ due to methodological and timing differences.

The commentary in this release also refers to three ‘waves’ of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide extra context on impacts of the various stages of the pandemic on children’s social care. Dates from the first two waves have been defined using a definition used in a technical report by the Office for National Statistics (opens in a new tab) and the third wave we have defined from the interpretation of ONS infections data (opens in a new tab). The reference periods of the pandemic waves are as follows: 

  • First wave: March 2020 to May/June 2020
  • Second wave: September 2020 to April 2021, corresponding to the Alpha variant 
  • Third wave: December 2021 to February 2022, corresponding to the Omicron variant 
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Annexes

Annex A: Survey questions

The questions asked in the survey are shown below. All local authorities were asked to complete the form.

Question 1

How many children do you have in the following groups?

  1. Children looked after, children on a protection plan and other children in need
  2. Children looked after, children on a protection plan and other children in need that have been seen or contacted by their social worker in the last 4 weeks
  3. What steps are you taking to safeguard those children that you are not in contact with?

 

Question 2 

How many of the following staff are employed by your local authority and approximately what proportion of them are not working at the moment due to coronavirus (COVID-19) (FTE)? Choose from: 0-10%, 11-20%, 21%-30%, 31-40%, 41-50%, 51-60%, 61-70%, 71-80%, 81-90%, 91-100%.

  1. Social workers - permanent or agency
  2. Residential care staff

 

Question 3 

How many referrals to children’s social care services you received in the week before last? 

 

Question 4 

Please tell us about the source of referrals received in the week before last:

  1. Individual
  2. Schools
  3. Health services 
  4. Police
  5. Other

 

Question 5 

How many children started to be looked-after in the week before last? 

 

Question 6

Can you please tell us if you are seeing any changes in the demand for children’s social care services (e.g. increases in referrals, changes in case complexity or the profile of children being supported) and the impact of these changes.

 

Question 7 

Use this space if you would like to tell us how you have calculated any of these data items and any assumptions that you have made.

 

In the survey we included two open text questions. One asked about steps that local authorities were taking to safeguard children that they were not in contact with and the other local authorities about any trends, challenges and good practice. Not all local authorities responded to the open text questions and the number of responses reduced over time meaning that the findings are not generalisable to all local authorities. Some key themes emerged from the responses to question about trends, challenges and good practice, for example issues related to the demand for children’s social care, the types of cases being referred, workforce issues and placement stability. From Wave 20 of the survey (February, 2021) we used the open text question to probe on specific issues, for example expectations about referrals, pressures in the care system, implications of schools re-opening and workforce pressures.

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Annex B: Time periods

Table B1: Time periods referred to in questions

WaveQuestions referring to collection datesQuestions referring to last 4 weeksQuestions referring to week before last
Wave 104 - 06 May 2020-27 April – 03 May 2020
Wave 218 - 20 May 2020-11 – 17 May 2020
Wave 301 – 03 June 202004 – 31 May 202018 – 24 May 2020
Wave 415 - 17 June 202018 May – 14 June 202001 – 07 June 2020
Wave 529 June – 01 July 202001 – 28 June 202015 – 21 June 2020
Wave 613 - 15 July 202015 June – 12 July 202029 June – 05 July 2020
Wave 727 - 29 July 202029 June – 26 July 202013 – 19 July 2020
Wave 824 - 26 August 202027 July – 23 August 202010 – 16 August 2020
Wave 907 – 09 September 202010 August – 06 September 202024 – 30 August 2020
Wave 1021 - 23 September 202024 August – 20 September 202007 – 13 September 2020
Wave 1105 – 07 October 202007 September – 04 October 202021 – 27 September 2020
Wave 1219 - 21 October 202021 September – 18 October 202005 – 11 October 2020
Wave 1302 – 04 November 202005 October – 01 November 202019 – 25 October 2020
Wave 1416 - 18 November 202019 October – 15 November 202002 – 08 November 2020
Wave 1530 November – 02 December 202002 – 29 November 202016 – 22 November 2020
Wave 1614 – 16 December 202016 November – 13 December 202030 November – 06 December 2020
Wave 1711 – 13 January 202114 December 2020 – 10 January 202128 December 2020 – 03 January 2021
Wave 1825 – 27 January 202128 December 2020 – 24 January 202111 – 17 January 2021
Wave 1908 – 10 February 202111 January – 07 February 202125 – 31 January 2021
Wave 2022 - 24 February 202125 January – 21 February 202108 – 14 February 2021
Wave 2108 – 10 March 202108 February – 07 March 202122 – 28 February 2021
Wave 2222 - 24 March 202122 February – 21 March 202108 – 14 March 2021
Wave 2319 - 21 April 202122 March – 18 April 202105 – 11 April 2021
Wave 2417 - 19 May 202119 April – 16 May 202103 – 09 May 2021
Wave 2514 - 16 June 202117 May – 13 June 202131 May – 06 June 2021
Wave 2619 – 21 July 202121 June – 18 July 202105 – 11 July 2021
Wave 2720 - 22 September 202123 August - 19 September 202106 - 12 September 2021
Wave 2818 - 20 October 202120 September - 17 October 202104 - 10 October 2021
Wave 2915 - 17 November 202118 October - 14 November 202101 - 07 November 2021
Wave 3013 - 15 December 202115 November - 12 December 202129 November - 05 December 2021
Wave 3104 – 07 January 202206 December 2021 – 02 January 202220 – 26 December 2021
Wave 3217 – 19 January 202220 December 2021 – 16 January 202203 – 09 January 2022
Wave 3331 January – 02 February 202203 – 30 January 202217 – 23 January 2022
Wave 3414 – 16 February 202217 January – 13 February 202231 January – 06 February 2022
Wave 3514 – 16 March 202215 February – 13 March 202228 February – 06 March 2022
Wave 3611 – 13 April 202214 March – 10 April 202228 March – 03 April 2022
Wave 3716 – 18 May 202218 April – 15 May 202202 – 08 May 2022
Wave 3820 – 22 June 202223 May – 19 June 202206 – 12 June 2022
Wave 3918 – 20 July 202220 June – 17 July 202204 – 10 July 2022
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Annex C: Response rates

Table C1: Overall survey response rates

WaveNumber of Local AuthoritiesPercentage of Local Authorities
Wave 114596%
Wave 214797%
Wave 314999%
Wave 414999%
Wave 514999%
Wave 614999%
Wave 714999%
Wave 814898%
Wave 914898%
Wave 1014697%
Wave 1114797%
Wave 1214596%
Wave 1314596%
Wave 1414697%
Wave 1514596%
Wave 1614294%
Wave 1714294%
Wave 1814294%
Wave 1914294%
Wave 2014193%
Wave 2114395%
Wave 2214495%
Wave 2314495%
Wave 2414395%
Wave 2514395%
Wave 2613690%
Wave 2712281%
Wave 2811677%
Wave 2911777%
Wave 3011677%
Wave 3111878%
Wave 3212281%
Wave 3311878%
Wave 3411979%
Wave 3511878%
Wave 3611777%
Wave 3711777%
Wave 3811174%
Wave 3910570%

Table C2: Number of local authorities that responded to Question 1

WaveTotal number of  Children looked afterTotal number of Children on a child protection planTotal number of Other children in needChildren looked after seen or contacted a social worker in the last four weeksChildren on a child protection plan seen or contacted a social worker in the last four weeksOther children in need seen or contacted a social worker in the last four weeks
Wave 1145145144---
Wave 2147147147---
Wave 3149149148138138138
Wave 4149149149139140139
Wave 5149149149142142141
Wave 6149149149146146144
Wave 7149149149147147145
Wave 8148148148146146144
Wave 9146146146145145143
Wave 10146146146145145143
Wave 11147147146146146143
Wave 12145145144143143140
Wave 13145145145144144142
Wave 14146146146144144142
Wave 15144144144142142140
Wave 16142142142141141139
Wave 17142142142141140139
Wave 18142142142141141139
Wave 19142142142141141139
Wave 20141141141140140138
Wave 21143143143142142140
Wave 22144144144142142140
Wave 23144144144143143141
Wave 24143143143142142140
Wave 25143143143142142140
Wave 26136136135134134131
Wave 27122122122120120118
Wave 28116116116114114112
Wave 29117117117116116114
Wave 30116116116115115114
Wave 31118118118115115114
Wave 32121121121119119117
Wave 33117117117114114112
Wave 34119119119117117115
Wave 35117117117115115113
Wave 36116116115114115112
Wave 37117117117116115113
Wave 38110110110107108106
Wave 3910410410410210299

Note: ‘-’ indicates that the question was not included for the wave.

Table C3: Number of local authorities that responded to Questions 2 to 5

WaveProportion not working due to coronavirus (COVID-19): Social workersProportion not working due to coronavirus (COVID-19): Residential care workersNumber and source of referrals to children’s social careChildren starting to be looked after
Wave 1136110143145
Wave 2144115145147
Wave 3146103147149
Wave 4147104147149
Wave 5146104147149
Wave 6147104147149
Wave 7147104147149
Wave 8144101146148
Wave 9142100144146
Wave 10142102144146
Wave 11143100145147
Wave 12141101143145
Wave 13140101143145
Wave 14140103144146
Wave 15140103143145
Wave 16139101140142
Wave 17140102140142
Wave 18138101140142
Wave 19139101140142
Wave 20138101139141
Wave 21138101141143
Wave 22141102142144
Wave 23141102141144
Wave 24139101141143
Wave 25141100141143
Wave 2612994134136
Wave 2711782120122
Wave 2811280114116
Wave 2910878115117
Wave 3010673114116
Wave 3111379116118
Wave 3211885119121
Wave 3311479115117
Wave 3411584117119
Wave 3511681115117
Wave 3611480113116
Wave 3710972116117
Wave 3810875108110
Wave 3910270102104

Note: ‘-’ indicates that the question was not included for the wave.

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Help and support

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Vulnerable children and young people survey statistics and data:

Children in Need and Children Looked-After Analysis

Email: Khloe.TABOR@EDUCATION.GOV.UK
Contact name: Khloe Tabor
Telephone: 0

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