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Children in Care

Answer

The numbers of children looked after who were taken into care in England, aged under one year and who were subject to interim and full care orders or police or emergency protection orders, during the years ending 31 March 1997 to 2007, are shown in table 1.Information on the number of children looked after who were taken into care, broken down by age, in each region since 1997 is not readily available. However, information on the number of children who started to be looked after by age on starting and by local authority, during the years ending 31 March 2003 to 2007, has been published and can be found respectively in tables C1 and LAC1 at:"http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000741/index. shtml"A copy of table C1 (table 2) follows and an edited version of table LAC1 (table 3) showing regional figures only is also shown. A local authority level table, including regional breakdowns, on children who started to be looked after broken down by age on starting for 2007 will be published at the same web address on 29 November.Information on the average time between a child entering care and the various stages of the adoption process has only been published since 2004 and is therefore not readily available prior to that. The following table 4 is derived from table E3 of the previously mentioned publication, and summarises the average time between entry into care and placement for adoption for years ending 31 March 2004 to 2007.

Table 1: Children aged under one year who were taken into care on an interim or full care order and under a police or emergency protection order in the years ending 31 March 1997 to 2007¹,²,³,4, England
Number
	Children who were taken into care aged under one
Year ending 31 March	All children who were taken into care aged under one5	Under an interim or full care order	Under a police or emergency protection order
1997	1,300	740	600
1998	1,400	830	610
1999	1,600	930	690
2000	1,900	1,100	770
2001	1,800	1,200	610
2002	1,900	1,200	730
2003	2,000	1,300	660
2004	2,000	1,300	710
2005	2,000	1,300	730
2006	2,100	1,400	720
2007	2,100	1,500	580
¹ Source DfES, SSDA903 return which between in 1997 and since 2004 covered all children looked after by local authorities. SSDA903 covered only a one-third sample of children looked after by local authorities between 1998 and 2003.
² Figures for children looked after in this table exclude agreed series of short-term placements.
³ To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 to the nearest 10 otherwise.
4 Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials.
5 Only the first occasion on which a child started to be looked after in the year has been counted.

Table 2: Table C1: Children who started to be looked after during the years ending 31 March 2003 to 2007 by gender, age on starting, category of need and ethnic origin¹,²,³,4, England
Number and percentage
	Number	Percentage
	20035	20046	20056	20066	20076	20035	20046	20056	20066	20076
All children who started to be looked after¹,²,³	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700	100	100	100	100	100
Gender	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700	100	100	100	100	100
Male	13,500	13,400	13,300	13,300	13,100	54	53	53	54	55
Female	11,500	11.600	11,600	11,300	10,700	46	47	47	46	45
Age on starting (years)	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700	100	100	100	100	100
Under 1	3,900	4,100	4,300	4,300	4,400	16	16	17	18	19
1 to 4	4,700	4,600	4,500	4,300	4,300	19	18	18	17	18
5 to 9	4,800	4,400	4,300	4,100	3,900	19	18	17	17	16
10 to 15	10,500	10.500	10,100	9,800	9.200	42	42	40	40	39
16 and over	1,000	1,400	1,700	2,100	1,900	4	6	7	9	8
Category of need7	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700	100	100	100	100	100
Abuse or neglect	12,200	12,000	12,100	11,500	11,300	49	48	48	47	48
Child's disability	800	730	780	820	710	3	3	3	3	3
Parent's illness or disability	1,900	1,900	1,600	1,500	1,300	8	7	7	6	5
Family in acute stress	2,700	2,700	2,900	2,800	2,800	11	11	12	11	12
Family dysfunction	3,200	3.400	3,100	3.200	3,300	13	13	13	13	14
Socially unacceptable behaviour	1,700	1,600	1,400	1.300	1,200	7	6	5	5	5
Low income	80	70	80	70	80	0	0	0	0	0
Absent parenting	2,400	2,700	2.900	3.400	3.100	10	11	12	14	13
Ethnic origin	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700	100	100	100	100	100
White
White British	18,300	17,700	17.400	16,600	16.000	73	71	70	67	67
White Irish	240	140	160	150	130	1	1	1	1	1
Any other White background	880	870	850	820	860	4	3	3	3	4
Mixed
White and Black Caribbean	670	710	680	650	580	3	3	3	3	2
White and Black African	190	210	200	190	180	1	1	1	1	1
White and Asian	320	290	260	280	290	1	1	1	1	1
Any other mixed background	680	760	760	760	700	3	3	3	3	3
Asian or Asian British
Indian	160	160	130	160	130	1	1	1	1	1
Pakistani	270	280	350	290	340	1	1	1	1	1
Bangladeshi	140	150	170	160	170	1	1	1	1	1
Any other Asian background	170	320	540	800	790	1	1	2	3	3
Black or Black British
Caribbean	760	780	690	710	610	3	3	3	3	3
African	1,100	1,500	1,600	1.600	1,400	5	6	6	7	6
Any other Black background	390	420	450	460	450	2	2	2	2	2
Other ethnic groups
Chinese	60	90	80	120	170	0	0	0	0	1
Any other ethnic group	580	620	690	800	920	2	2	3	3	4
¹ Source SSDA903 return on children looked after.
² Only the first occasion on which a child started to be looked after in the year has been counted.
³ Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements.
4 Historical data may differ from older publications This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials.
5 Figures are derived from the SSDA903 one third sample survey.
6 Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return which, since 2003-04 has covered all children looked after.
7 The most applicable category of the eight “Need Codes” (i.e. the reason why the child is receiving social services) at the time the child was taken into care rather than necessarily the reason they are looked after.

Table 3: Table LAC1: Children who started to be looked after during the years ending 31 March 2003 to 2007¹, ², ³, 4, England
Number
	20035	20046	20056	20066	20076
England	24,900	25,000	24,900	24,600	23,700
Region
North-east	1,310	1,480	1,440	1,480	1,440
North-west	3,500	3,640	3,690	3,590	3,490
Yorkshire and the Humber	2,670	2,360	2,550	2,400	2,460
East Midlands	1,620	1,720	1,540	1,540	1,480
West Midlands	2,990	2,690	2,790	2740	2,760
East of England	2,130	2,310	2,140	2,070	1,900
London	5,020	5,410	5,270	5,400	5,050
Inner London	2,480	2,680	2,340	2,380	2,110
Outer London	2,550	2,730	2,930	3,020	2,940
South-east	3,120	2,900	3,160	3,180	3,040
South-west	2,490	2,500	2,330	2,190	2,110
¹ Source SSDA903 return on children looked after.
² Only the first occasion on which a child started to be looked after in the year has been counted.
³ Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements.
4 Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials.
5 Figures are derived from the SSDA903 one-third sample survey.
6 Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return which since 2003-04 covered all children looked after.

Table 4: Average time between child starting to be looked after and being placed for adoption for years ending 31 March 2004 to 2007, England
Years:months
Age at start of period of care	2004	2005	2006	2007	Average time between entry into care and adoption placement for all years
All ages	1:8	1:8	1:8	1:8	1:8
Under 1	1:3	1:3	1:4	1:5	1:4
1	1:10	2:0	2:0	2:0	2:0
2	2:1	2:0	2:0	2:0	2:0
3	2:1	2:2	2:2	2:3	2:2
4	2:4	2:4	2:2	2:4	2:4
5	2:3	2:4	2:6	2:3	2:4
6	2:5	2:10	2:6	3:0	2:8
7 and over	2:9	2:7	2:8	2:11	2:9
Source:
SSDA903 return on children looked after

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

164703; 468 c369-74W

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Children in care

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk