Family Law

Ofsted has published its third and final annual statistical release on looked-after children, including information on how far from their placing local authority they were living, the type of placement and how long they had been there.

The release is a snapshot of all children looked after for any length of time as at 31 March 2015, at which point there were around 70,000 looked-after children (roughly 0.6% of all children in England). This figure has increased slightly on the previous 2 years.

Other key findings are similar to the previous years:

• minority ethnic looked-after children were more likely than white children to live in secure units, young offenders institutions or prison;

• minority ethnic children were more likely to be placed in an area with higher levels of crime; 

• one-fifth of local authorities placed a small number of children in children’s homes that were judged inadequate at the time of placement;

• the majority of fostered children were placed within 10 miles of their local authority boundary; and

• just over one-third of looked-after children were aged between 10 and 15 years old and two thirds of all children placed in children’s homes were male (3,810).
  

The data are being used to inform the inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, looked-after children and care leavers, which began in November 2013. They are also used to inform inspection of independent fostering agencies and voluntary adoption agencies.