Children in care, missing and how educated

How many children of compulsory school age do you currently have under local authority care?

474  aged between 5 and 16 as of 15/02/2018.

Of these;

i) How many were school educated by their parents before going into care?

470

ii) How many were electively home educated by their parents before going into care?

11

2. Can you please provide a statistical breakdown of the reasons why children in your local authority have been put under local authority care?

Reason Number
Abuse or Neglect 418
Child’s Disability 44
Parental Illness or Disability 18
Family in Acute Stress 79
Family Dysfunction 99
Socially Unacceptable Behaviour 5
Low Income Section 40
Absent Parenting 23
Other 21

3. Please provide the number of children under local authority care classed as children missing education for the years (Jan 01 – Dec 31 in all instances) 2015, 2016, 2017.-

2015 = None

2016 = Seven

2017 = None

4. Please provide a breakdown of how the children under local authority care are currently receiving their educational provision. Please include CME statistics.

  1. School  369
  2. Early Years  
  3. Free School  
  4. Hospital School 
  5. Independent    12
  6. Independent Special School   30
  7. Maintained Special School     38
  8. Secure Unit 
  9. Alternative Provision   6
  10. Awaiting Placement – children missing education  10

Where there are no numbers provided we hold the information but as disclosure may identify individuals we are exempting the information under the Freedom of Information Act 200 Section 40 – Personal Data.

5. Please provide the number of children aged 10 – 18 under local authority who have;

i) Gone missing

Of the 709 children in Devon County Council’s Care on 21 February 2018 – 97 children have at some point in the current 2017/18 reporting year to date  (i.e. from 01 April 2017 to 21 Feb 2018)  been missing from their placement.

ii) Had police involvement

We may hold this information but the criteria could cover a number of circumstances and we would have to manually examine several thousand records and even if each one only took five minutes the total time taken would be well in excess of the 18 hours specified under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 12 Cost of Compliance. Therefore this information is exempt.

iii) Been groomed by adults after going into LAC.
iv) Had a relationship that resulted in pregnancy.
v) Had a relationship that resulted in parenthood.

6. Of the children currently under LAC please provide the number of children who have been identified as needing supportive therapy; This could be SEN, mentally, emotionally, physically etc. –

Of these children;

i) How many have successfully received the therapy recommended?

ii) How many are in receipt of the therapy recommended?

iii) How many are waiting to receive the therapy recommended?

Finally, can you please provide statistics/documentation and evidence for the educational outcomes for all children under local authority care?

The Department for Education’s latest Statistical Release for outcomes of children in care relating to 2015 – 2016. 

Last year’s outcomes (2016 – 2017 is due to be published by the DfE in March 2017.