Official Statistics Release

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How long had children been in their placements?^¹⁰

The following report refers only to the most recent placement for each child looked after as at 31 March 2013. It is designed, therefore, to give an indication of placement stability but does not take into account the length of time each child has been looked after, their previous placements, or the number of placement moves.
Across all placement types, one in four children had been in placement for less than three months (16,636 children) and 27% had been in placement for over two years (18,556 children).^¹¹
There is considerable variation in placement duration depending on placement type. Children in a foster placement with a relative or friend, in residential special schools, or with their parents were most likely to have been in their placement for more than two years (39%, 36% and 31% respectively).

Chart 3

A fifth of children in children’s homes had been in placement for more than two years, while one in four had been in placement for less than three months.^¹²
Only 9% of children placed for adoption had been in placement for over 12 months.

There were 342 children who were living outside of England, including around 334 in Wales and Scotland, and 21 living outside of the UK.

There were 3,684 children and young people for whom we did not receive placement location information.^¹⁴

Of the 63,860 children and young people we know to have been placed in England, nearly one in five were placed in the North West region of England. Six per cent were placed in the North East region.

Chart 3

Around two thirds (63%) of the 64,187 children looked after, for whom placement location was known, were placed within the local authority boundary.^¹⁶
Five per cent of all children placed (3,059) were placed more than 50 miles from their LA boundary.
Just under half (2,791) of children placed in children’s homes were placed within the local authority boundary. Nearly one in five (1,047) were placed 50 miles or more from their local authority boundary.^¹⁷
Nearly two thirds of children living in foster placements live within their local authority boundary.

Chart 5

The following map shows, by graded colour, the proportion of children looked after each local authority placed outside of their local authority boundary. Where an LA is shaded white, they did not place any children looked after outside the boundary^¹⁸; where an LA is shaded dark green they placed all of their children looked after outside of the boundary.^¹⁹ Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight, Devon and the Wirral placed the highest proportions of children looked after within their own local authority boundary (over 85%). Decisions about whether or not to place children and young people within their local authority boundary are made with consideration as to what is in the best interests of the child, what best meets their needs, and may be reliant on the availability of places.

Map 1

London is the region with the highest proportion (65%) of children placed outside the local authority boundary. Often this is because these children are in other London boroughs. In contrast, 70% of children placed by local authorities in the South West were placed within their LA boundary, because of its large number of shire counties.
Further to this, the following map shows by graded colour the proportion of children looked after each local authority placed more than 20 miles outside of their local authority boundary. Where an LA is shaded white, they did not place any children looked after more than 20 miles outside the boundary;^²⁰ where an LA is shaded dark green they placed a maximum of 29% of their children looked after more than 20 miles outside of the boundary. Rutland, Slough, Kensington and Chelsea, Hounslow and Reading placed more than one in five children looked after more than 20 miles from their local authority boundary.

Map 2

Twenty one children had been placed out of the country by 17 local authorities, as at 31 March 2013.
Of the children placed outside the UK, one child was placed in each of the following countries: New Zealand, Australia and the USA. Two children each had been placed in Canada, France, Italy, Jamaica, and Spain, and four children had been placed in the Republic of Ireland. For four children, the local authorities were unable to specify the country.
Sixteen of the 21 children placed out of the country had been placed in a foster placement with a relative or friend, while the remaining five had been placed with other foster carers. One possible reason for this is that the foster carers may have moved abroad after the placement began.

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