Official Statistics Release

Children who are missing

67. 
    There were 95 children classed as missing from placement as at 31 March 2013, which equates to 0.1% of the all children placed.²⁸
    
68. 
    A total of 33 local authorities had at least one child missing from placement. There were no children missing from placement from local authorities in the North East or the Yorkshire and Humber regions. The absence of this information may be due to the quality of the data as it is unclear whether a number of local authorities adequately record and monitor missing children, an issue that has been identified by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Looked After Children and Care Leavers in 2012.²⁹
    

69. 
    Of all the regions the South East had the largest number of missing children (41 out of 95). There is a strong link between children that go missing and children who arrive in the country as victims of trafficking so the large number of points of entry from Europe into the South East increases the potential for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children to go missing after they arrive.³⁰
    

70. 
    Of the 95 children that were missing, 24 children had been missing for a period of more than six months.
    

Independent Living^31,32

71. 
    There were 2,279 children looked after reported as living in independent living accommodation as at 31 March 2013. This was an overall proportion of 3% of all children looked after.
    
72. 
    Regionally, the proportion of children looked after reported to be in independent living in the North East was 1% (58 of 4,172 children and young people) compared to 6% for London (576 of 10,075). It is unclear whether children and young people are more likely to be placed in independent living earlier in London, while they remain looked after, or whether local authorities in other regions are under-recording those children and young people placed in independent living.
    

73. 
    Fifteen local authorities did not report having any children and young people in independent living. These authorities were: Barnet, City of London, Haringey, Harrow, Herefordshire, Hounslow, North East Lincolnshire, North Tyneside, Rutland, Slough, Southampton, Torbay, Waltham Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead, and York.
    
74. 
    Around three fifths of children and young people in independent living were placed within the local authority boundary. Six per cent were placed more than 20 miles from the boundary.
    
75. 
    Children living in independent living are almost twice as likely to live in the most deprived areas of the country as children in other placement types. Around half of these children and young people were living in the most deprived areas. Five per cent lived in the least deprived. Over half were living in areas with the highest crime levels and 4% were living in areas with the lowest crime levels.
    

Providers of children’s social care

Provider Type

76. 
    There are thirteen types of provider of children’s social care services that Ofsted inspects, twelve of which look after children.³³ As at 31 March 2013, there were 3,094 active registrations, of which approximately 2,441 had at least one child in placement as at 31 March 2013. ^{34, 35}
    

77. 
    There were 318 active children’s homes without any children in placement.³⁶
    

Sector³⁸

78. 
    Although the number of private and voluntary-run services is almost double that of local authority-run services, 63% of children were placed with a local authority-run service.
    

79. 
    The chart below shows the proportion of children placed using local authority, private and voluntary-run services according to their placement type.
    

80. 
    Sixty-nine percent of children in foster care were living in local authority placements. Four local authorities placed all of their children in fostering through local authority-run services: Leicester, Torbay, Walsall and Windsor and Maidenhead. Conversely, twenty-four local authorities placed more than 50% of their children through Independent Fostering Services.
    

81. 
    Twenty eight per cent of children placed in children’s homes had been placed in local authority-run homes.³⁹ For 20 local authorities, more than 90% of their children were placed in privately-run homes. Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Southwark used only privately-run children’s homes. Lincolnshire placed the lowest proportion of their children in private or voluntary-run homes (10%), followed by Bristol and Durham (28% and 29% respectively).
    

82. 
    Ninety-one per cent of children placed for adoption had been placed using local authority-run adoption agencies; 9% were placed using Voluntary Adoption Agencies. Ninety-two local authorities placed all of their children looked after for adoption through local authority-run agencies. Doncaster and Barnsley placed the highest proportion of children for adoption through Voluntary Adoption Agencies at 52% and 50% respectively.
    

83. 
    Local authorities in London were more likely to place children through Voluntary Adoption Agencies.