Outcomes for Looked after children

The request was partially successful.

Dear Buckinghamshire County Council,

Can you please provide the following information. In all instances where numbers are asked for please provide them both as a whole number and as a percentage of the overall total.

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

Of these;
i) How many had their education delegated to a school by their parents before going into care?
ii) How many were electively home educated by their parents before going into care?

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

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. Both for the years provided and those still CME (with the years they have been CME).

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

5. Please provide the number of children aged 10 - 18 under local authority care who have (same years as Q3);

i) Gone missing
ii) Had police involvement
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 by professionals 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?

Yours faithfully,

G Swanson

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

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Freedom of Information Team

 

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Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Mr Swanson

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Your request for information has now been considered and the information
you have requested, where held/available, is as follows:

 

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

 

As at 19/02/2018 we have a record of 360 children.

 

Of these;

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

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

No information held - we do not collate the specific data you are
requesting.

 

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

As at 31st January 2018, there were 472 Looked After Children in
Buckinghamshire. The breakdown by category of need is shown below.

Category of Need Number of Children Percentage
N1 ABUSE NEGLECT 208 44%
N2 DISABILITY 24 5%
N3 PARENT ILLNESS OR DISABILITY 6 1%
N4 FAMILY IN ACUTE STRESS 59 13%
N5 FAMILY DYSFUNCTION 138 29%
N6 SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR 6 1%
N8 ABSENT PARENTING 27 6%
N9 OTHER 4 1%

 

The definitions for the categories of need are as follows:

 

Category Description
N1 Abuse or Children in need as a result of, or at risk
neglect of, abuse or neglect; also includes children
at risk because of domestic violence.
N2 Child’s Children and families whose main need for
disability services arises because of their child’s
disability, illness or intrinsic condition.
N3 Parental Children whose main need for services arises
disability or because the capacity of their parent(s) (or
illness carer(s)) to care for them is impaired by the
parent(s) (or carer(s)) disability, physical
or mental illness, or addictions.
N4 Family in Children whose needs arise from living in a
acute stress family that is going through a temporary
crisis that diminishes the parental capacity
to adequately meet some of the children’s
needs.
N5 Family Children whose needs primarily arise from
dysfunction living in a family where the parenting
capacity is chronically inadequate.
N6 Socially Children and families whose need for services
unacceptable primarily arise out of the child’s behaviour
behaviour impacting detrimentally on the community.
N7 Low income Children, living in families or
independently, whose needs primarily arise
from being dependent on an income below the
standard state entitlements.
N8 Absent Children whose needs for services arise
parenting mainly from having no parents available to
provide for them.
N9 Other  

 

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.

We do not have LAC missing education. (CME - Children Missing Education
are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a
school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a
school).

 

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

 

Currently (January 2018) 20 pupils are in alternative educational
provision and the rest are in schools.

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

 

i) Gone missing

As at 6^th February 2018, 68 (14%) of our currently Looked After Children
aged between 10 and 18 had gone missing at some point between April 2017
and 6^th February 2018.

ii) Had police involvement

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.

 

Please note, we are unable to provide answers for questions 5 ii, iii, iv
and v as this information is not held in a reportable format. To answer
would mean manually checking each record. At 15 minutes to check each
record, this would take over the 18 hour (appropriate) time limit (472
Looked After Children as at 31^st January 2018 = 472 x 15 minutes = 118
hours) and the Section 12(1) exemption therefore applies.

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.

 

As at 19^th January 2018, 130 (28%) of our Looked After Children had a
statement of SEN or an EHCP plan.

 

We do not have any further breakdown available.

 

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

 

Please find a link below to the most recent "Outcomes for children looked
after by Local Authorities" published by the Department of Education:

 

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics...

 

Please scroll down the page and select the "Local authority tables:
SFR12/2017" link. Once the spreadsheet has opened you can use the links on
the main page to navigate to the different datasets relating to
educational outcomes for looked after children. Data for Buckinghamshire
will appear in all of the tables – we are listed in the South East region
which is the second half of the tables.

 

 

If you have a complaint about the handling of your request then please use
the Council’s complaints procedure in the first instance by writing to:

FOI Monitoring Officer

Buckinghamshire County Council

County Hall

Aylesbury

Bucks

HP20 1UA

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You can also then complain to the Information Commissioner at:

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Cheshire

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Regards

 

Neil Doling

 

Freedom of Information Officer

 

Assistant Chief Executive’s Service | Strategy & Policy | Customer
Experience & Communications

 

[5][Buckinghamshire County Council request email] 

[6]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/foi/freedo...

Buckinghamshire County Council

County Hall

Walton Street

Aylesbury

Buckinghamshire

HP20 1UA

 

 

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