Children in Care: Foster Care
[Official Report, 3 February 2009, Vol. 487, c. 1055-58W.]
Letter of correction from Beverley Hughes:
An error has been identified in the written answer to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), Official Report, 3 February 2009. My email of 9 February alerted the hon. Member to data errors in the answer my Department gave. I am now writing to provide the hon. Member with the revised figures.
I am assured by officials that these figures are now correct. Quality assurance procedures have been reviewed and improved to ensure that the chances of this happening again are minimised.
The revised tables are published below. The effect of the correction has been to reduce substantially the number of looked-after children who have a number of foster placements during the year.
A copy of my response will be placed in the Library.
Once again, please accept my apology on behalf of myself and officials in the Department.
The correct answer is as follows: (251849)
Information showing the number of children in care in each local authority that have had more than (a) three, (b) five, (c) 10, (d) 20 and (e) 30 foster placements in England during the year ending 31 March 2008 is shown in the following table.
Number of placements More than 3 More than 5 More than 10 More than 20 More than 30 England 1,100 200 10 - 0 North East 60 - - 0 0 Darlington - 0 0 0 0 Durham 10 - 0 0 0 Gateshead 0 0 0 0 0 Hartlepool 5 - 0 0 0 Middlesbrough - - 0 0 0 Newcastle Upon Tyne - 0 0 0 0 North Tyneside 5 0 0 0 0 Northumberland 5 0 0 0 0 Redcar and Cleveland - 0 0 0 0 South Tyneside - 0 0 0 0 Stockton-on-Tees - 0 0 0 0 Sunderland - - - 0 0 North West 140 20 - 0 0 Blackburn with Darwen - 0 0 0 0 Blackpool - - 0 0 0 Bolton 10 - 0 0 0 Bury 5 - 0 0 0 Cheshire 10 - 0 0 0 Cumbria 10 - 0 0 0 Halton 0 0 0 0 0 Knowsley - - - 0 0 Lancashire 25 - 0 0 0 Liverpool 15 - 0 0 0 Manchester 20 - 0 0 0 Oldham - 0 0 0 0 Rochdale - 0 0 0 0 Salford - 0 0 0 0 Sefton - - 0 0 0 St. Helens - 0 0 0 0 Stockport - - 0 0 0 Tameside - - 0 0 0 Trafford 5 0 0 0 0 Warrington 10 0 0 0 0 Wigan - 0 0 0 0 Wirral 5 - 0 0 0 Yorkshire and the Humber 110 30 - 0 0 Barnsley 10 0 0 0 0 Bradford 10 - 0 0 0 Calderdale - - 0 0 0 Doncaster 10 - 0 0 0 East Riding of Yorkshire 5 - 0 0 0 Kingston upon Hull, City of 15 - 0 0 0 Kirklees 5 0 0 0 0 Leeds 20 10 - 0 0 North East Lincolnshire - - 0 0 0 North Lincolnshire - 0 0 0 0 North Yorkshire 10 - 0 0 0 Rotherham - 0 0 0 0 Sheffield - 0 0 0 0 Wakefield - - 0 0 0 York - - 0 0 0 East Midlands 70 10 0 0 0 Derby 5 0 0 0 0 Derbyshire 10 - 0 0 0 Leicester - 0 0 0 0 Leicestershire - - 0 0 0 Lincolnshire 10 - 0 0 0 Northamptonshire 15 - 0 0 0 Nottingham - - 0 0 0 Nottinghamshire 10 - 0 0 0 Rutland 0 0 0 0 0 West Midlands 160 20 - 0 0 Birmingham 40 - 0 0 0 Coventry 5 0 0 0 0 Dudley 10 0 0 0 0 Herefordshire - - 0 0 0 Sandwell - 0 0 0 0 Shropshire - - 0 0 0 Solihull - 0 0 0 0 Staffordshire 20 5 - 0 0 Stoke-on-Trent 5 - 0 0 0 Telford and Wrekin - 0 0 0 0 Walsall 10 - 0 0 0 Warwickshire 30 5 0 0 0 Wolverhampton 5 - 0 0 0 Worcestershire 10 - 0 0 0 East of England 100 10 0 0 0 Bedfordshire - 0 0 0 0 Cambridgeshire - - 0 0 0 Essex 25 - 0 0 0 Hertfordshire 10 0 0 0 0 Luton 10 - 0 0 0 Norfolk 15 0 0 0 0 Peterborough 10 0 0 0 0 Southend-on-Sea 10 - 0 0 0 Suffolk 10 - 0 0 0 Thurrock - - 0 0 0 London 160 40 - 0 0 Inner London 75 10 - 0 0 Camden 5 0 0 0 0 City of London 0 0 0 0 0 Hackney - 0 0 0 0 Hammersmith and Fulham - 0 0 0 0 Haringey - - 0 0 0 Islington 10 - 0 0 0 Kensington and Chelsea - - - 0 0 Lambeth 5 - 0 0 0 Lewisham - 0 0 0 0 Newham 15 - 0 0 0 Southwark 5 0 0 0 0 Tower Hamlets 5 0 0 0 0 Wandsworth - 0 0 0 0 Westminster - 0 0 0 0 Outer London 90 30 - 0 0 Barking and Dagenham 10 5 0 0 0 Barnet 0 0 0 0 0 Bexley 5 - 0 0 0 Brent 15 - 0 0 0 Bromley - 0 0 0 0 Croydon 5 - 0 0 0 Ealing - 0 0 0 0 Enfield - - 0 0 0 Greenwich - - 0 0 0 Harrow - 0 0 0 0 Havering 10 - 0 0 0 Hillingdon 10 - 0 0 0 Hounslow - - 0 0 0 Kingston upon Thames - - 0 0 0 Merton - 0 0 0 0 Redbridge - - 0 0 0 Richmond upon Thames - - 0 0 0 Sutton - - - 0 0 Waltham Forest 5 0 0 0 0 South East 160 40 - 0 0 Bracknell Forest - 0 0 0 0 Brighton and Hove 10 - 0 0 0 Buckinghamshire 0 0 0 0 0 East Sussex 10 - 0 0 0 Hampshire 40 10 - 0 0 Isle of Wight - - 0 0 0 Kent 35 10 - 0 0 Medway Towns 5 0 0 0 0 Milton Keynes 10 - 0 0 0 Oxfordshire - - 0 0 0 Portsmouth 0 0 0 0 0 Reading 5 0 0 0 0 Slough 0 0 0 0 0 Southampton 5 - 0 0 0 Surrey 5 0 0 0 0 West Berkshire - 0 0 0 0 West Sussex 10 - 0 0 0 Windsor and Maidenhead - 0 0 0 0 Wokingham - 0 0 0 0 South West 100 20 - - 0 Bath and North East Somerset - 0 0 0 0 Bournemouth - 0 0 0 0 Bristol, City of 15 - 0 0 0 Cornwall 10 - - - 0 Devon - - 0 0 0 Dorset 5 - 0 0 0 Gloucestershire 10 - 0 0 0 Isles of Scilly 0 0 0 0 0 North Somerset 5 - 0 0 0 Plymouth 15 - 0 0 0 Poole - - 0 0 0 Somerset 5 - 0 0 0 South Gloucestershire - 0 0 0 0 Swindon - 0 0 0 0 Torbay 10 - 0 0 0 Wiltshire 5 0 0 0 0 1 Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short—term placements. 2 Based on children looked after at 31 March 2008 and the number of foster placements during the 2007-08 financial year 3 Rounding and suppression—to ensure that no individual can be identified from statistical tables, we use conventions for the rounding and suppression of very small numbers. At local authority level the England totals have been rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. Regional totals have been rounded to the nearest 10. All other numbers have been rounded to the nearest five, and the numbers from 1 to 5 inclusive have been suppressed, being replaced in the published table by a ( -).