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Boarding Schools: Children in Care

Volume 495: debated on Tuesday 7 July 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils who boarded at school were recorded by the 2009 school census as being looked after children. (282616)

Provisional figures show that there were 390 pupils who boarded at school and were classed as being looked after as at January 2009.

The information provided is from the School Census however this is not the usual source of data for information on looked after children. Usually we would use the looked after children database but this does not hold all the details requested here.

The School Census does not cover all looked after children; information is not collected for pupils in alternative provision, including pupil referral units, FE colleges, voluntary provision and those not in education or training. It is also possible that the School Census undercounts the number of looked after children in primary, secondary and special schools.