asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many children in care have been moved to (a) five or more placements and (b) 10 or more placements while in care, during each of the last six years for which figures are available. [HL2576]
The numbers of children looked after who, during the past six years, had more than five or 10 placement moves are shown in the tables below. The first table shows the number of placement moves for children looked after at 31 March only and the second table shows the number of placement moves for all children looked after during each of the years 2002 to 2007.
Improving placement stability for looked-after children is a high priority for the Government, as reflected in their public service agreement targets and the national indicator set for local government. The Care Matters White Paper and the Children and Young Persons Bill include a range of measures which will help to improve placement stability, including revised arrangements for care planning, strengthening the role of independent reviewing officers to ensure placement moves are given greater scrutiny, and ensuring children are placed closer to their homes and schools.
England numbers Year ending 31 March 20024 20034 20045 20055 20065 20075 All Children looked after at 31 March1,2,3 59,700 60,800 61,100 60,900 60,300 60,000 Number of placements during the year Less than 5 placement moves (1 to 5 placements) 58,450 59,600 59,000 59,700 59,300 59,100 5 to 9 placement moves (6 to 10 placements) 1,100 1,000 1,000 1,000 870 790 10 or more placement moves (11 or more placements) 200 190 140 140 130 130 1. Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. 2. Figures account for children looked after at 31 March 2003 to 2007 only. 3. Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. 4. Source: Figures are derived from the SSDA903 one-third sample survey. 5. Source: Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return, which since 2003-04 covered all looked after children.
England numbers Year ending 31 March 20024 20034 20045 20055 20065 20075 All Children looked after during the year ending 31 March 85,100 85,100 86,900 86,700 86,000 84,700 Number of placements during the year Less than 5 placement moves (1 to 5 placements) 83,000 83,500 85,300 85,100 84,600 83,500 5 to 9 placement moves (6 to 10 placements) 1,500 1,400 1,400 1,400 1,200 1,100 10 or more placement moves (11 or more placements) 260 250 220 200 180 190 1. Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. 2. Figures account for all children looked after during the years ending 31 March 202 to 2007. 3. Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. 4. Source: Figures are derived from the SSDA903 one-third sample survey. 5. Source: Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return, which since 2003-04 covered all looked-after children.