Children looked after in England (including adoption) year ending 31 March 2025

Product Description

This release provides information on children looked after (CLA) in England, including numbers of CLA adopted, care leavers and CLA who were missing from their placement. Data is taken from the annual SSDA903 data collection which is collected from local authorities in England.

The latest statistics relate to the year ending 31 March 2025 and comparisons are to the year ending 31 March 2024 unless otherwise stated. Each year local authorities can revise previous years' data so figures for earlier years may have changed compared to previous releases of this data. The standard period for data in this release is for the year ending 31 March 2021 to the year ending 31 March 2025.

Users of the data should be aware that:

• 2021 was the year that the initial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are visible in the statistics, so they should be cautious making comparisons between the current year and 2021.
• many of the changes within the release are influenced by changes in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) who are a distinct cohort, with specific characteristics, for example they are generally male, aged 16+ years, with relatively short periods of care.

One new table has been added to the release this year (table A6), showing characteristics of CLA on 31 March, excluding unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).