Children's social care statistics
Statistics from Ofsted including data for children’s homes and other social care providers, fostering, inspections of local authority children’s services, and serious incident notifications from local authority children’s services.
These statistics look at past outcomes and preclude any changes the current government may make to the way we inspect and regulate providers in the future.
We release official statistics 3 times a year and inspection data 6 monthly. Sign up for email alerts when we publish new data on social care inspections.
For the latest individual inspection reports, please visit our reports website.
Latest data
The most recent data releases covering children’s social care inspections and outcomes.
Official Statistics
Official Statistics follow the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics. They include a main findings document that looks at trends in the data. We publish Official Statistics for children’s social care annually.
Research and commentaries
Ofsted research and commentaries on children’s social care.
Transparency datasets
Information that Ofsted publishes for transparency purposes.
COVID-19 data
Data on Ofsted’s visits to children’s social care providers during the interim phase of our return to inspection. Read more about our COVID-19 data and briefings.
Five-Year Ofsted Inspection Data
Five-Year Ofsted Inspection Data shows Ofsted inspection outcomes over 5 years.
Data before September 2019
Publications containing data older than September 2019. Ofsted no longer publishes some of these publications. For example, the ‘Serious incident notifications from local authority children’s services data’ is now published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Updates to this page
Last updated 7 November 2024 + show all updates
-
'Fostering in England 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024' added.
-
Local authority inspection outcomes as at 31 March 2024 added.
-
Inspection outcomes in each parliamentary constituency added.
-
Data on children’s homes registrations added.
-
Commentary on regulatory activity in all types of children’s homes and children's social care in England 2024 accredited official statistics added.
-
Added 'Changes to children’s social care in England accredited official statistics' news story.
-
Added 'Data on children's homes managers' and 'Fostering recruitment and retention'.
-
Added supported accommodation application datasets. This data includes the figures on completed applications for supported accommodation providers.
-
Added Fostering in England 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
-
Added 'What types of needs do children’s homes offer care for?' research.
-
Added Children’s social care data in England 2022 national statistics.
-
Added the 'Local authority and children’s homes in England inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2021' release.
-
Added Fostering in England official statistics covering 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.
-
Added 'Children’s homes providing short breaks' research.
-
Added 'Children's social care data in England 2021' to the collection.
-
Added 'Children's social care data in england 2020' to the collection.
-
Added the 'Local authority and children's homes in England inspections and outcomes – autumn 2019' release to the collection.
-
Added Fostering in England 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 release to the collection.
-
Added 'Inspection outcomes of children's homes' to the collection.
-
Added the link to ‘Inspection outcomes of the largest children's social care providers’ to the management information section.
-
Added new children's social care data in England 2019 statistics.
-
Added link to a formal consultation on inspections and outcomes for children's homes and local authority children's services statistical reporting.
-
Added Fostering in England 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 national statistics.
-
Added 'Children’s social care data for the Ofsted Annual Report 2017/18' to Management Information collection.
-
Added local authority and children’s homes in England inspections and outcomes. This release includes local authority inspection data and children’s homes inspection data, covering the period up until 30 September 2018.
-
Added Social care ownership inspection outcome profiles
-
Added Serious incident notifications from local authority children’s services 2017 to 2018
-
FOI dataset as at 31 march 2018 uploaded to FOI dataset group
-
Added children’s social care data in England 2018.
-
Added children’s social care data for the Ofsted Annual Report 2016/17.
-
added FOI: Social care dataset as at 31 March 2017.
-
Added Children's social care data 2017.
-
Fostering in England statistics 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 have been added.
-
Added Local authority and children’s homes in England inspection outcomes as at 30 September 2016.
-
Added 'Ofsted Freedom of Information request datasets 2015 and 2016: social care'.
-
Children's social care data in England 2016 added.
-
Updated with 'FOI: Social care dataset as at 31 March 2016' and 'Children looked after placements as at 31 March 2015'.
-
Added: local authority and children’s homes in England inspection outcomes.
-
Updated for children looked after placements as at 31 March 2014.
-
Latest children's social care statistics published, including children's homes.
-
First published.