Looked-after children data strategy
A strategy to improve the quality and availability of ethnicity data and evidence about looked-after children and their routes out of care.
Documents
Details
The focus of this strategy is primarily on the care system (and routes out of care) – the remit of the Department for Education (DfE). It sets out:
- what data is currently available
- an assessment of the quality of available data
- what the internal and external user needs are for data met or partially met
- further work priorities
A more detailed understanding of the demographic profile of looked-after children could inform:
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better planning around providing the right permanence options for children, including adoption, special guardianship, long term fostering or a return to parents
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the recruitment and approval of adoptive parents willing to take children who are waiting and special guardians or foster parents who can meet their needs
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the provision of early intervention policies and strategies to support children and families to minimise the risk that the children do not enter or re-enter care
This strategy has been prepared by the Race Disparity Unit, working with analysts in DfE and The Children and Social Care Secretariat, Coram-i.