Children in Care: Ethnic Groups

(asked on 19th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason black children are disproportionately represented in the care system.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 27th November 2020

The Main report: children looked after in England including adoption 2018 to 2019 notes that as of the 31 March 2019 there were 78,150 children looked after in England. The majority are of white ethnicity (74%). 10% were of mixed ethnicity and 8% were of Black or Black British ethnicity. Since 2015, the proportion of children looked after of white ethnicity has decreased steadily from 77%. It is likely this slight change is due to the broadly non-white make up of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, a group which has recently grown in number: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/850306/Children_looked_after_in_England_2019_Text.pdf.

As of 31 March 2019 there were 5,070 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by local authorities in England, up 11% from 4,480 at 31 March 2018. In March 2019, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children represented 6% of all looked after children in England.

Factors which drive children’s social care activity are complex and the department is keen to understand this in more depth.

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