Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special guardianship orders have been granted in each year since their inception.
The Department for Education collect annual figures from local authorities of the number of children who leave care under a Special Guardianship Order. Special Guardianship was introduced as a new permanence option for children that offered greater security than foster care, but without the absolute legal severance from their birth family. Overall, it is good news that thousands of additional children are now living in a permanent family as a result of more SGOs being used.
The table below shows these figures since 2007 when SGOs first started to be made.
Year | Looked After Children who leave care under an SGO*** | Overall number of children who have an SGO[1] |
2007 | 750 | - |
2008 | 1,130 | - |
2009 | 1,240 | - |
2010 | 1,280 | - |
2011 | 1,780 | 2,980 |
2012 | 2,150 | 4,074 |
2013 | 2,770 | 4,911 |
2014 | 3,330 | - |
***NB – rounded to the nearest 10
The Department for Education Statistical First Release on ‘Children looked after in England, including adoption’ contains data for the last 5 years. Figures quoted cover financial years 1st April – 31st March [2].
[1] The Ministry of Justice collect information of all children with a Special Guardianship Order, only figures for the last 3 years are available. Figures quoted cover calendar years – 1st January – 31st December.
[2] www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2