Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's data release Pupil absence in schools in England, published on 21 March 2024, how many children were subject to a (a) special guardianship and (b) child arrangements order by (i), age (ii) ethnicity and (iii) local authority in 2022/23.

Data on pupils who have ceased to be looked after and are subject to a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or Child Arrangements Order (CAO) by age, ethnicity and local authority in England in the 2022/23 academic year is attached. The information is taken from the school census, where children are reported as having previously left care due to adoption, a SGO or a CAO only if their parents or carers have declared this information to the school. Therefore, the data is reliant on self-declaration from parents and is partial rather than a full count.