Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in public care are placed outside the boundary of the local authority with responsibility for their safety and wellbeing.

The latest figures show that the number of children who were placed outside the boundary of the local authority responsible for their safety and wellbeing at the 31 March 2018 was 30,670, or 41% of all looked-after children. These figures were published in table A5 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

The department does not collect information on the distance in miles between the placement of a child and the boundary edge of the local authority. The department does collect, however, two separate pieces of information in relation to placement location; the distance the child is placed away from their home postcode and whether the placement is located inside or outside their responsible local authority. The number of looked-after children placed outside their local authority boundary and more than 50 miles from their home was 5,380 (or 7% of all looked-after children) at 31 March 2018. There were 2,080 children (or 3% of all looked-after children) placed more than 100 miles from their home and outside their local authority boundary. These figures exclude children where the distance of the placement is unknown.

We want to reduce out of area placements, but they will always be part of the care landscape. Sometimes local authorities have to identify a placement outside of the child’s local area to disrupt gang violence, trafficking or sexual exploitation or where specialist provision is needed.

In recent years government has also increasingly asked local authorities to consider boarding as an option for looked-after children if it may be suitable for them and in some instances this may mean children are placed outside of their local authority area.