Government Fostering Social Care Statistics
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- Author:UK Government
- Published:November - December 2021
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Country:
Government Fostering Social Care Statistics
Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2020/21
Date published: 11 November 2021
Last updated: 12 November 2021
Children’s social care statistics for Northern Ireland presents figures, collected from each of the five health and social care trusts, for children in need on 31 March and the year ending 31 March. This includes the total number of children in need known to social services by age, gender, religion and ethnicity and the total number of children in need referrals received by the source of referral.
Documents available for Northern Ireland Social Care Statistics
- Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2020/21
- Childrens Social Care Statistics Tables 2020-2021
Further tables and a Pre-release access list can be found by clicking here
Scotland Care Inspectorate social care statistics
Introduction
Published December 2021
On 31 December 2020, there were just under 12,300 care services registered with us, including 38 adoption and 59 fostering services. These are provided by the local authority and the voluntary/not-for-profit sector. We hold a significant amount of data about these services, which informs the public, people using services and commissioners on the quality of these services. The information also supports us to target our scrutiny and improvement interventions.
The data in this report provides insight into the operation of fostering and adoption services in Scotland. We hope this data is of use to providers of fostering and adoption services and other interested parties who invest significant time in providing information to us each year.”
Summary of Foster Care
The decrease seen in 2020 is driven by just over half (57%) of fostering services having fewer foster care households than the previous year. The remaining fostering services either showed an increase or no change in the number of households.
Local authority fostering services approve and place children and young people in foster care placements. The total number of children in placement with an approved foster carer household as recorded in the annual returns has decreased year-on-year since 2016 and now stands at 4,587. ”
The full report by the Care Inspectorate including the adoption statistics can be found by clicking here.
Stats Wales- Social Care Statistics 2020 to 2021
Data Provider: Welsh Government
Foster parents are approved by local authorities and a number of private fostering arrangements.
- Private Fostering Services by the local authority and measure
- Foster Parents Approved by local authority and measure
- Number of notifications of a child being privately fostered received during the year by local authority and age group
Fostering in England 2020 to 2021 main findings
Published 11 November 2021
Introduction
In the latest Department for Education (DfE) published data covering 2019 to 2020, fostered children numbered 57,380 and represented nearly three-quarters of all children in care or fewer than 1% of all children in England.
At the end of March 2021, there were 45,370 fostering households in 425 agencies in England. These households had 76,640 approved foster carers looking after about 55,990 children. These 425 agencies represented 96% of all eligible agencies: 145 LA agencies and 280 IFAs.”
Summary of Social Care Statistics 2020 to 2021 Main Findings
The number of family and friends households continues to rise and is at an all-time high.
As of 31 March 2021, just over a quarter of LA fostering households (8,045) had family and friends care as their primary placement offer (27%). This is an increase of 7 percentage points from 2015 to 2016. Of all newly approved LA households that were still active on 31 March 2021 (6,070), 58% were family and friends households (3,525).
Although record levels of enquiries were received from prospective fostering households, the conversion rate to applications continues to fall.
There were 160,635 initial enquiries from prospective fostering households in the year ending 31 March 2021, but only 10,145 (6%) foster carer applications were received. This proportion has decreased from 12% in 2014 to 2015.
There continues to be a large difference in conversion rates from initial enquiries to applications between both sectors.
Although the majority of initial enquires (79%) came from the IFA sector, fewer of these IFA enquiries converted into applications. IFAs reported a ratio of 25:1 initial enquiries to applications, whereas LAs reported 7:1.
The proportion of fostering applications that are approved in the year has decreased.
From 2020 to 2021, 32% of fostering applications from prospective households were approved. This is a decrease from 2015 to 2016 when 44% of applications were approved.
The full findings can be found by click here
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