§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health which 10 authorities have the(a) highest and (b) lowest numbers of looked-after children listed as missing. [88516]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 7 January 2003]: The total number of looked-after children who went missing from their usual place of residence at any time during the year ending 31 March 2001 was 920. There are currently no statistics available to distinguish the 10 local authorities with the highest and lowest numbers of looked-after children listed as missing.
Data on children who have gone missing from care is obtained from the Department of Health form SSDA903, a statistical return completed by local authorities for one third of all looked-after children. As these data are based on a one-third sample and the figures reported by authorities on children missing from care are small, it is not possible to produce a reliable comparison across authorities. In addition, analysis on the sample numbers has shown that there is a wide variation in the figures between local authorities-suggesting inconsistency in recording practices which may in turn suggest under-reporting. The figures may therefore be under-stating the actual numbers of children who go missing from care during the year.
The SSDA903 data collection will start recording information for 100 per cent. of looked-after children for the year ending 31 March 2004. A robust analysis of 498W children missing from care by local authority will be possible when those results are analysed in the autumn of 2004.