UK Comparability of Children's Social Service Statistics
Statistics on Social Services for children are collected and published by the following government departments:
- The UK Government's Department of Education (for England)
- The Scottish Government's Education Analytical Services Division
- The Welsh Assembly Government's Statistical Directorate
- The Northern Ireland Executive's Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety
In each area of social services, there are similarities between the collections in the different countries, but also differences. These may be due to different legislation, the differing history of data collections and differences in the requirements for monitoring policy.
However, some users of the statistics look for data for all countries. One area of statistics where interest has been shown concerns those children who are looked after by local authorities.
Children Looked After (CLA) by Local Authorities
The UK Statistics Authority assessed the statistics on looked after children produced by each of the UK administrations in 2009. A requirement of continuing designation as National Statistics was that the administrations should work together to document clearly the differences between each administration’s CLA statistics and scope out the feasibility and need for a comparable data subset.
The assessment report can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website.
As a first step, a report has been prepared comparing the legislative provisions in each country, describing the range of statistics produced and providing a set of statistics for English regions, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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