FOI Request - Looked After Children in care of Authority
Request 101003572145
Please release the following information relating to looked after children in the care of your authority for the periods:
- 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021
- 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022
- 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023
- 1 January 2024 to 30 April 2024
1. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that are:
a. Identified as having been trafficked or a victim of modern slavery – including, but not limited to those identified through the National Referral Mechanism.
b. Suspected of having been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery1, if not included in a.
c. Identified as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) or a separated child2
d. Identified as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) or a separated child who have also been identified or suspected of having been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery.
2. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority:
a. Identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.
b. Identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.
c. Identified as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) or a separated child who have also been identified or suspected of having been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery, and that have gone missing or absent.
3. The total number of individual incidents (which could involve the same child on more than one occasion) of looked after children in the care of your authority:
a. Identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.
b. Identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.
4. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that are still missing or absent (including those that subsequently turned 18 without being found) that were identified or suspected as having been trafficked
5. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that are still missing or absent (including those that subsequently turned 18 without being found) that were identified as an UASC or separated child.
6. For questions 1a, 1b and 2a please provide a breakdown of these numbers by year and whether the child is British or non-British.
7. For question 2, please provide a breakdown of these numbers by type of accommodation missing from
1 i) Trafficking is defined in Article 4 of the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” However, for the purposes of trafficking in the case of a child there is no requirement to meet the ‘means’ component within that definition as a child is not able to give informed consent. Therefore, any child who is recruited, transported, transferred, harboured or received for the purposes of exploitation is considered to be a trafficking victim, whether or not they have been forced or deceived.
ii) ‘Modern slavery’ includes human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour for the purpose of exploitation.
2 “Separated children” are children, as defined in article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, who have been separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children accompanied by other adult family members.
3 The Care Planning and Care Leavers (Amendment) Regulations 2014; Home Office: ‘National Referral Mechanism: Guidance for Child First Responders’.
4 The Care Planning and Care Leavers (Amendment) Regulations 2014; Home Office: ‘National Referral Mechanism: Guidance for Child First Responders’.
5 Department for Education, ‘Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care’, (2014).
Response 11-06-2024
The information requested can be found here.