The Department for Education’s publication of disability data on children in care and care leavers is a significant and welcome development. It represents an important step towards making visible a group of children and young people whose experiences have too often been absent from official statistics.
This publication follows a recommendation made in Disability, Disparity and Demand by Dr Claire Baker and Linda Briheim-Crookall, which called on the Department for Education to publish disability data already collected through the Child in Need Census within the annual children looked after and care leaver statistics. The report argued that without this information, disabled children in care and care leavers risk remaining largely invisible in policy, planning and service design.
The newly published figures show that 11% of children in care have a recorded disability. Among care leavers, the proportion is 13% for those aged 17 to 21 and 14% for those aged 22 to 25. These figures closely mirror the findings from Disability, Disparity and Demand.
Importantly, the statistics reveal that disability is associated with different care experiences and outcomes. A lower proportion of children in care recorded as having a disability were living in foster care, higher numbers were in children’s homes, and a lower rate of adoption or placement under a special guardianship order. They are also more likely to be living outside their local authority area and at a greater distance from home. Disabled children in care are more likely to be male and tend to enter care at older ages. The most commonly recorded disabilities are learning disabilities, autism and ‘behavioural conditions’. Care leavers recorded as having a disability are more likely to be not in education, employment or training. These findings point to important inequalities that require greater attention from policymakers, commissioners and practitioners.
The publication provides evidence that can support better planning, more effective commissioning and improved services. If disabled children and young people are not counted, their needs are less likely to be understood and met.
However, the statistics on must be seen as a starting point rather than an end point. Recommendations from Disability, Disparity and Demand highlighted significant concerns about the quality and consistency of disability recording. Local authorities use different approaches to recording disability, leading to substantial variation in reported rates. The research also found a marked gap between administrative data and what young people say about themselves. While local authority data recorded disability among 13% of care leavers, more than a quarter (27%) of care leavers self-reported having a disability or long-term health condition when asked directly through the Bright Spots Programme. https://coramvoice.org.uk/bright-spots-programme/
This discrepancy matters because current recording systems do not align well with the social model of disability or the Equality Act definition. Just as importantly, the voices of disabled children and young people are absent from the data collected about them. Understanding disability requires more than recording a category on a database. Professionals need to be curious about what disability means for individual children and young people, how it affects their lives, and what support they need to flourish.
The new official statistics confirm that disabled children in care and care leavers experience care differently and face distinct challenges. They also reinforce the need for government to go further by improving the way disability is defined and recorded, listening directly to children and young people, publishing more detailed analyses, and importantly using the data to drive improvements in policy and practice.
For a long time, disabled children in care and care leavers have been hidden in the data. These new statistics begin to change that. The next challenge is ensuring that greater visibility leads to greater understanding, better support and action.