Description:

The Office for National Statistics has published The Education Background of Looked-After Children Who Interact With The Criminal Justice Report (December 2022). The report looks at the educational attainment and provision, social care background and demographics of looked-after children educated in England who subsequently received a custodial sentence.

The report found the following key points:

• More than half (52%) of looked-after children born in the academic year ending 1994 who attended school in England had a criminal conviction by the age of 24 years compared with 13% of children who had not been in care.
• Imprisonment was a relatively unusual outcome, however, 1 in 7 (15%) looked-after children had received an immediate custodial sentence by the age of 24 years; that is over 10 times the proportion of children who had not been in care.
• A further 37% of looked-after children had received a non-custodial conviction, such as a fine or caution; this is compared with 12% of children who had not been in care.
• 1 in 4 (24%) looked-after children who were male had received an immediate custodial sentence compared with 2% of male children who had not been in care.
• Looked-after children were more likely to have been identified as having special educational needs (SEN); among looked-after children who received an immediate custodial sentence by age 24 years, 9 in 10 (92%) had been identified with SEN.