Child-ren.org – Childhood Inequalities Linked Data

Welcome to the Childhood Inequalities Linked Data Research Network

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Child-ren has been using a new linked administrative government dataset from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice.

The data covers all children in England, so it is helpful to understand outcomes for groups of children who may not take part in other types of research. It has been used here to understand what happens to children in the care system, which is anyone who had a social worker in childhood.

Some of these children have also been looked after away from their family home, for example staying with a foster carer.

The research in the animation looks at whether children in the care system were more or less likely than other children to have a criminal caution or conviction by the time they were age 25.

Key Findings

Children in the care system are 2-4 times more likely than other children to have a criminal caution or conviction and 2-7 times more likely to have a custodial sentence.
Children in the care system in some local authorities are three times more likely to have a caution or conviction than children in other local authorities.
Girls in the care system experience a high risk for criminal cautions and convictions and are up to 11 times more likely to have a custodial sentence than girls outside of the care system.
Children in the care system who also have a recognised special educational need are more likely to have a criminal caution or conviction, and more likely to have a custodial sentence.