SSRG Annual Workshop 2011:How can the Children in Need

census help to improve children’s services and outcomes?

Monday 7th March Birmingham

Isabella Craig

Children In Need (375,900)

Our data collections

Child Protection

Plan(39,100)

Children Looked

After (64,400)

Secure Accommodation

(260)

Privately Fostered (1,590)

Why do we collect CIN data? To give LAs and the department a better understanding of the

characteristics of their children in need populations and the types and volumes of services that they provide for these children.

To help ensure consistency in data across LAs. To enable comparability and benchmarking which will support public

accountability as well as professional learning. To aid LAs in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of their local services,

improve working practices and improve the outcomes of some their most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Child level data maximising the usefulness of this data for researchers and for developing and evaluating policy

Ministers attach a high priority to ensuring that England remains in line with other leading European countries in terms of the data collected

Content of the CIN census

There are five data modules in the CIN census which include the following data items (from 2010-11 onwards):

1 Child identifiers:

- LA Child ID- Unique Pupil Number (UPN), Pupil’s Former UPN, UPN Unknown Reason- Date of Birth, Expected Date of Birth- Gender- Date of Death

2 Characteristics:

- Ethnicity- Asylum-Seeking Child, Date child ceased to be an Asylum-Seeking Child- Looked After Child Adopted- Disability type

Content of the CIN census

3 Children in Need details:

- Referral Date- Primary Need Code- CIN Closure Date, Reason for Closure

- Initial Assessment Effective Start Date, Initial Assessment Target End Date, Initial Assessment Effective End Date- Core Assessment Effective Start Date, Core Assessment Target End Date, Core Assessment Effective End Date- Section 47 Enquiry Effective Start Date, Target Date for Initial Child Protection

Conference, Date of Initial Child Protection Conference- Date of Initial Child Protection Conference (transfer in cases)- Initial Child Protection Conference Not Required

- Referral No Further Action- Open Case Information (Looked After Child, Residence Order, Special Guardianship Order, Transition Plan, Cared for by a relative, Privately fostered, Young carer, Short break settings, Direct payments)

Content of the CIN census4 Service provision:

- Service Type

- Service Provider

- Start Date

- End Date

5 Child Protection Plans:

- Child Protection Plan Start Date

- Initial Category of Abuse, Latest Category of Abuse

- Number of Previous Child Protection Plans

- Child Protection Plan End Date

- Plan Review Date

Key findings from the CIN census There were 375,900 children in need at 31 March 2010, a rate of 341 per 10,000 children.

At LA level, this rate varied from 135 in Herefordshire to 896 in Haringey. There were 694,000 episodes of need throughout the year: 377,600 episodes of need

started between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 and 318,200 episodes of need ended.

Comparing rates of CIN and CLA at 31 March 2010 by LA: All LAs

R2 = 0.3064

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1,000

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

CLA rate per 10,000 children

CIN

ra

te p

er

10

,00

0 c

hil

dre

n

LA

England

Linear(LA)

Key findings from the CIN censusChildren in need at 31 March by age and gender

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

Male Female Unborn

Nu

mb

ers

of

Ch

ild

ren

in

Nee

d

Unborn/unknown gender

16 and over

10-15 years

5-9 years

1-4 years

Under 1

Key findings from the CIN censusBreakdown of disability types identified in Children in Need at 31 March 2010

11%

11%

11%

3%

3%

3%

5%22%

11%

9%

4%

7%

Autism/Aspergers

Behaviour

Communication

Consciousness

Hand Function

Hearing

Incontinence

Learning

Mobility

Personal Care

Vision

Other Disability

Key findings from the CIN censusBreakdown of open case statuses identified in Children in Need at 31 March 2010

9%

4%

11%

7%

3%

4%

17%

21%

11%

13%

Residence order

Special Guardianshiporder

Transition plan

Cared for by relative

Privately fostered child

Young carer

Short breaks (overnight)

Short breaks (day)

Child receiving directpayments

Carer receiving directpayments

Key findings from the CIN census Age of CIN by Primary Need

Age by Primary Need: Children in Need (CIN) at 31 March 2010

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Under 1 1-4 Years 5-9 Years 10-15 Years 16 & over

Age breakdown

Prim

ary

need

bre

akdo

wn

Cases other than Children In Need

Absent parenting

Low income

Socially unacceptable behaviour

Family dysfunction

Family in acute stress

Parent's disability or illness

Child's disability or illness

Abuse or neglect

Not stated

Missing/Unknown

Key findings from the CIN census Date referrals were received in 2009-10

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

30001/

4/20

09

1/5/

2009

1/6/

2009

1/7/

2009

1/8/

2009

1/9/

2009

1/10

/200

9

1/11

/200

9

1/12

/200

9

1/1/

2010

1/2/

2010

1/3/

2010

Nu

mb

er

of

refe

rra

ls

There seem to be 'dips' in referral numbers over school holidays

Referral numbers peak on a Monday and fall on a Saturday and Sunday

Key findings from the CIN census

Many initial assessments were completed on the same day as the assessment began (13%) and a further 12% of cases were completed 7 working days after the assessment began.

Number of working days between the Initial Assessments start date and end date

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

Negat

ive 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Working days

Nu

mb

er

of

Init

ial a

ss

es

sm

en

ts

Key findings from the CIN census Most core assessments were completed in 35 working days, with nearly twice as many assessments taking 35 days compared to any other duration.

Number of working days between the core assessments start date and end date

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

Negativ

e0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

Working days

Nu

mb

er

of

co

re a

ss

es

sm

en

ts

Key findings from the CIN census

The age breakdown of children at referral is very similar to the age of children at the start of the initial assessment, core assessment and section 47 enquiry.

The breakdown at the start of the CPP is however quite different, with a higher proportion of younger children and a much smaller proportion of children aged over 16.

Age break down change through CIN system

10% 11% 13% 14%21%

25% 26% 25% 25%

29%

26% 26% 26% 27%

26%

31% 31% 31% 31%

23%

7% 6% 5% 4% 1%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Referral Initialassessment

start

CoreAssessment

start

Section 47 CPP start

Per

cen

tag

e o

f al

l ch

ildre

n in

th

is a

ge

gro

up

16& over

10-15 years

5-9 years

1-4 years

Under 1

Key findings from the CIN census

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

Apr-0

9

May

-09

Jun-

09

Jul-0

9

Aug-0

9

Sep-0

9

Oct-09

Nov-09

Dec-09

Jan-

10

Feb-1

0

Mar

-10

Total

Referrals

Initial Assessments

Core Assessments

Section 47

Initial Child ProtectionConferences

Child Protection Plans

Key findings from the CIN censusBreakdown of duration of need for Children in Need ceasing during 2009-10 or open

case at 31 March 2010

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

Ceased during 2009-10 Open Case at 31 March 2010

Nu

mb

ers

of

Ch

ild

ren

in

Nee

d

Unknown

More than 3 years

2 years up to 3 years

1 year up to 2 years

26 weeks up to 1 year

12 weeks up to 26 weeks

4 weeks up to 12 weeks

0 weeks up to 4 wks

Key findings from the CIN censusEthnic breakdown of services provided to non-White Children in Need in 2009-10

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Nationalethnicity

breakdown

All services Adoptionsupport

Aids andadaptations

Disabledchildren'sservices

Residenceorder

payments

Family support Section 24support

Service type

% o

f n

on

-Wh

ite

eth

nc

itie

s r

ec

eiv

ing

se

rvic

e

Missing/unknown

Other

Mixed

Black

Asian

Data Confidence Indicator (DCI) Data Confidence Indicators (DCIs) were included for each breakdown published in

provisional and final CIN Statistical Releases DCIs mostly based on data quality checks conducted within DfE, but some DCIs also

take into consideration comparisons with previous years’ data and notes made by LAs Aim that DCIs will enable LAs to make more robust comparisons with statistical

neighbours and national averages Allow those LAs who have invested time and effort in data quality to demonstrate the

quality of their information and seek out similar high quality data for benchmarking Table below gives an indication of our confidence in data for different areas of the CIN

return (with ‘3’ denoting the highest confidence and ‘1’ the lowest)

DCI breakdown Table number 3 2 1 Aggregate No dataChildren in Need at 31 March 2010 1 111 12 22 - 7Ethnicity 4 142 1 1 - 8Disability 5 103 17 24 - 8Open Case Status 7 54 38 50 - 10Initial Assessments completed within 7 days 10 78 24 36 14 -Child Protection Plans starting during 2009-10 14 126 4 6 14 2

DCI rating / number of LAs

CIN census review

The ultimate aim of the CIN review was to compare costs and burdens of completing the CIN census against the value of the resulting data, allowing for improvements that can feasibly be made, with a view to informing a decision on the future life of the collection

CIN census review Steering Group established including data users and providers; LA reps, IT specialists, Ofsted, charities, external researchers, DfE analysis, DfE policy

Steering Group discussions have included establishing the evidence base, estimating the average LA costs (c£26k) and identifying areas of census which place greatest burden on LAs and DfE.

Final recommendations for 2010-11 and future years have been agreed by Steering Group and are awaiting Ministerial approval.

Terms of reference and Steering Group meeting minutes available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/childrenandyoungpeople/cincensus/a0013657/children-in-need-cin-census

Further analysis: matching projects

Matching to 2008-09 CIN census (January 2011): Looked at whether data in 2009-10 is comparable with 2008-09 (e.g. do

children referred before 1 April 2009 appear in 2008-09 with the same date of birth). Found that the data are not yet consistent enough to allow robust longitudinal analysis.

Matching to 2009-10 LAC (January 2011): Improved matching rate from 76% (of LAC at 31 March 2009) to 79%

(of LAC at 31 March 2010). These matching rates were shared with LAs.

Matching to 2009/10 NPD (by March 2011): Aiming to improve UPN prevalence from 82% and matching rate from

70% in 2008-09 (for 4-16 year olds). Aim to disseminate national and local matching rates, characteristics, attainment and absence levels of CIN.