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
Our data collections
Children In Need
(375,900)
Privately Fostered
(1,590)
Child
Protection
Plan
(39,100)
Children
Looked
After (64,400)
Secure
Accommodation
(260)
Why do we collect CIN data?





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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:
2
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
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 census
4
Service provision:
-
5
Service Type
Service Provider
Start Date
End Date
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
1,000
900
CIN rate per 10,000 children

800
R2 = 0.3064
700
LA
600
500
England
400
Linear
(LA)
300
200
100
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
CLA rate per 10,000 children
120
140
160
Key findings from the CIN census
Children in need at 31 March by age and gender
250,000
Numbers of Children in Need
200,000
150,000
Unborn/unknown gender
16 and over
10-15 years
100,000
5-9 years
1-4 years
Under 1
50,000
0
Male
Female
Unborn
Key findings from the CIN census
Breakdown of disability types identified in Children in Need at 31 March 2010
7%
11%
4%
Autism/Aspergers
Behaviour
9%
Communication
11%
Consciousness
Hand Function
Hearing
Incontinence
11%
Learning
11%
Mobility
Personal Care
Vision
3%
3%
3%
22%
5%
Other Disability
Key findings from the CIN census
Breakdown of open case statuses identified in Children in Need at 31 March 2010
13%
9%
4%
Residence order
Special Guardianship
order
Transition plan
11%
11%
Cared for by relative
Privately fostered child
Young carer
7%
Short breaks (overnight)
Short breaks (day)
3%
21%
4%
Child receiving direct
payments
Carer receiving direct
payments
17%
Key findings from the CIN census
Age of CIN by Primary Need
Age by Primary Need: Children in Need (CIN) at 31 March 2010
100%
Cases other than Children In Need
Primary need breakdown
80%
Absent parenting
Low income
Socially unacceptable behaviour
60%
Family dysfunction
Family in acute stress
Parent's disability or illness
40%
Child's disability or illness
Abuse or neglect
20%
Not stated
Missing/Unknown
0%
Under 1
1-4 Years
5-9 Years
Age breakdown
10-15 Years
16 & over
Key findings from the CIN census
Date referrals were received in 2009-10
Referral numbers peak
on a Monday and fall on a
Saturday and Sunday
3000
2000
1500
1000
500
There seem to be
'dips' in referral
numbers over
school holidays
1/3/2010
1/2/2010
1/1/2010
1/12/2009
1/11/2009
1/10/2009
1/9/2009
1/8/2009
1/7/2009
1/6/2009
1/5/2009
0
1/4/2009
Number of referrals
2500
Key findings from the CIN census
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
Working days
19
20
18
14
15
16
17
10
11
12
13
6
7
8
9
4
5
1
2
3
0
eg
a
tiv
e
0
N
Number of Initial assessments
Number of working days between the Initial
Assessments start date and end date
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.
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
Number of core assessments
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
72
71
70
69
68
67
66
65
64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
56
55
54
53
52
51
50
49
48
47
46
45
44
43
42
41
40
39
38
37
36
35
34
33
32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Negative
Working days
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
100%
Percentage of all children in this age group

7%
6%
5%
4%
31%
31%
90%
80%
1%
23%
31%
31%
70%
26%
60%
16& over
10-15 years
50%
26%
26%
26%
27%
5-9 years
1-4 years
40%
29%
30%
20%
25%
26%
25%
25%
10%
11%
13%
14%
10%
21%
0%
Referral
Initial
Core
assessment Assessment
start
start
Section 47
CPP start
Under 1
Key findings from the CIN census
120000
Total
100000
80000
60000
Referrals
Initial Assessments
Core Assessments
Section 47
40000
20000
Initial Child Protection
Conferences
Child Protection Plans
Ap
r- 0
M 9
ay
-0
9
Ju
n09
Ju
l-0
Au 9
g0
Se 9
p0
O 9
ct
-0
No 9
v0
De 9
c0
Ja 9
n1
Fe 0
b1
M 0
ar
-1
0
0
Key findings from the CIN census
Breakdown of duration of need for Children in Need ceasing during 2009-10 or open
case at 31 March 2010
400,000
Numbers of Children in Need
350,000
300,000
Unknown
250,000
More than 3 years
2 years up to 3 years
200,000
1 year up to 2 years
26 weeks up to 1 year
12 weeks up to 26 weeks
150,000
4 weeks up to 12 weeks
0 weeks up to 4 wks
100,000
50,000
0
Ceased during 2009-10
Open Case at 31 March 2010
Key findings from the CIN census
Ethnic breakdown of services provided to non-White Children in Need in 2009-10
% of non-White ethncities receiving service
35
Missing/unknown
30
Other
Mixed
Black
25
Asian
20
15
10
5
0
National
ethnicity
breakdown
All services
Adoption
support
Aids and
adaptations
Disabled
children's
services
Service type
Residence
order
payments
Family support
Section 24
support
Data Confidence Indicator (DCI)
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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
Children in Need at 31 March 2010
Ethnicity
Disability
Open Case Status
Initial Assessments completed within 7 days
Child Protection Plans starting during 2009-10
Table number
1
4
5
7
10
14
3
111
142
103
54
78
126
DCI rating / number of LAs
2
1 Aggregate
12
22
1
1
17
24
38
50
24
36
14
4
6
14
No data
7
8
8
10
2
CIN census review
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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/a0
013657/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.