The aim of this Research Brief is to report on data collected via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to all local authorities in England concerning unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The request asked for local authority statistics from the previous three years (March 2012 to March 2015).

Key findings

• Increasingly children are accommodated outside the local authority with statutory responsibility to support them
• Receiving local authorities are rarely informed of these transfers and keep no record of unaccompanied minors placed from other LAs
• Figures of missing children from Local Authorities do not match the one provided by the Home Office.
• Definitions of ‘missing’ children vary considerably across England casting doubt on the comparability of data across local authorities
• Data on care leavers are extremely patchy and inconsistent across Local Authorities. As a result, little is known about what happens to young people after they reach 18 years old.

Download ‘Mapping unaccompanied asylum seeking children in England‘, Becoming Adult Research Brief, no.1/2016