Unregistered Care Provision - Find a freedom of information request

1. The number of children placed in unregistered care provision in each of the last four financial years (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19)?

2. The number of unregistered care settings discovered within the authority in each of the last four financial years (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19)?

3. The number of children placed inside unregistered care provision by the authority who allege to have been sexually abused or exploited while inside unregistered care provision in each of the last four financial years (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19)?

4. The number of children placed inside unregistered care provision by the authority who allege to have been physically assaulted while inside unregistered care provision in each of the last four financial years (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19)?

1. The below figures are provided based on the number of children placed into unregulated care provisions in each financial year at any given point during that year for at least one night and are not those in situ. On this occasion, children have been defined as children and young people (including Looked after Children) up to age 18 years and Care Leavers up to age 21 years.

• 2015/16– Records kept of unregulated care provisions at this point do not allow for easy interrogation to provide the requested information within a timescale that is not prohibitive
• 2016/17– 310
• 2017/18– 261
• 2018/19 – 238

2. The question implies that to discover a setting is unregulated would mean that LCC placed without prior knowledge that the setting was unregulated. There were no unregulated care settings discovered within the authority in any of the financial years, as LCC only place with unregulated Semi-Independent living settings for young people aged 16 years and above in the knowledge that these type of placements are unregulated, including commissioned contracts to meet the needs of such young people. LCC only place children and young people aged below 16yrs in registered Residential Children's Homes or a registered foster care service.

In terms of questions 3 & 4, LCC do not capture anywhere on the LCC system whether a home is registered or not, therefore wouldn't be able to provide information regarding numbers of allegations.