ABSTRACT
There are currently 61,000 looked-after children and a further 323,000 children in need of care in England, who are supported in their families or independently by local authorities. The combined total of 384,000 is equivalent to 5 per cent of all English children. A further 5,000 children are permanently excluded from mainstream schools and are housed in residential special referral units. This data was supplied by government officials to the author for his paper ‘Who Will Champion our Vulnerable Children?’1
