[RoosterRedux]

Good chatting with you today. You have a devoted FRiend in ole Rooster.

Keep up the good work.

[Sherman Logan]

Dittos. Have a good one.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/familyadvice/11051938/Under-family-friendly-Tories-yet-more-children-go-into-care.html

But the irony is that, despite our education ministry’s new passion for adoption, volubly championed by Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary (and who was successfully adopted himself), the number of children being adopted still remains ridiculously small: around 4,000 a year, compared with the 28,000 children who have this year been taken into care. This leaves an additional 24,000 children haplessly in state “care”, the cost of which alone, according to a new report from the Audit Commission, now averages £50,000 a year for each child. And this is not even to mention the unimaginable unhappiness inflicted on the tens of thousands of families who wrongly fall foul of this weirdly inhuman system.

http://www.baaf.org.uk/res/statengland

Children in public care
68,110 children were in the care of local authorities on 31st March 2013, compared to 67,080 in 2012.

The rate of looked after children per 10,000 under 18 years on 31st March 2013 was 60, compared to 59 in 2012.

Gender
55% (37,510) of children looked after on 31st March 2013 were boys and 45% (30,600) were girls

Age
6% (4,310) of children looked after on 31st March 2013 were under 1 year old
18% (12,360) were aged between 1 and 4 years old
19% (13,260) were aged between 5 and 9 years old
36% (24,450) were aged between 10 and 15 years old
20% (13,730) were aged 16 and over
Ethnicity
78% (53,030) of children looked after on 31st March 2013 were white
9% (6,090) were of mixed racial background
4% (2,620) were Asian or Asian British
7% (4,470) were Black or Black British
2% (1,390) were from other ethnic groups
1% (500) were other (refused or information not yet available)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2651980/Britains-missing-babies-How-Thousands-children-disappeared-council-care-two-years-one-infant-found.html

They show that 4,852 looked-after children were reported missing between January 2012 and December 2013, the Sunday Times reports.

There were 24,320 cases logged - as many disappeared more than once. The large majority were teenagers but dozens of those who disappeared were between four and nine years old.

The number includes a one-year-old girl missing since July 2013.