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<p>The department does not collect information specifically on the number of children
of offenders taken into care and the costs associated with this.</p><p>Information
is collected on the main category of need for which a child is looked-after, including
low income, family in acute stress or family dysfunction, but within those categories
offending by a parent is not identified separately as a reason for a child to be looked-after.
The main category of need is dependent on an individual child’s circumstances; not
solely a shared characteristic of parental offending. Children who are in need simply
because a parent has been imprisoned but the reason for imprisonment bears no relation
to the child being in need can be included as in need under the category of absent
parenting.</p><p>The cost of support and care placements varies across individual
children. Local authorities are required to submit their spending on children in care
to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, which is published
annually. We also publish information on the average weekly unit costs of looked after
children, by local authority, in the Local Authority Interactive Tool.</p>
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