Children and families in Portsmouth

What this answers: Before the latest release, how many children did the council look after per 10,000 children?

Definition: Children looked after by the council on 31 March of each year, per 10,000 children aged under 18. Includes children in foster care, children's homes, placed with parents or relatives, and unaccompanied children seeking asylum. Rate as published by DfE.

• A higher rate is not on its own a sign of better or worse services. It reflects need, how early families are helped, local practice and court decisions.
• Unaccompanied children seeking asylum are included; their numbers can move a council's rate.
• These years come from DfE's 2022 release, which used older population estimates. Do not join them to the latest series as one line.
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Series breaks: 2021: The latest DfE release starts here; this earlier-release series stops the year before.

Department for Education: DfE, Children looked after in England including adoptions: CLA numbers and rates per 10,000 children aged under 18 years - LA ↗ · Reporting year 2022 (published 2022-11-17) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: How many children were getting help from council children's social care as 'children in need' on 31 March, per 10,000 children?

Definition: A child in need is a child the council has assessed as needing its services to be safe, healthy or to develop well. It includes children in care and children on child protection plans. Rate computed by Pompey Counts from DfE's count of children on 31 March and the ONS mid-year population of children aged 0 to 17 that DfE publishes in the same release, using the previous mid-year (for example, 2025 uses mid-2024), which is how DfE calculates its own national rate. The script checks the method reproduces every published national rate.

• Rates reflect how councils decide who needs support as well as how much need there is.
• Population source: ONS mid-year population estimates (same release, SHA-256 46d7e5e4fcb8…).
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Department for Education: DfE, Children in need: B1 Children in need and episodes of need by local authority ↗ · Reporting year 2025 (published 2025-10-30) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: How many children were on a child protection plan on 31 March, per 10,000 children?

Definition: A child protection plan is made when a child protection conference decides a child is at risk of significant harm. Rate computed by Pompey Counts from DfE's count of children on 31 March and the ONS mid-year population of children aged 0 to 17 that DfE publishes in the same release, using the previous mid-year (for example, 2025 uses mid-2024), which is how DfE calculates its own national rate. The script checks the method reproduces every published national rate.

• Small numbers: in Portsmouth, a change of a few dozen children moves the rate by several points.
• Rates reflect local practice and thresholds as well as risk.
• Population source: ONS mid-year population estimates (same release, SHA-256 46d7e5e4fcb8…).
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Department for Education: DfE, Children in need: D1 Child Protection Plans by local authority ↗ · Reporting year 2025 (published 2025-10-30) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: Of young people aged 19 to 21 who left the council's care, what share were in education, employment or training around their birthday?

Definition: Young people who were looked after for at least 13 weeks after their 14th birthday, including some time after turning 16, whose main activity around their birthday in the year to 31 March was education, employment or training. Percentage as published by DfE (whole numbers).

• The rest are not in education, work or training, or the council does not know their activity. A fall in 'not known' can change this share without any change in what young people are doing.
• Portsmouth's figures cover about 200 young people, so the share can move by several points from year to year.
• Raw file is 3.3 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Department for Education: DfE, Children looked after in England including adoptions: Care leavers (now 17-21 years) - activity - by local authority ↗ · Reporting year 2025 (published 2025-11-26) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: What share of children under 16 live in families on relatively low income, before rent or mortgage costs are taken off?

Definition: Children aged under 16 in families whose equivalised household income before housing costs is below 60% of the UK median for that year (relative low income), from DWP's local area statistics. FYE means financial year ending (FYE 2025 = April 2024 to March 2025). England is derived from the English regions in the same table.

• Counts only families who claimed Child Benefit and at least one other benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit) during the year, then calibrated to the national Households Below Average Income survey total. So it is an official statistic built from benefit records, not a survey of every family.
• Rates divide by mid-year population estimates for children under 16; DWP warns some local percentages should be read with care.
• DWP revised the back series in this release. Years before FYE 2022 are not available on a consistent basis in the published tables, so they are not shown.
• Raw workbook is 3.2 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• Ward figures use May 2024 ward boundaries and older ward population estimates; DWP advises care with ward percentages.
• Checked against DWP Stat-Xplore (BHC relative low income, children aged 0 to 15, one place per query): Stat-Xplore holds the same years (FYE 2022 to FYE 2025) and its counts match the published tables for all 8 places and years to within 3 children (largest gap: England FYE 2025, 2,130,679 vs 2,130,682); Stat-Xplore applies its own disclosure control, so tiny differences are expected. It has no earlier years on this basis, so nothing is joined.

Series breaks: FYE 2022: Start of DWP's revised series (March 2026). Neither the published tables nor Stat-Xplore hold revised figures for earlier years; the earlier release (FYE 2015 to 2024, old method) is a separate measure.

Department for Work and Pensions: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2022 to 2025 ↗ · Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics, United Kingdom, financial years ending (FYE) 2022 to 2025 (published 2026-03-26) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: How did the share of children under 16 in low-income families change from 2014/15 to 2023/24, on the basis DWP used until March 2025?

Definition: Children aged under 16 in families whose equivalised income before housing costs is below 60% of the UK median (relative low income), from DWP's March 2025 local area release covering FYE 2015 to FYE 2024. This is the release before DWP revised its method in March 2026. England is derived from the English regions in the same table.

• This is an older release on an earlier method. DWP's March 2026 release revised every year it covers and starts at FYE 2022; those revised figures are the main measure above.
• Do not join this line to the revised line, or compare a year here with a year there: for the years both releases cover they give different figures (for example South East FYE 2022: 219,646 children here, 210,530 in the revised release).
• DWP has not published revised figures for FYE 2015 to 2021: the GOV.UK tables and Stat-Xplore both hold only FYE 2022 onwards on the new basis (Stat-Xplore checked by this script on each run).
• Rates use the population estimates available in early 2025; for wards DWP used mid-2022 estimates as a proxy for FYE 2024, and wards are on May 2022 boundaries.
• Counts only families who claimed Child Benefit and at least one other benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit), calibrated to the national survey total.
• Raw workbook is 3.4 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.

Series breaks: FYE 2024: Series ends FYE 2024; DWP replaced this release in March 2026 with a revised series from FYE 2022 (separate measure).

Department for Work and Pensions: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2024 ↗ · Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics, United Kingdom, financial years ending (FYE) 2015 to 2024 (published 2025-03-27); superseded by the March 2026 release · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: What share of children under 16 live in families on relatively low income once rent or mortgage costs are paid?

Definition: As the before-housing-costs measure, but with housing costs deducted from income first. DWP first published this as an official local statistic in March 2026, for FYE 2024 onwards. England is derived from the English regions in the same table.

• Counts only families who claimed Child Benefit and at least one other benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit) during the year, then calibrated to the national Households Below Average Income survey total. So it is an official statistic built from benefit records, not a survey of every family.
• Rates divide by mid-year population estimates for children under 16; DWP warns some local percentages should be read with care.
• DWP revised the back series in this release. Years before FYE 2022 are not available on a consistent basis in the published tables, so they are not shown.
• Raw workbook is 3.2 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• DWP publishes this only from FYE 2024 because too many families had unknown housing costs before then.
• Other after-housing-costs local estimates (for example the End Child Poverty Coalition's, produced by Loughborough University) use a different model and are not official statistics; do not compare them with these figures.

Series breaks: FYE 2024: First year DWP publishes after-housing-costs local figures.

Department for Work and Pensions: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2022 to 2025 ↗ · Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics, United Kingdom, financial years ending (FYE) 2022 to 2025 (published 2026-03-26) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: What share of pupils at schools in the city were eligible for free school meals at the January school census?

Definition: Pupils known to be eligible for free school meals on census day in January, as a share of all pupils in state-funded nursery, primary, secondary, special and alternative provision schools and non-maintained special schools in the council area (where the school is, not where the pupil lives). This is eligibility, not whether the meal was taken.

• Since April 2018, pupils who become eligible keep eligibility while Universal Credit is rolled out, even if family income rises. DfE says this protection is the main reason the share keeps rising, so the rise is not only a rise in poverty.
• From the 2026/27 school year, eligibility is being extended; DfE says the January 2026 figures do not reflect the new rules.
• Raw file is 20 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Series breaks: 2018/19: Universal Credit transitional protection started on 1 April 2018. The definition did not change, but the share rises faster from here partly because fewer pupils leave eligibility.

Department for Education: DfE, Schools, pupils and their characteristics: Pupil characteristics - number of pupils by fsm eligibility ↗ · Academic year 2025/26 (published 2026-06-04) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: What share of pupil enrolments missed 50% or more of possible sessions across the academic year?

Definition: Pupil enrolments aged 5 to 15 who missed 50% or more of their possible sessions across the full academic year, as a share of enrolments in state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools (all phases combined, 'Total'). Council area of the school, not where the pupil lives. Absence of any kind counts, authorised or unauthorised.

• No full-year figures were published for 2019/20. Any change that spans that year is across a gap in the series, not a one-year change.
• 2020/21 and 2021/22 were affected by the pandemic and its restrictions, so they are not a normal baseline.
• These figures count enrolments, not children: a pupil with more than one enrolment can appear more than once. Absence does not say why a child was away.
• Raw file is 6 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Series breaks: 2019/20: No full-year figures were published.

Department for Education: DfE, Pupil absence in schools in England: Absence rates by geographic level ↗ · Academic year 2024/25 (published 2026-03-26) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: What share of children reached the expected level in the main areas of early learning by the end of their Reception year (age 5)?

Definition: Children at the expected level in the 12 early learning goals for communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, literacy and mathematics, as assessed by teachers at the end of Reception (the early years foundation stage profile). Council area of the school or setting.

• This is a teacher assessment, not a test.
• DfE says results from 2021/22 are not directly comparable with earlier years because the profile changed significantly in 2021.
• Raw file is 25 MB, so it is identified by URL and SHA-256 rather than kept.
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Series breaks: 2021/22: The early years foundation stage profile was reformed in September 2021. Results before 2021/22 (last collected 2018/19; none in 2019/20 or 2020/21) are on a different basis and are not shown.

Department for Education: DfE, Early years foundation stage profile results: 1 Headline measures by child characteristics ↗ · Academic year 2025/26 (published 2026-10-22) · retrieved 2026-11-11

What this answers: How many 10 to 17 year olds living here received their first youth caution or conviction in the year, per 100,000 young people of that age?

Definition: Rate of 10 to 17 year olds receiving their first reprimand, warning or conviction per 100,000 population. Numerator from the Ministry of Justice (Police National Computer), denominator ONS mid-year population (previous year), by council area of residence, as published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. 95% confidence limits as published.

• Counts are estimates: young people are placed in a council area from the home postcode on the Police National Computer, or by a model where none is recorded, so counts are not whole numbers.
• Fewer first-time entrants can reflect more out-of-court diversion and police practice as well as less offending.
• South East figures come from the Fingertips regional file (SHA-256 30e08bc430db…).
• Other comparison cities not shown: Chichester is part of West Sussex; this measure is only published for the whole county. Winchester is part of Hampshire; this measure is only published for the whole county.. A county figure is never shown in place of a city.

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips), from Ministry of Justice data: Fingertips indicator 10401: First time entrants to the youth justice system ↗ · Fingertips data updated 11/08/2026 · retrieved 2026-11-11