The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report looking at the backgrounds of children entering care for the first time as teenagers, to understand their characteristics and experiences, and investigate what more can be done to identify these children and give them the help they need before they hit crisis. Analysis of a sample of 3,693 children in England who entered care for the first time aged 13 to 15 between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019 found that children faced disadvantages before they went into care including: two-thirds being eligible for free school meals; over two-thirds having special educational needs; and instability in school with one in ten being off school for at least one of the termly school censuses in the year before they entered care.