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Should V3 and V4 (short term breaks) children be included in List 8 (LAC/CLA) of the Annex A lists for ChAT?
We have had conflicting messages on this including the Ofsted defined code list including these codes, Ofsted telling us not to include them, different software suppliers doing different things in their standard Annex A reports, etc.
This is a timely question as we've just had a long conversation about this with most of the various stakeholders.
The short answer is that the codes are included in the list for the sake of completeness, and so that, should an LA enter those records into List 8, Ofsted can filter them out. Ofsted don't expect to see those cases on List 8.
The rationale for not including is to be consistent with the DfE approach of excluding children looked after under a series of short term placement from statistics. The Department for Education state in their guidance that this is as a concession to ease the burden of administration involved with a child, which Ofsted then follows (also worth noting that the V3/V4 children would normally still be expected on List 6 as CIN despite this).