The Department for Education and Ministry of Justice referred to a joint data sharing exercise they carried out in 2020 to understand the educational and children’s social care background of children who have been cautioned or sentenced for an offence. The Ministry of Justice told us this had helped “shine a light” on the overlaps, such as between youth offending and those who have ever been persistently absent from school. The Department for Education added that this provided a good case for a targeted piece of work for those children that were affected by those overlapping needs.66