Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2017 to Question 112004, on academies: admissions, whether the Secretary of State declined any of the 14 requests in the academic year 2016-17 for direct admission of a looked-after child to an academy.

Where a local council considers that an academy will best meet the needs of a child, it can ask the academy to admit the child but has no powers to direct it to do so. The local council and the academy will usually come to an agreement, but if an academy refuses to admit a child, the local council can ask the Secretary of State to intervene.

Looked after children are amongst the most vulnerable in our society and the Secretary of State is committed to supporting them to have the best possible start in life. In 2016/17, there were no declined cases following the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s intervention on behalf of my Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State.