Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is taking steps to help ensure children in care are not moved away from where they were born.

Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to ensure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.

The department recognises that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care to live in. We want to reduce out of area placements, but sometimes circumstances mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority.

In response to the urgent calls from the Competition and Markets Authority and the Care Review to transform the way care is provided to children, the government is working to drive forward improvements at a national, regional, and local level to increase sufficiency and improve standards of care and regulations.

By 2027, we will see an increase in the availability of high-quality, stable, and loving homes for every child in care local to where they are from. To achieve this, we are supporting local authorities to increase care placements and ensure they meet children’s needs, with £259 million capital funding for secure and open children’s homes.

The department is also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) to plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.

We are also seeking to rebalance the market through investing in foster care. The department has pledged to invest over £27 million over the next two years to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it.