Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times he has used his power to direct academies in (a) Edgbaston constituency, (b) the West Midlands and (c) Birmingham to accept looked-after children in each of the last five years.

The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities of all schools to prioritise looked-after children and previously looked-after children in their admissions criteria. Academies, trusts and local authorities work together at a local level to prioritise the admission of looked-after children. As a last resort, a local authority can request a direction for the academy to admit a looked after child from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, via the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

ESFA has collected and recorded data on such directions since March 2017. Since then, no such directions have been issued to an academy in the Edgbaston constituency. In the West Midlands as a whole, two such directions have been issued, one of which was in Birmingham.

Published guidance on academy admissions can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-admissions.