Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the consistency in usage of fostering for adoption placements by local authorities.

The national foster carer recruitment campaign focuses on encouraging people to consider fostering who may not otherwise have thought about it. The campaign does not include specific steps aimed at promoting fostering for adoption, but it has engaged people with lived experience, including those who have fostered and gone on to adopt, to help inform its messaging.

Local authorities and fostering hubs have been at the heart of developing the national campaign. We have worked closely with them to strike the right balance between consistent national messaging and the flexibility to tailor local activity to their communities, including in relation to fostering for adoption. The national campaign page is available at: https://fostering.campaign.gov.uk/.

The department continues to work with the sector to ensure prospective foster carers understand the full range of fostering options available, including fostering for adoption, as part of its wider support for the fostering system.

Through Adoption England, we are delivering targeted activity to promote and improve Early Permanence practice. This includes the You Can Adopt campaign, which features stories of families who have adopted through early permanence.