Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle markets failures of residential children placements.

In March 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority launched a market study examining the lack of availability and increasing costs in children’s social care provision. Their final report, published on 10 March 2022, gives a comprehensive overview of how the market functions and identifies areas for improvement.

The department is studying the report’s recommendations alongside the recommendations of the Independent Review into Children’s Social Care. In our initial response, the department announced research into the children’s home workforce and that we would engage with the sector to develop proposals to improve oversight of the children’s social care market. The department will publish a detailed implementation strategy later this year.

In the meantime, the department has announced £259 million of capital funding over the next Parliament. This is to address concerns in the children’s homes market and create a market that is more attuned to the needs of local children. This builds on work that has already started to maintain capacity and expand provision in existing secure children’s homes, alongside new capital funding to help councils create new children’s homes places.