Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £259 million announced for children's homes in the Autumn 2021 Spending Review has been released to local authorities; and if he will publish a list of those authorities with the allocation of funds provided to each.

The Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 (SR21) announced £259 million of funding over the SR21 period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes.

Following this, the department launched two waves of bidding rounds for local authorities to submit applications for this funding for both open and secure children’s homes. The department has allocated £112 million of this funding to local authorities throughout England and are working with them to deliver projects by March 2025. Of this, £17 million has been allocated to open children home projects and £95 million to secure children’s home projects, including plans to build two new secure children’s homes in London and the West Midlands. The remaining funding will be allocated to open and secure children’s homes projects this financial year. The department will share final award details when plans for this have been agreed and successful local authorities have been notified.