Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what strategy her Department has to find school places for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Identifying an appropriate school place for looked after children, including unaccompanied asylum seeking children, rests with the local authority responsible for them. Statutory Guidance for local authorities on ‘promoting the education of looked after children’ is clear that, in arranging a school placement, the child’s social worker and local authority’s Virtual School Head should seek the school or other education setting best suited to the child’s needs.

The School Admissions Code, which sets out the requirements for admitting children to schools, supports this objective by ensuring looked after children have top priority in school admissions.