Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to help increase the number of foster carers; and how she assesses the effectiveness of initiatives to do so.

The department is working with local authorities to recruit more foster carers. This will include local recruitment campaigns that build towards a national programme, to help ensure children have access to the right placements at the right time. The department is working through how we will assess our future initiatives.