Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of parent and child foster placements; and what steps he plans to take to recruit and train more foster carers in those fostering arrangements.

The government is committed to ensuring that children and young people in the care system have the best possible outcomes. Foster carers play an essential role in this by providing stable, loving homes for some of our most vulnerable children.

The department continues to prioritise supporting local authorities and foster carers to provide stable and loving foster homes. The department is investing in different approaches to help local authorities provide additional foster care places, including trialling different ways to plan and commission placements.

Local authorities have a duty to ensure they have sufficient placements to meet the needs of the looked after children in their area, this includes parent and child foster placements.

The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011, and the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services, clearly set out the expectation that support and training is made available to foster carers to assist them in meeting the specific needs of the children they are caring for or are expected to care for. This would include ensuring that foster carers have the knowledge and skills required to support looked after children in a parent and child foster placement.

When arrangements are made for a parent and child to live together with foster parents the placing authority and the fostering service are responsible for any additional support and training that their foster carers may need.