Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of foster parents to accept unaccompanied young asylum seekers.

The Government is committed to ensuring that every looked after child receives the high quality care they need in a placement that is suitable for them. We are working with partners to increase the number of suitable placements for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Local authorities may apply for funding through the £140m Controlling Migration Fund to support capacity building including the recruitment, approval and training of foster carers. In addition, we are funding the Refugee Council and ECPAT to deliver training for foster carers and support workers across the country who are not experienced in working with unaccompanied asylum seeking or refugee children. We have also committed to evaluate the need for any additional training required by foster carers looking after unaccompanied children as part of our wider safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children, which will be published by 1 May 2017.