Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Claire Coutinho and James Morris

Monday 17th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

11. What steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

We know that we need more foster carers. That is a really important part of our plan, “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, to reform the care system. We are investing £27 million in recruitment and retention over the next two years. We have also increased the national minimum allowance for foster parents by 12.4% as part of those plans.

[James Morris]

Does my hon. Friend agree that foster carers can play a vital role in improving the health and wellbeing of a looked-after child, and that we need to encourage more people to go into foster caring by removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers so that we can build a network of foster carers across the country to improve the life chances of children in care?

[Claire Coutinho]

This is a big priority for me. Some children end up in children’s homes when they should have ended up with foster carers, so we need to recruit more. As I have said, we are making a significant investment in recruitment and retention so that we can keep some of our brilliant, experienced foster carers as well as attracting more into the system.