Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of creating a national fostering strategy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Foster care is one of my top priorities as Minister. The department is already investing £25 million of transformation funding for foster care, which is additional to the £15 million announced at the Autumn Budget covering the 2025/26 financial year. We are already working with over 60% of local authorities in England to transform the way they recruit and retain foster carers.
However, we know we need to go further and faster with recruiting and retaining more carers to create a system which provides the best possible home for children in care.
The department will be setting out a comprehensive package of measures to improve recruitment and retention, increase the number of foster carers, and expand the types of foster care available to meet children's needs. These changes will bring meaningful benefits to thousands of fostered children. We will set out more detail on our planned investments and reforms for fostering in due course.