Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the likely causes leading to the decrease in fostering applications from 2015-16.

The Ofsted report, ‘Fostering in England 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016’, notes that the decrease in applications during this period may be explained by the fact that almost one quarter of agencies (105) did not submit data about their prospective households.

The National Fostering Stocktake is exploring the recruitment and retention of foster carers, including barriers to recruitment. The independent external reviewers will report to Ministers with recommendations at the end of the year.