Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost of extending 30 hours of funded childcare to children in foster care.

Foster carers play a vital role in supporting some of our most vulnerable children and we recognise the importance of effective support for the recruitment and retention of foster carers. However, we also need to consider whether it is possible for children in foster care to take up the additional hours in a way that promotes the best interests of the child so I would like to work with local councils, fostering service providers and others in the sector to ensure we get the balance right. We will aim to set out more detail in due course.