Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £30 million programme of SAFE taskforces will be allocated to be spent on (a) looked after children and (b) all other children.

Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (SAFE) Taskforces will be led by mainstream schools in serious violence hotspots to support those most vulnerable to serious violence to re-engage with their education.

At a national level, 0.7% of pupils in state-funded secondary schools were looked after at any point in academic year 2018/19. We know that children who are looked after are more likely to enter the youth justice system. For example, between 6% and 8% of children aged 10-17 years in care enter the youth justice system, more than double the percentage of children in the general population. Each SAFE Taskforce will undertake quantitative and qualitative assessments of their area’s own specific local needs, to inform which cohorts they will focus on. This assessment will include information such as the social care background of pupils.