Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the response to the Urgent Question on 24 January 2023 on Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children, Official Report column 861, what assessment she has made of the capacity of local authorities to offer foster care placements to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children; and if she will make a statement.

The following lines have been provided by the Department for Education as they have lead responsibility for this policy area:

The Department for Education is committed to ensuring that all Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children accommodated in hotels by the Home Office are transferred through the National Transfer Scheme to the care of a local authority as quickly as possible. DfE is also committed to ensuring that capacity challenges in local authorities are addressed, including through our forthcoming response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

DfE knows that the right type of foster care may not always be available at the time or in the areas it is needed, and that there is significant variability across regions of England. We also know that it is particularly difficult to find suitable foster homes for some groups of children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The department recognises the urgency of action in placement sufficiency and will work with local authorities on recruiting more foster carers and on improving the conversion rate from expressions of interest to approval. This will include local recruitment campaigns that build towards a national programme, to help ensure children have access to the right placements at the right time.