Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help secure school places for children without guardians.

Children without guardians are among the most vulnerable in our society. The department knows that the vast majority of children taken into local authority care have experienced abuse or neglect and therefore require additional support. Wherever possible, they should be admitted to the school which is best able to meet their needs.

For this reason, school admission authorities have been required to give looked after children highest priority in their admission arrangements since 2007, and these children should be placed in good or outstanding schools.

The School Admissions Code also requires each local authority to have a Fair Access Protocol in place to ensure that any unplaced and vulnerable children are allocated a school place as quickly as possible. It also gives local authorities the power to direct the admission authority for any maintained school in England (other than a school for which they are the admissions authority) to admit a child who is looked after by the local authority, even when the school is full.