Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children leaving care to return home have subsequently returned to care in each local authority in each of the last five years.

The Department does not routinely publish data on the annual number of children who have returned home and later re-entered care.

Addressing this issue remains a Government priority. In September 2013, the Department published the ‘Improving permanence for looked-after children’ data pack, which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/perm-data-13. This included information on the numbers of children who had returned home in the year 2006-7 and had re-entered care or accommodation by 2012. The purpose of the pack was to encourage local authorities to review their systems for returning children home, to improve their rate of success, and to inform decision-making.

The changes made to the statutory framework in April 2015 ensure a sharper focus on safe and successful reunification, where this is the best route to permanence. We have also provided funding for two research projects. These projects will research how we can improve support for children returning home and test a specific reunification framework.

The findings from that research will be published later this year. To inform these projects, the Department has shared analysis with the research teams on return home and re-entry to care or accommodation. We are considering the benefits of publishing this information more widely and will continue to work with the sector.