Children: Social Services

(asked on 2nd February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the levels of (a) suicide and (b) attempted suicide of parents who have had their children permanently removed from their care.


Answered by
Claire Coutinho Portrait
Claire Coutinho
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
This question was answered on 10th February 2023

Every suicide is a tragedy. Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people, and adults, including suicide prevention, is a government priority.

We want children to grow up in loving, safe and stable families, where they can flourish. One of the aims of our reform programme across children’s social care, as set out in ‘Stable Homes, Build on Love’ is to keep more children safely with their families where this is possible. Our Family Help reforms are central to delivering this and will provide effective and meaningful support for families. It will feature multi-disciplinary teams that work with their local partners to meet the whole needs of a family.

The department does not hold this information centrally. Local authorities provide information on looked after children through the SSDA903 annual return, however, this does not include information on the family circumstances of looked after children.

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