Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was spent from the public purse on private sector provision of children’s social care in each year since 2010.

The department publishes data on local authority spend on looked after children. The latest data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure#explore-data-and-files.

The attached table sets out the amount spent by local authorities on private sector provision for looked after children between 2012 and 2023. Prior to 2012, the methodology for this data set was different and comparisons should not be made. As such, data from previous years has not been provided as part of the answer.