Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the merits of expanding local authority secure accommodation.

Local authorities are provided with £40 million of funding over the spending review period through a capital grants programme in order to improve facilities at secure children’s home and enable some homes to increase their capacity. We established and continue to fund the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit to help plan and coordinate placements, based on individual needs, and to look at capacity issues.

We are building on the data gathered by the Unit and Sir Martin Narey’s recommendations on secure provision to consider options for central commissioning of secure placements. In addition, we will be offering funding to local and combined authorities to commission feasibility studies into opening new secure provision to increase available capacity. We have also established a Residential Care Leadership Board in order to drive forward system and practice change.