Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the staying put policy.

The department engages regularly with the sector on policy for care leavers, including on Staying Put and funding for the scheme.

The strategy for care leavers, ‘Keep on Caring’, was published in July 2016. It confirmed that new burdens funding would continue to be paid to local authorities through to the end of this Parliament, using the amount allocated in the period 2016 to 2017 of £22.2 million as the baseline, up-rated each year by 2% to take account of inflation.

In the period 2017 to 2018, a further £22.85m was provided. This increased to £23.3 million in the period 2018 to 2019. This will increase again to £23.77 million in the period 2019 to 2020. Funding beyond March 2020 will be subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.