Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to collect data on the number of parents who have had children removed from their care on multiple occasions.

Local authorities provide information on looked after children through the SSDA903 annual return, but this does not include information on the family circumstances of looked after children.

The department recognises the need to collect the right data about children’s social care services to help achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children and young people. That is why in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department committed to developing a children’s social care dashboard to support the new National Framework and a data strategy for children’s social care. Through these initiatives, the department will look at how data gaps could be addressed.

The consultation on the children’s social care dashboard concluded on 11 May 2023 and the department is currently analysing the results. The department will set out the consultation findings and more information about the children’s social care data strategy later in the year.