Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of (a) trends in the level of (i) looked-after children and (ii) child protection plans and (b) the reasons for those trends.

We monitor the number of children looked after and the number of children with child protection plans on an ongoing basis. Figures on the number of looked after children at the 31 March in the last five years are published in Table A1 of statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

Figures on the number of children with child protection plans are published in Table A2 of the statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017-18’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

The government is working between now and the Spending Review 2019 to get a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services, including the factors that affect this demand, to help ensure that local authorities have the resources they need. The factors that affect these trends are cross-cutting and there is variation between local authorities. We are also working with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the fair funding review of relative needs and resources which is looking in more detail at levels of demand in local authorities.