Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) availability and (b) provision of children's residential care in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England.

Ofsted, as the independent regulator, inspects all children’s homes to ensure they meet the standards outlined in the Social Care Common Inspection Framework and the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations (2015). At 30 September 2018, 82% of homes in England were judged good or outstanding. Ofsted publishes statistics on local authority inspection outcomes which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-and-childrens-homes-in-england-inspections-and-outcomes-autumn-2018.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure there is sufficient accommodation available for the children that they look after. We are supporting local authorities in fulfilling this duty by providing funding as part of our £200 million Children’s Social Care Innovation programme to increase capacity and improve the commissioning of residential care placements. We are also establishing a residential care leadership board to drive improvements in the children’s residential care system in England.