Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's response to the consultation on Looked-after children: improving permanence, will include undertaking to strengthen regulations to provide that a robust assessment takes place to ensure that children only return home from care when it is safe to do so.

The Improving Permanence for Looked-after Children consultation included proposals to amend the processes local authorities must undertake when children return home from care.

Any reforms must strike the right balance between clarity in the statutory framework and professional judgement on the part of social workers and local authorities in meeting the needs of children. Some respondents questioned how these proposals would fit with existing statutory guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013. The Government is grateful for these comments and is looking again at some of the proposals. Department for Education officials have convened a meeting of the relevant Expert Group on 9 September to discuss these issues.