Foster Care: Care Leavers
(asked on 24th January 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Government's guidance entitled Staying put: arrangements for care leavers aged 18 years and above, what the annual cost to the public purse is of Staying put.
Since its introduction in May 2014, the department has provided over £90 million in funding to local authorities to implement Staying Put, and the department has also committed to provide a further £23.77m in 2019/20. The funding breakdown for each year is set out in the table below:
2014/15 | £7.4 million |
2015/16 | £14.8 million |
2016/17 | £22.2 million |
2017/18 | £22.85 million |
2018/19 | £23.3 million |
2019/20 | £23.77 million |
Total | £114.32 million |
Decisions on funding beyond March 2020 will be subject to the outcome of the next Spending Review.
The department collects information on the amount that local authorities spend on children’s social care overall, but this does not identify expenditure on Staying Put separately, so DfE does not hold the information necessary to estimate the total cost of Staying Put to the public purse.