Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new foster carers have been recruited in each local authority area in each of the last five years; and what measures her Department takes to monitor recruitment patterns.

Data on the number of new foster carer households approved during the year has been collected by Ofsted since 2011-12. The numbers that were recruited in 2011-12 for each local authority area are included in the attached table. Equivalent local authority figures for 2012-13 and 2013-14 are due to be published in January 2015, although national figures are already available for 2012-13. [1] Ofsted did not collect this data prior to 2011-12 and consequently the data for earlier years are not available.

The Department for Education is supporting local authorities and independent fostering agencies through initiatives to promote recruitment and retention and broaden the range of foster carers, in line with their local assessments of the demand for foster carers.

[1] www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/fostering-quality-assurance-and-data-forms-2012-13-first-statistical-release