Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2015 to Question 220175, for what reasons her Department has decided not to take any proactive steps to reduce the disparity between local authorities in meeting the six-week regulation for visits of children within the first year of a private fostering arrangement.

As with other aspects of local authority performance, private fostering arrangements are inspected by Ofsted. They will take performance in this area into account in determining overall inspection ratings. The Department for Education intervenes robustly on the back of such judgements.