Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is a requirement for a local authority to be alerted if a child born outside the UK and looked-after under private fostering arrangements moves into that local authority area.

The Department for Education does not collect records of instances of children born outside the UK and looked-after under private fostering arrangements being referred to a local authority for care.

The Department publishes all of the information that it collects on private fostering arrangements in the statistical first release entitled “Notifications of private fostering arrangements in England: 2014”: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/notifications-of-private-fostering-arrangements-in-england-2014

There is also a guide on what information is collected on private fostering available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285616/2014-15_Private_Fostering_Guide_v1.1.pdf.

A local authority should be informed of private fostering arrangements in its area. Local authority guidance on private fostering, including on notification requirements, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-act-1989-private-fostering; and here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-minimum-standards-for-private-fostering

The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005 can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1533/made

There are currently no plans to review policy relating to private fostering arrangements.