Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review current practices for commissioning of foster care services.

The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recommended that the government introduces a network of Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs) to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements in fostering, children’s homes and secure homes on a regional basis. The department has committed to trialling this approach with two RCC pathfinders to build an evidence base before future rollout.

The department’s long-term vision is that RCCs will help improve commissioning and sufficiency, and better enable local authorities to meet the needs of the children in their care, whilst reforming foster parent recruitment and retention.

In addition, the department is investing £36 million to deliver a fostering and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain existing foster carers. Darlington local authority, as part of the North East pathfinder, were one of the first local authorities to take part in this programme.