Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether (a) her Department and (b) each of its arms length bodies offers employees who are foster carers (i) flexible working, (ii) paid time off for (A) training and (B) settling a new child into their home and (iii) other support.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has a number of policies which support employees who are foster carers and, subject to line manager approval, include:

• A dedicated fostering employee policy where employees may be granted 5 days paid leave and up to 15 days unpaid leave. This overall entitlement can be taken as followed:

• Up to 5 days paid leave during assessment for approval processes;

• Up to 5 days unpaid leave during the approval process or when a child is in placement (including training and settling in);

• Up to 10 days unpaid leave at the start of a planned permanent placement.

• Note: staff who are fostering to adopt also have a statutory right to request up to 5 days paid special leave to attend pre-adoption appointments.

• Flexible Working arrangements, such as flexi-time or compressed hours. All employees have a statutory right to request flexible working which applies from the first day of employment. Employees have a statutory right to make two flexible working requests in a 12 month period.

• Unpaid and/or paid special leave, including 5 days paid leave for both a domestic emergency and for emergency dependent leave.

Our arm’s length bodies are independent employers and are responsible for implementing their own internal employee policies for foster carers, in addition to the statutory right for employees who meet qualifying criteria to request flexible working arrangements and emergency leave related to a dependent.