Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31103, what the average local authority expenditure for each looked after child was in each year from 2011 to 2015.

Local authority funding for the provision of children’s services, including fostering services, is provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, local authorities are required to submit annual budget and outturn statements about their actual spending to the Secretary of State for Education.

The total local authority expenditure on looked after children, based upon the section 251 outturn statements, is set out below for each financial year between 2011 – 2015.

Total local authority expenditure per looked after child per week is also set out. This is given by total expenditure in each financial year divided by the total number of looked after children at the 31 March of each year. This is then divided by the number of weeks in a year to give a weekly figure.

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Source: Section 251 outturn statements and SSDA903

Note: Unit costs rounded to the neared £5.