Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of high Personal Adviser caseloads on the frequency of contact with care leavers, the quality of pathway planning, and outcomes for care leavers.

Personal Advisers play an important role in providing practical and emotional support to care leavers and helping them prepare for adulthood. They have legal duties to keep in touch with the young people assigned to them and to work with the young person to develop a pathway plan which sets out the support the local authority will provide.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring their leaving care services have sufficient capacity to meet their statutory duties. The department does not currently collect national data on Personal Adviser workforce numbers, caseloads, vacancies or turnover.

The department recognises evidence that high caseloads and workforce instability can reduce the time Personal Advisers have to build sustained relationships with young people and provide effective support, including through pathway planning. We are therefore reviewing statutory guidance on leaving care services and Personal Adviser provision. This includes considering workforce capacity, caseloads, training and professional standards, and whether greater national consistency is needed.