Children in Care

(asked on 1st February 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children who have been returned to care after adoption in England and Wales in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Edward Timpson Portrait
Edward Timpson
This question was answered on 6th February 2017

The Government has invested significantly in supporting adoptive parents, most substantially through the launch of the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) in May 2015.

This is playing an important role in reshaping the provision and availability of local support so that children and families can receive the support they need to avoid adoption breakdown. In April 2016 the Fund’s scope was extended to cover children being cared for under a Special Guardianship Order and children living in England who were adopted from countries other than England (known as overseas and inter-country adoptions)

To date, over 12,500 families have received over £39m of therapeutic support through the Fund. Funding for the Adoption Support Fund will increase by over 20% for 2017-18 to £28m.

National statistics on numbers of children in England starting to be looked after who had a previous permanence arrangement are available at the bottom of Table C1 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016.

The Department collects information on looked after children from local authorities in England only. Figures on children starting to be looked after by previous permanence arrangements was first published for the 2013-14 financial year.

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