Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are in the social care system; and how many of these are in (a) foster care, (b) regulated residential care and (c) unregulated residential care arrangements.

Information on the number of children in social care was published on 17 November in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions, 2022’, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions. The number of looked after children by placement type can be found in table A2 in the following release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/275cbaa4-5400-4920-86d1-08da7eccd8d3.

Residential care includes secure units, children’s homes, residential schools, and other residential settings. Unregulated accommodation refers to settings for looked after children that provide semi-independent living or independent living arrangements.