Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing match-funding for incentive payments to Stepladder PLUS.

The department wants to ensure that children leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships, and are engaged in education, employment and training.

We recognise the importance of financial skills, such as those provided through the Stepladder Plus programme, in achieving this aim. The department currently supports the use of this programme through its contract, for the provision of Junior ISA savings accounts to children in care, with the Share Foundation. We do not currently have any plans to assess the merits of match-funding.