Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many covid-19 outbreaks have been reported in children’s residential social care settings in each of the last six months.

The department does not collect data on confirmed cases of COVID-19 outbreaks in children’s residential social care settings.

We have been working closely with local authorities and have announced more than £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced funding for local authorities to help them address pressures arising from COVID-19. That includes funding to support children’s social care settings to ensure they can continue to offer care for looked after children.

The government is committed to supporting the children’s social care workforce by ensuring that children’s homes, secure children’s homes and residential special schools have access to testing and free access to emergency personal protection equipment supplies for COVID-19 purposes, for use in line with department guidance.