Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual cost is of the Government's policy Staying put, arrangements for care leavers aged 18 and above to stay on with former foster carers.

In the year ending 31 March 2016, there were 1,230 care leavers who had ceased to be looked after from a foster placement on their 18th birthday and were still living with their former foster carers aged 19 or 20.

Experimental statistics¹ show that in the year ending 31 March 2016 there were 1,440 similar care leavers aged 18 who were living with former foster carers.

These figures and related information can be found in Tables F1b and F1d in the statistical first release Children looked after in England including adoption: 2015 to 2016 at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016.

The Department for Education is providing £22.85m to local authorities to fund Staying Put arrangements during 2017-18. The new care leaver strategy, Keep on Caring, published in July 2016 at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-on-caring-supporting-young-people-from-care-to-independence, confirmed that we will continue to provide funding to local authorities to implement Staying Put through to 2019-20.

1. Information on 18 year old care leavers was collected for the first time in 2016. Analysis suggests that some local authorities have not provided data for around 11% of all 18 year olds. Therefore this data has been published as experimental statistics and should be treated with caution.