Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to local authorities to help ensure they have a sufficient number of foster carers to meet local demand.

Foster care is one of my top priorities as Minister. The department is already investing £25 million of transformation funding for foster care, which is additional to the £15 million announced at the Autumn Budget covering the 2025/26 financial year. We are already working with over 60% of local authorities in England to transform the way they recruit and retain foster carers. The Spending Review also set aside funding for renovating and extending foster care homes.

However, we know we need to go further and faster with recruiting and retaining more carers and we will set out more detail on our planned investments and reforms for fostering in due course.