Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their publication on 16 November of data on 'Children looked after in England including adoptions', which showed that more than 21 per cent of children in care had been moved more than 20 miles away from home, what steps they are taking to ensure that the number does not continue to rise in future years.

Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.

The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duties through £259 million capital funding over this Parliament. The funding for open residential placements, which is match-funded equally by the department and local authority investment, is expected to create 95 new children’s homes, providing 360 additional placements across England. Funding will also create 54 additional secure welfare placements and ten step-down placements through the delivery of two new build and one rebuild secure children’s home, which are scheduled to be completed in the next spending review period.

The department is investing over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This is in addition to the department establishing a kinship carer training offer and implementing family network support packages through the £45 million Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Networks pilot.

The department is also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the Regional Care Co-operatives will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.

While there are some circumstances that mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority to, for example, protect them from criminal or sexual exploitation, the department recognises that it is not ideal for children to be placed away from home and wants to reduce the number of out of area placements.