Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision of specialist foster care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children across the UK.

The department recognise that local authorities across the country want to recruit more foster carers to provide loving homes for the children in their care, including for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The government is investing over £27 million in this parliament in a fostering recruitment and retention programme that will support local authorities to ensure that there are more foster carers available for the children who need them, including UASC. This will include a recruitment support hub which will work alongside a regional recruitment campaign to drive interest and enquiries in fostering. This may include specialist support and targeted campaigns to recruit specialist foster carers who are able to care for UASC. The department will work with regions to look at their local data to inform where efforts need to be targeted. This could include sibling groups, teenagers and UASC.

UASC are transferred to the care of local authorities through the National Transfer Scheme, ensuring their care is distributed fairly across the UK. Local authorities have a duty to accommodate all UASC who arrive in their area and these children are entitled to the same protections and support as any other looked-after child, which includes ensuring decisions about their care and accommodation, including where UASC are placed in foster care, are made with the best interests of each individual child.