Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the funding for secure children's homes will be ring-fenced to maintain places.

Secure children’s homes (SCHs) are children’s homes that provide a locked environment and restrict a young person’s liberty. They provide care and accommodation to children and young people who have been placed there on welfare grounds by local authorities and the courts. They also accommodate and care for children and young people who have been detained or sentenced by the Youth Justice Board (YJB), and those who have been remanded to secure local authority accommodation.

Funding for local authorities to purchase welfare beds is included in the Revenue Support Grant given to local authorities and is not ring-fenced, in line with our general policy to increase the control that local authorities have over their budgets to meet local needs.

The YJB has a series of block-bed contracts with nine SCHs across England and Wales. A recent tendering exercise let a number of new two-year contracts.

The latest statistics on SCHs published on 4 June 2014 show that there were 298 approved places in England and Wales at 31 March 2014, an extra two places since 31 March 2013. These statistics are available online:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/317365/SFR14-2014_Text.pdf