Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the welfare of young people in unregulated accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government is committed to ensuring that vulnerable children and young people remain protected. Local authorities, social workers and those providing support and care for our most vulnerable children and young people deserve our immense gratitude.

Local authorities have the key day-to-day responsibility for delivery of children’s social care. They are continuing to prioritise their responsibilities towards vulnerable children and young people, including those in independent and semi-independent provision. While we will continue to work with local authorities and providers of this provision to ensure that placements remain as stable as possible during this time, we continue to consult on new measures to improve the quality of this provision and ban the placement of under 16s, given that this provision does not deliver care and therefore cannot be appropriate for a child of this age.

We are also working with those delivering services on the frontline to ensure that the support needed for vulnerable children and young people continues. The government has provided £3.2 billion of additional funding to support local authorities to address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including for delivering children’s social care.