Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many looked after children were placed in boarding schools for the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by age.

The department does not hold this information centrally. The department does hold information on the number of looked after children placed in residential schools. However, it is not possible to distinguish between boarding schools and other residential schools, such as residential special schools. Therefore, we are not able to provide the information requested overall or by age.

Figures on the overall number of looked after children in England placed in residential schools were published in the annual statistics release titled ‘Children looked after, including adoptions, 2021-22’. On 31 March 2022, there were 110 looked after children in these residential schools, which includes boarding schools and residential special schools. These annual statistics are available in the attached table.