Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has has with (i) the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, (ii) the Children's Commissioner, (iii) the Local Government Association and (iv) Adoption UK on waiting times for current and previously looked-after children for mental health services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Minister of Care met with the Children’s Commissioner’s office and other stakeholders at the Care Leaver Ministerial Board in October 2025, where they discussed mental health support and ways to improve health outcomes for both current and previously looked after children. Officials have also engaged with the Local Government Association on similar issues.
In addition, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health took part in a care leavers advisory group meeting in October 2024, where conversations focused on care leavers’ health, their mental health needs, and waiting times for services.
We have not engaged with Adoption UK on this particular issue.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce risks of suicide, self-harm and depression among care-experienced young people; and what plans she has to ensure continuity of mental health and wellbeing support for care-experienced young people beyond the age of 18.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to reviewing the shockingly high number of early deaths amongst care-experienced young people. As I stated in the House of Commons, at the beginning of the first ever National Care Leavers Month in November 2025, suicide and early death are, tragically, part of the care experience for too many. To start to solve a problem, we must first confront it.
As we progress this review, we will carefully consider how to improve the support that care leavers receive across a range of aspects of their lives, including mental and physical health, housing, education, employment and training, and relationships.
We are already taking action through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including placing a new duty on local authorities to provide Staying Close support to care leavers up to the age of 25, to help care leavers find and keep suitable accommodation and to access services relating to health and wellbeing, relationships, education, training and employment.
In addition, we are reviewing guidance on ‘Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children’ and extending it to cover care leavers up to age 25.
In December 2025, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and I announced that, in a boost for mental health support, the government will trial a 3-year pilot to make sure children in care have access to the support they need sooner. This will build on existing work across the country, bringing together social workers and NHS health professionals to work together to provide direct mental health support to children and families when they need it most.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that supported lodgings are fully integrated into the new Regional Care Cooperatives, and recognised as a core part of local sufficiency planning for older children in care and care leavers.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Regional Care Cooperatives will plan and commission all placements for looked-after children in the region, including placements for older children in care.
The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations ensure that supported lodgings schemes are now registered and regulated by Ofsted, and must meet the supported accommodation standards to operate legally. This enables supported lodging to form part of local sufficiency planning for older children and care leavers.
Local authorities and Regional Care Cooperatives can therefore identify where registered provision exists and commission supported lodgings with the added level of quality assurance that regulation provides via registration and regular inspection.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compatibility of the immigration, asylum and nationality function exemption from corporate parenting responsibilities at clauses 21 and 22 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill with the removal of the UK’s immigration reservation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to supporting all looked-after children and care leavers. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and public bodies. This includes a new duty on corporate parents to be alert to matters which could adversely affect the wellbeing of these children and young people, when exercising their functions.
The impacts of the policy on child’s rights and equalities have been assessed. The exemption of functions relating to immigration, asylum, nationality and customs only applies to the specific functions, not to young people themselves, so all looked-after children and care leavers, regardless of immigration status, will be in scope of support provided by corporate parents. Secretaries of State, including my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, will be required to consider the wellbeing of all looked-after children and care leavers when exercising functions other than those relating to asylum, immigration, nationality or customs.
The UK gives effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in immigration matters that affect children through Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009. This requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to make arrangements for ensuring that immigration, asylum and nationality functions are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of care leavers between the ages of 18 to 21 (1) die, (2) die by suicide, (3) have a mental health disorder, (4) have been sexually abused, and (5) are out of education, training or employment.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the number of care leavers is submitted to the department on an annual basis and is published in our statistical release, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.
The department publishes figures on the number of care leavers who have died in this age range in the methodology document accompanying this statistical release in the section ‘Data Quality and Uses’ (‘Care leavers aged 17, 18, 19, 20 or 21 years’). Information for 2022 to 2024 can be found in the attached table 1.
The department does not hold information centrally on the cause of death, the mental health of the care leaver or any details of past history of sexual abuse.
The total number of 18 to 21-year-old care leavers and the number and proportion of care leavers who are not in education, training and employment is shown in table 2.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the post- (a) 16 and (b) 18 support for young people raised in kinship.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is committed to ensuring more children are supported in a strong kinship care arrangement, avoiding care where possible, because we know that this leads to better outcomes.
We are legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to require local authorities to publish a local offer for children and families in kinship arrangements and requiring local authorities to offer family group decision making to families with children on the edge of care. These measures will ensure more children are supported within their family networks, and with kinship carers instead of entering care.
Some children in kinship care, such as those placed with kinship foster carers, are entitled to leaving care support if they have been in care for a minimum of 13 weeks, some of which was after they reached age 16, when they cease to be looked after. This includes support from a Personal Adviser up to the age of 25, and support to engage in education, employment or training, including a £2,000 bursary if they attend higher education.
This support will also include providing continuity of support and relationships when care leavers reach age 18 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme and investing in family-finding, mentoring and befriending programmes.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support estranged and care-experienced students in higher education.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department is committed to ensuring that care experienced and estranged people can access, participate and achieve in higher education (HE).
All looked-after children must have a personal education plan, which should set out the support needed to help realise their short and long-term academic outcomes. To ensure they have a greater chance of achieving the prior attainment needed to access HE, the government provides £14 million per year of additional funding to support looked-after children up to the age of 19. This is administered by virtual school heads and can be used on attainment raising activity such as tuition, mentoring or careers advice and other activities based on the individual needs of each looked-after child.
In addition to a statutory £2,000 Care Leavers in HE bursary, all HE providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) that intend to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Access and Participation Plan (APPs) approved by the OfS. These plans articulate how providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups. Care experienced and estranged students are classed as ‘at risk’ groups in the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register and providers should take account of inequalities they may experience when developing their APPs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that people with care experience have direct access to mental health services.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care are updating guidance on promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children to ensure children in care and care leavers receive necessary health services and mental health support. This guidance sets expectations for local authorities, health service commissioners, the NHS, and others to promote physical, emotional, and mental health, including early intervention.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill aims to improve access to health services by enhancing information sharing between agencies and considering the needs of looked-after children. Measures include improving data sharing with a Single Unique Identifier and introducing new corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and public bodies, to create a culture of support and break down barriers to good outcomes. Finally, the government will expand Mental Health Support Teams in schools to provide early support for young people.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the disparities in educational outcomes for children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.
Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.
The government recognises the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.
The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.
Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve educational outcomes for children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.
Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.
The government recognises the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.
The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.
Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.