Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Foster Care Placements

Monday 17 July 2023 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • James Morris asked about steps to increase foster care placements.
  • The Department is investing 27 million to recruit and retain more foster carers.
  • The need to reduce bureaucratic barriers to encourage more people to become foster carers was highlighted.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 James Morris Con
Children & Families
Context

The issue of insufficient foster care placements in the UK, requiring more support for recruitment and retention.

Question

What steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements. I am concerned about the need for more foster carers to ensure that children are placed in stable homes.

Answer from Claire Coutinho

We know that we need more foster carers. That is a really important part of our plan, “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, to reform the care system. We are investing £27 million in recruitment and retention over the next two years. We have also increased the national minimum allowance for foster parents by 12.4% as part of those plans.

Answered
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Q2 James Morris Con
Children & Families
Context

The role of foster carers in improving the health and well-being of looked-after children, highlighting the need to remove bureaucratic barriers.

Question

Does my hon. Friend agree that foster carers can play a vital role in improving the health and wellbeing of a looked-after child, and that we need to encourage more people to go into foster caring by removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers so that we can build a network of foster carers across the country to improve the life chances of children in care?

Answer from Claire Coutinho

This is a big priority for me. Some children end up in children's homes when they should have ended up with foster carers, so we need to recruit more. As I have said, we are making a significant investment in recruitment and retention so that we can keep some of our brilliant, experienced foster carers as well as attracting more into the system.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific measures to remove bureaucratic barriers were not addressed.

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