PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Children in Care (3 November 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the statistical release Information on looked-after children at both national and local authority levels for the financial year 2015-16, table A2, how many of the 8,140 looked-after children who were cared for in a friends and family foster placement on 31 March 2016 had also been in (a) an unrelated foster placement, (b) another family and friends care placement, (c) a children's home or (d) other provision for looked-after children.

Asked by:
Helen Hayes (Labour)

There were 8,140 looked after children in a friends and family foster placement at 31 March 2016. The number and percentage of these children that had experienced an earlier looked after placement of the types listed below are given in the following table.

Looked after children in a friends and family foster placement at 31 March 2016[1]
	Number[2]	Percentage
Who had previously been in a foster placement not with friends or family	3,140	39%
Who had previously been in a friends and family foster placement[3]	1,740	21%
Who had previously been in a children’s home, secure unit or hostel	130	2%
Who had previously been looked after in any other placement	940	12%

This information is not currently available at local authority level.

[1] Includes placements in a previous period of care, unless the child had been under the care of a different local authority.

[2] Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

[3] Information is given on the number and percentage of children who had previously had another friends and family foster placement. It is not possible to state whether the placement was with a different family/friend to the placement at 31 March 2016. This figure will include instances of children who ended a friends and family foster placement and then returned to that placement at a later date.

Answered by:
Edward Timpson (Conservative)
8 November 2016