Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-03-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department issues guidance to local authorities on how best to make use of unutilized foster carers.
Mr Edward Timpson
The Department for Education has not issued guidance to local authorities on how best to make use of unutilised foster carers. Local authorities are required, under Section 22G of the Children Act 1989, to take steps that secure, so far as reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation within the authority’s area that meets the needs of children that the local authority is looking after, and whose circumstances are such that it would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with accommodation that is in the local authority’s area (‘the sufficiency duty’).
Since April 2013 the Department has been working with consortia of local authorities and sector partners to:
- develop and test innovative solutions for the recruitment and retention of foster carers
- identify gaps in the capacity of the foster carer workforce
- develop effective strategies for recruiting and retaining foster carers.
We will be sharing the lessons learned and disseminating any tools that have been developed during the project more widely following testing.
