Foster Care

Department for Education written question – answered at on 22 December 2020.

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Photo of Damian Hinds Damian Hinds Conservative, East Hampshire

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment he has made of trends in the number of people (a) expressing an interest in foster parenting and (b) completing the foster parent application process in the last five years.

Photo of Vicky Ford Vicky Ford The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education

The Department for Education does not collect this data. This data is currently captured by Ofsted.

Ofsted have seen an increase in enquires to independent fostering agencies (IFA) between the financial year 2015-2019, but in the same period enquiries have decreased for local authorities. At the end of March 2020, we have seen an increase in applications compared to 2015. However, application rates have remained fairly static over the past 2 years.

Ofsted estimate that there were around 137,200 initial enquiries from prospective fostering households in the year ending 31 March 2020. This was an increase of around 7% compared to the financial year 2018 to 2019. The reported figure of 135,075, from the data provided by 94% of all eligible agencies, was itself an increase on the previous year (127,850).

Ofsted estimate that around 76% enquiries received were within the IFA sector, up from 72% in 2018 to 2019. This results from a 14% increase in enquiries to the IFA sector, and a 10% decrease for local authorities, compared with last year.

A breakdown of enquiries received over the past 5 years are as follows:

Year

Total number of enquiries received

2015/16

101,795

2016/17

114,425

2017/18

117,335

2018/19

127,850

2019/20

135,080

In relation to applications approved, across the sectors, the conversion rate of applications received to applications approved was very similar. Around 1 in 4 applications were approved in both sectors. However, IFAs accounted for both more applications and approvals than local authorities.

A breakdown of applications received and approved by local authorities are as follows:

Year

Total number of applications received

Total number of applications approved

2015/16

4,525

1,150

2016/17

4,940

1,140

2017/18

4,710

985

2018/19

4,390

1,020

2019/20

3,570

905

A breakdown of applications received and approved by IFAs are as follows:

Year

Total number of applications received

Total number of applications approved

2015/16

4,060

1,140

2016/17

4,405

1,260

2017/18

5,830

1,455

2018/19

5,350

1,395

2019/20

5,235

1,230

Among local authorities, 43% of completed applications were approved, while 35% were approved among IFAs. The difference is mostly accounted for by a higher proportion of withdrawals by applicants among IFAs (49% compared to 36% for local authorities).

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