Written questions by Goldsborough.

What steps her Department is taking to (a) support children in foster care and (b) the work of foster carers (i) in South Norfolk constituency and (ii) nationally.

The government is committed to ensuring that every child in care grows up with the love, care and support they need to achieve and thrive. All foster carers receive the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) to cover the costs of looking after the children in their care. In the 2025/26 financial year, the NMA is being uplifted by 3.55%.The government is supporting children in care by expanding the Mockingbird Family Model, which is an innovative evidence-based approach. Relationships are central to the design of the programme which involves six to ten satellite families grouped into a constellation around a hub home carer.In South Norfolk, this is being delivered as part of the Foster East Recruitment Hub, which launched in 2024 and comprises 12 neighbouring local authorities, including Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Luton, Thurrock, Southend, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.Across England, ten fostering regional programmes are live, working with 64% of all local authorities to collaboratively recruit and retain foster carers who will provide loving homes, local to the children who need them. An additional £15 million was announced to support this programme in the budget and the department intends to move towards full national roll out in the next financial year. The department welcomes discussions with other local authorities about our national expansion plans.

What information her Department holds on the number of children and young people who were waiting for an Education, Health and Care Plan decision after (a) less than six months, (b) six months to a year, (c) one to two years, (d) two to three years, (e) three to four years, (f) four to five years and (g) more than five years in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by local authority.

The department publishes official statistics on Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans annually, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes data at local authority level on the rate of EHC plans issued within the deadline of 20 weeks. The attached table contains details of assessments in 2023 by local authority and by the duration, in days, between the date of the request for assessment and the date of the assessment outcome. This includes those for whom a plan was issued and those with the decision not to issue a plan, but excludes cases where the assessment was withdrawn. The person-level data collection on EHC plans is in its second year. As a result, we expect the quality of data returns to improve over time, as the collection becomes established. In particular, the recording of the dates of the assessment request and the assessment outcome is subject to data quality issues, which become especially prominent when looking at a low level of granularity. For this reason, cases over two years have been aggregated, and where the date of request is missing or was recorded after the outcome date, this is marked in the table as ‘not available’. The department continues to work with local authorities in understanding and improving the data collection.

How many families with a child with (a) special educational needs and (b) pathological demand avoidance have been issued with a (i) parenting order, (ii) education supervision order, (iii) school attendance order and (iv) fine for poor school attendance in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held by this department. The department collects aggregate data on the use of parenting orders, education supervision orders and penalty notices from local authorities in England through the annual parental responsibility measures attendance census. No information is collected on characteristics of the children concerned. The available data is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/parental-responsibility-measures. The department collects aggregate data on school attendance orders issued and revoked from local authorities in England through the new collection on elective home education and children missing education. No information is collected on characteristics of the children concerned. The available data is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education.