As autonomous and independent organisations, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) determine what support services they provide to their students. Each institution will be best placed to identify the needs of their particular student body. The government places a high priority on how the particular needs of care leavers are addressed by HEIs. Many already provide all-year-round accommodation and bursaries for care leaver students. The Department for Education’s Guidance to the Office for Students (OfS), on completing 2019/20 access and participation plans, specifically identifies care leavers as a key target group whose needs HEIs should address. This is reflected in the OfS own guidance to the sector.

The government recently launched the Care Leaver Covenant, which provides a way for organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors – including universities – to set out and publicise what support they provide to care leavers. A number of universities have already signed the Covenant, including Leeds, Liverpool John Moores, Huddersfield and Bradford; and we will continue to work closely with the OfS to encourage all universities to sign it.

The pupil premium plus funding, including both looked after and formerly looked after children for the relevant years, can be found in the published tables using the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-2015-to-2016-allocations.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-conditions-of-grant-2016-to-2017.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-conditions-of-grant-2017-to-2018.

The government keeps the Staying Put policy under constant review, including through monitoring data from local authorities on take-up by young people, engagement with the sector, and reviewing information from Ofsted inspections of local authorities. Staying Put was also considered as part of the independent fostering review undertaken by Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers, published in February 2018. Staying Put has helped thousands of care leavers to transition more smoothly from care to independence, and provides continuity of relationships and care arrangements. Latest data shows that in the year ending March 2018, 55% of 18 year olds chose to Stay Put – an increase of 4% on 2017.

The government does not believe that introducing a national minimum allowance for Staying Put carers is the right way forward. Unlike children in foster care, young people in Staying Put arrangements are adults and may be in work, or claiming benefits. These can be used to contribute to the cost of providing the Staying Put arrangement, in a similar way that young people who are still living at home with their parents may contribute to the cost of running the household. The current arrangements allow local authorities to consider all factors in relation to each local Staying Put arrangement, and to negotiate the amount that the carer receives on a case-by-case basis.

The government keeps the Staying Put policy under constant review, including through monitoring data from local authorities on take-up by young people, engagement with the sector, and reviewing information from Ofsted inspections of local authorities. Staying Put was also considered as part of the independent fostering review undertaken by Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers, published in February 2018. Staying Put has helped thousands of care leavers to transition more smoothly from care to independence, and provides continuity of relationships and care arrangements. Latest data shows that in the year ending March 2018, 55% of 18 year olds chose to Stay Put – an increase of 4% on 2017.

The government does not believe that introducing a national minimum allowance for Staying Put carers is the right way forward. Unlike children in foster care, young people in Staying Put arrangements are adults and may be in work, or claiming benefits. These can be used to contribute to the cost of providing the Staying Put arrangement, in a similar way that young people who are still living at home with their parents may contribute to the cost of running the household. The current arrangements allow local authorities to consider all factors in relation to each local Staying Put arrangement, and to negotiate the amount that the carer receives on a case-by-case basis.

The latest national information on the number of children who ceased to be looked-after in a foster placement on their 18th birthday who were eligible for care leaver support and were still living with their former foster carer (‘staying put’) at age 19 and 20 are published in table F2 of the statistical publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

The department has published similar experimental national statistics on those children who still live with their former foster carer at age 18 in table F4 of the same release.

These figures are also disaggregated at local authority level for 2018 in the underlying data tables that accompany this statistical release. Data at local authority level for earlier reporting years is available in the underlying data tables in previous publications for 2017 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.

The figures for 2016 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016.

The figures for 2015 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015.

The figures for 2014 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2

Information on the average length of time young people took part in the staying put programme is not collected.

The latest national information on the number of children who ceased to be looked-after in a foster placement on their 18th birthday who were eligible for care leaver support and were still living with their former foster carer (‘staying put’) at age 19 and 20 are published in table F2 of the statistical publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

The department has published similar experimental national statistics on those children who still live with their former foster carer at age 18 in table F4 of the same release.

These figures are also disaggregated at local authority level for 2018 in the underlying data tables that accompany this statistical release. Data at local authority level for earlier reporting years is available in the underlying data tables in previous publications for 2017 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.

The figures for 2016 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016.

The figures for 2015 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015.

The figures for 2014 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2

Information on the average length of time young people took part in the staying put programme is not collected.

The total amount of funding provided to local authorities to implement Staying Put since its introduction in 2014, and the amount committed for the period of 2019 to 2020, are set out in the table below.

Decisions on funding beyond March 2020 will be subject to the outcome of the next Spending Review.

Information on the share of the total funding allocated to each local authority is contained in the annual Grant Determination letters, which are published on GOV.UK. Copies of the letters for the period of 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 are available at the following hyperlinks:

2016 to 2017: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/625577/staying_put_grant_letter_2016-2017.pdf.

2017 to 2018: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/624325/Staying_Put_Grant_letter_2017-18__1_.pdf.

2018 to 2019: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/704816/Staying_Put_grant_letter_to_LAs_2018-19__.pdf.

Copies of the Grant Determination letters for the period of 2014 to 2015 and 2015 to 2016 are attached in Annex A and Annex B, respectively.

The national protocol on reducing criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers sets out best practice; implementing it does not place any new statutory burdens on the police or other agencies. The protocol was developed with the leaders of the relevant sectors including the National Police Chiefs’ Council and endorsed as a positive step forward.

In April 2018 my Department introduced a new case-level data collection called H-CLIC (Homelessness Case Level Information Collection). This will give local authorities and Government more information regarding homelessness and those presenting as homeless, including their support needs, for example, if they have been in care and slept rough.

The National Protocol on Reducing Unnecessary Criminalisation of Looked-after Children and Care Leavers does not place any new statutory burdens on local authorities, the police, or other agencies. Positive practice improvements will ultimately see benefits for young people and the services on which they rely.

The Protocol has been developed with leaders from across the children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors and endorsed as a positive step forward. We recognise that children who offend are often very vulnerable, with multiple and complex needs and difficulties, and are pleased to have fed into the Protocol.

The national protocol on reducing criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers sets out best practice; it does not place any new statutory burdens on local authorities, the police, schools or other agencies. Implementing the protocol is voluntary.

Positive practice improvements will ultimately see benefits for young people and the services on which they rely. The protocol has been developed with leaders from across the children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors and endorsed as a positive step forward for children and young people and the relevant professionals working with them.

In the recently announced Rough Sleeping Strategy, the government committed to provide funding to 47 local authorities totalling £3.2 million per year to employ specialist Personal Advisers to provide intensive support to care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.

This funding will enable local authorities to employ a total of 68 specialist Personal Advisers, who will support up to 680 young people leaving care to secure and sustain suitable accommodation.

The Rough Sleeping Strategy was developed with support from the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel. The advisory panel includes representatives from three local authorities, representatives from Mayoral offices of London, West Midlands and Greater Manchester, as well as the Local Government Association.

In the recently announced Rough Sleeping Strategy, the government committed to provide funding to 47 local authorities totalling £3.2 million per year to employ specialist Personal Advisers to provide intensive support to care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.

This funding will enable local authorities to employ a total of 68 specialist Personal Advisers, who will support up to 680 young people leaving care to secure and sustain suitable accommodation.

The Rough Sleeping Strategy was developed with support from the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel. The advisory panel includes representatives from three local authorities, representatives from Mayoral offices of London, West Midlands and Greater Manchester, as well as the Local Government Association.

In 2014, the government introduced ‘Staying put: arrangements for care leavers aged 18 years and above’ which allows care leavers to continue living with their former foster carer when they reach age 18: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-put-arrangements-for-care-leavers-aged-18-years-and-above. This means young people can continue to benefit from a stable and secure family setting, preparing for independence at a more gradual pace and moving into independent living when they are ready, rather than facing a cliff-edge on reaching age 18.

To support local authorities to implement Staying Put we have provided £68.35 million to date. Funding for 2019/20 will be £23.77 million, and funding beyond 2020 will be subject to future spending reviews.

The latest data show that for the year ending March 2018, 55% of those ceasing to be looked after in a foster placement on their 18th birthday stayed put with their former foster carer, which is an increase of 4% on the previous year. Furthermore, 31% of 19 year-olds were still with former foster carers on their 19th birthday, and 26% of 20 year-olds still with former foster carers on their 20th birthday. Again, these were both increases on the previous year.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not collect statistics on whether or not people sleeping rough have spent time in foster care. However, the department does produce annual rough sleeping counts and estimates, which are single night snapshots of the number of people sleeping rough in local authority areas. In autumn 2017, there were 369 people aged 25 years and under who were recorded as sleeping rough in England.

From April of this year, the Government extended personal adviser support for all care leavers up to age 25. The recently published Rough Sleeping Strategy also committed an additional £3.2 million of funding for 47 local authority areas to employ specialist personal advisers. They will provide intensive support for care leavers with the most complex needs who are most at risk of rough sleeping.

This Government are committed to supporting care leavers. We have introduced

a £1,000 bursary to those starting an apprenticeship, extended paid internship opportunities across Government, launched a care leaver covenant and are upskilling our Jobcentre Plus staff.

What recent steps the Government has taken to support care leavers into employment.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Ms McVey), who made it a personal priority of hers to introduce Barnardo’s not only to help train and improve the guidance for all of our frontline staff, but to offer a comprehensive work experience programme and opportunities for care leavers. This is a vital part of our See Potential work, as we unlock their undoubted potential.

What work is the Minister doing with Barnardo’s, and what impact is the See Potential programme having?