Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Thursday, 10 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 April 2005. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Thursday, 7 April 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many private children's homes have been registered to operate in each of the last eight years; and how many have closed during that time.

Answer: Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many private children's homes have been registered to operate in each of the last eight years; and how many have closed during that time. [222069] Margaret Hodge: Information provided by the Commission for Social Care Inspection, who took over the role of the National Care Standards Commission from 1 April 2004, on the number of registered and de- registered private children's homes for the last three years is shown in the following table. Information is not available prior to 1 April 2002, the date when the National Care Standards Commission was created. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Private children's homes 2002/03 2003/04 2004/051 Registered 169 276 199 De-registered2 87 156 131 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 As at 7 March 2005 2 De-registrations occur for a number of reasons, including: voluntary closure of a home enforced closure resulting from regulatory action change of ownership change in the category of service provided.

Secondary information