My Lords, I want to ask a brief question of the Minister, related to this matter. My noble friend alluded to the terrible case of Victoria Climbié, in which Victoria was privately fostered. The noble Lord, Lord Laming, who was charged by the Government to publish an inquiry into her death, was very concerned about a lack of awareness of private fostering—about how we can register private fosterers and make it safer for children to be in that position of being cared for by an auntie and uncle, while not being registered as a child in care.
There has been work in the past 10 years to normalise private fostering and raise awareness about it. I know that the British Association for Adoption and Fostering has done work to raise awareness among private foster carers so that they should come forward and, I believe, give their names to be registered by the local authority. I would be grateful to know from the Minister what progress has been made in recent years in terms of the numbers of those private fostering carers coming forward. Perhaps he could write to me, along with any other information that he can send me on what is being done to reassure us about the safety of children in private fostered arrangements. I hope that is helpful.