Appearing before the education select committee Zahawi acknowledged the financial challenges facing councils but said they should be able to support families and prevent children entering the care system through their existing resources. He said "throwing money" at the situation "doesn't work".
Figures published last September show that the number of children in care is rising at its fastest rate in five years. There were 72,670 children in care in the 12 months to the end of March 2017, compared with 70,440 the year before and 69,480 in 2015.
But Zahawi rejected suggestions that government spending on early support for families should be increased, instead arguing that the best way to reduce the children in care population was to spread evidence of schemes that are successfully doing this.
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