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1714604

registered interest
date	29/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce the number of children in care experiencing multiple placements.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL4152
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2024 answer text <p>The needs of the child are paramount when deciding the right care placement. The Children’s Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care and ensure placements safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. Further, the guidance is clear that the child’s allocated social worker, supported by local authority management and resources, should do everything possible to minimise disruption to the child’s education and, where a child is in key stage 4, a move should only be made in exceptional circumstances. Responsibility for looked-after children sits with the local authority. The guidance and regulations of the Children Act 1989 can be found attached.</p><p> </p><p>Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head (VSH), who has a statutory duty to promote the educational attainment of all children in their care. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll. Looked-after children also have top priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,570 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the VSH, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s personal education plan.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst the number of placements experienced by looked after children in a one year period has remained broadly stable over the past 5 years, the government recognises there are issues with finding stable placements. That is why the government has announced over £400 million in capital funding to help local authorities create more beds in their local areas which will aim to further reduce the number of children experiencing multiple placements.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran grouped question UIN HL4153 question first answered 14/05/2024 11:55:13 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4152 HL4153 attachment - The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations.pdf title HL4152 HL4153 Attachment
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1714605

registered interest
date	29/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care: Schools
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of times children in care must change school.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL4153
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2024 answer text <p>The needs of the child are paramount when deciding the right care placement. The Children’s Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care and ensure placements safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. Further, the guidance is clear that the child’s allocated social worker, supported by local authority management and resources, should do everything possible to minimise disruption to the child’s education and, where a child is in key stage 4, a move should only be made in exceptional circumstances. Responsibility for looked-after children sits with the local authority. The guidance and regulations of the Children Act 1989 can be found attached.</p><p> </p><p>Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head (VSH), who has a statutory duty to promote the educational attainment of all children in their care. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll. Looked-after children also have top priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,570 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the VSH, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s personal education plan.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst the number of placements experienced by looked after children in a one year period has remained broadly stable over the past 5 years, the government recognises there are issues with finding stable placements. That is why the government has announced over £400 million in capital funding to help local authorities create more beds in their local areas which will aim to further reduce the number of children experiencing multiple placements.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran grouped question UIN HL4152 question first answered 14/05/2024 11:55:13 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4152 HL4153 attachment - The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations.pdf title HL4152 HL4153 Attachment
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1714607

registered interest
date	29/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care: Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve the education of children in care.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL4154
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/05/2024 answer text <p>The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a virtual school head (VSH), who has a statutory duty to promote the educational attainment of all children in their care. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll. Looked-after children also have top priority in school admissions and attract pupil premium plus funding of £2,570 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the VSH, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan.</p><p> </p><p>In February 2023, the department announced the national rollout of £24 million of pupil premium plus style funding to looked-after children and care leavers at post-16 for the next two years, from 2023/24. This funding, which builds on an initial £8 million pilot that launched in October 2021, gives VHSs the financial levers to positively impact the educational outcomes of looked-after children and care leavers in post-16 education.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 09/05/2024 16:18:13 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1687676

registered interest
date	05/02/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children: Care Homes
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking in response to the final report of the Competition and Markets Authority's children’s social care market study published on 10 March 2022, particularly with regard to the finding on excessive charging by private providers of residential care homes for children in public care.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL2198
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2024 answer text <p>The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.</p><p>The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.</p><p>As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.</p><p>In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:</p><ul><li>Investing £36 million to support over 60% of all local authorities in England to recruit and retain more foster carers.</li><li>Investing over £142 million up to 2025 to implement new mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers who accommodate 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers, in addition to banning the placement of under-16s in supported accommodation.</li><li>Working with the sector to co-design and develop regional care co-operative pathfinders, which will plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements.</li><li>Investing £259 million capital funding for secure and open children’s homes.</li><li>Introducing a new market oversight regime that will increase financial transparency across the sector, for example, of ownership, debt structures and profit making.</li></ul><p>Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 19/02/2024 15:52:04 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf title Stable_Homes_PDF
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1687677

registered interest
date	05/02/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to tackle the increase of children being taken into public care.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL2199
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2024 answer text <p>The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.</p><p>The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.</p><p>As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.</p><p>In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:</p><ul><li>Investing £36 million to support over 60% of all local authorities in England to recruit and retain more foster carers.</li><li>Investing over £142 million up to 2025 to implement new mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers who accommodate 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers, in addition to banning the placement of under-16s in supported accommodation.</li><li>Working with the sector to co-design and develop regional care co-operative pathfinders, which will plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements.</li><li>Investing £259 million capital funding for secure and open children’s homes.</li><li>Introducing a new market oversight regime that will increase financial transparency across the sector, for example, of ownership, debt structures and profit making.</li></ul><p>Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 19/02/2024 13:35:05 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf title Stable_Homes_PDF
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1687678

registered interest
date	05/02/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children: Care Homes
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to achieve a better distribution of residential care homes for children so that they are not placed great distances from their families, friends and school.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL2200
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2024 answer text <p>The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.</p><p>The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.</p><p>As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.</p><p>In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:</p><ul><li>Investing £36 million to support over 60% of all local authorities in England to recruit and retain more foster carers.</li><li>Investing over £142 million up to 2025 to implement new mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers who accommodate 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers, in addition to banning the placement of under-16s in supported accommodation.</li><li>Working with the sector to co-design and develop regional care co-operative pathfinders, which will plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements.</li><li>Investing £259 million capital funding for secure and open children’s homes.</li><li>Introducing a new market oversight regime that will increase financial transparency across the sector, for example, of ownership, debt structures and profit making.</li></ul><p>Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 19/02/2024 15:52:11 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf title Stable_Homes_PDF
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1687679

registered interest
date	05/02/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that young children in public care are not placed in unregistered accommodation.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL2201
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2024 answer text <p>The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.</p><p>The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.</p><p>As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.</p><p>In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:</p><ul><li>Investing £36 million to support over 60% of all local authorities in England to recruit and retain more foster carers.</li><li>Investing over £142 million up to 2025 to implement new mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers who accommodate 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers, in addition to banning the placement of under-16s in supported accommodation.</li><li>Working with the sector to co-design and develop regional care co-operative pathfinders, which will plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements.</li><li>Investing £259 million capital funding for secure and open children’s homes.</li><li>Introducing a new market oversight regime that will increase financial transparency across the sector, for example, of ownership, debt structures and profit making.</li></ul><p>Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 19/02/2024 16:08:11 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf title Stable_Homes_PDF
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1668098

registered interest
date	07/11/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Absenteeism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Children's Commissioner report Missing Children, Missing Grades, published on 2 November; and what steps they are taking in response.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL45
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2023 answer text <p>Improving attendance is one of the department’s priorities. The report provides vital insight into the relationship between attendance and attainment. The recommendations echo the department’s ‘support first' approach to attendance and its goal to make attendance everyone's business. In response, the department continues to implement its comprehensive plan to address the issue.</p><p>The department has published guidance encouraging all schools and local authorities to adopt the practices of the most effective schools. All schools are now expected to publish an attendance policy and appoint an attendance champion. Local authorities are expected to meet termly with schools to agree individual plans for at risk children. 86% of schools subscribe to the department’s attendance data tool to spot at risk pupils. The department’s attendance hubs now support 800 schools benefiting over 400,000 pupils.</p><p>These measures are in addition to the implementation of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms which will ensure that children with SEND receive high quality, early support in attending school wherever they live in England.</p><p>The department’s approach is starting to turn the tide, with recent data showing there were 380,000 fewer pupils who were persistently absent from or not attending school in the 2022/23 academic year compared to 2021/22, but absence levels remain too high.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 21/11/2023 12:36:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1659850

registered interest
date	11/09/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Universities: Care Leavers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the number of care leavers who have access to university education.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL10041
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/09/2023 answer text <p>This government is committed to ensuring that all care leavers are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. The ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy sets out the department’s plans to reform the children’s social care system, including improving the education, employment and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers. This includes, from 2027, a year-on-year narrowing of the gap in care leaver higher education participation rates compared to the general population.</p><p>We will introduce a gold standard accreditation scheme for further and higher education institutions supporting care leavers, working with an expert advisory group to develop the accreditation in partnership with the sector, and will consult on plans to expand the Virtual School Head role to include children in care and care leavers up to age 25. Local authorities must also provide a £2,000 bursary for care leavers who go to university.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 25/09/2023 13:14:24 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming

1657572

registered interest
date	04/09/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Homelessness
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the 130,000 children of homeless families are receiving an education in school.
tabling member printed	Lord Laming
uin	HL9793
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2023 answer text <p>All children of compulsory school age, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to a full-time education which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs that they may have. The department consulted and implemented changes to the statutory School Admissions Code in 2021 to improve the in-year school admissions process and fair access protocols. Fair access protocols are the safety net to secure school places in-year for vulnerable and unplaced children, where the in-year admissions process fails. In those changes, the department identified a list of categories of children who are eligible for placement in fair access, which included children who are homeless. The school admissions code can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2</a>.</p><p>The ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance expects schools, local authorities and partners to work with pupils and parents to remove any barriers to school attendance by building strong and trusting relationships, and working together to put the right support in place. This guidance can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance</a>. In all cases, schools should be sensitive and should avoid stigmatising pupils and parents. They should talk to pupils and parents to understand what they think would help improve their attendance. This allows individual approaches that meet an individual pupil’s specific needs.</p><p>All schools should be calm, orderly, safe, and supportive environments where pupils can thrive and reach their potential in safety and dignity. Teachers know their pupils best and are in the best position to identify their needs and to plan which approaches will meet them most effectively.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 18/09/2023 17:01:53 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming