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348297

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what figures her Department holds on the break-down rate of (a) adoption arrangements, (b) fostering arrangements and (c) family-based arrangements in each year since 2010.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	1000
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2015 answer text <p>Information on the break-down rate of adoption arrangements, fostering arrangements and family arrangements since 2010, is not held by the Department for Education.</p><p> </p><p>Information on the previous permanence placement of children entering care was collected in the SSDA903 data collection for the first time in the year ending 31 March 2014. Figures for 2013-14 are published in Table C1 here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2</a></p><p> </p><p>The research report ‘Beyond the Adoption Order: challenges, interventions and adoption disruption’ was published last year at the following link:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beyond-the-adoption-order-challenges-intervention-disruption" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beyond-the-adoption-order-challenges-intervention-disruption</a></p><p> </p><p>The study estimated that, over a 12-year period, the post order national disruption rate was 3.2%.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 10/06/2015 16:14:57 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

348301

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what figures her Department holds on the numbers of children in public care by permanence option.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	1004
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2015 answer text <p>Figures relating to children looked after in England are published in the annual Statistical First Release (SFR) at the following link: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 10/06/2015 15:59:59 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

766152

	registered interest
	date	06/10/2017
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2017 to Question 6504, what assessment she has made of the reasons why the number of looked after children placed in care homes, secure units and hostels outside their council boundary in England increased from 2,610 in March 2012 to 4,020 in March 2016.
	tabling member constituency	Stockport
	tabling member printed	Ann Coffey
	uin	106132
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2017 answer text <p>The government is clear that the needs of the child are vital when making decisions about the right care placement. Local authorities have a statutory duty to consider the right placement for the child and take into account a number of factors, one of which is placement area.</p><p> </p><p>Sometimes circumstances make it the right decision for a local authority to identify a placement outside of the child’s local area. For example, when a child is at risk from child sexual exploitation, trafficking or gang violence or when they need very specialist care. Out of area placements require approval from the Director of Children’s Services, and Ofsted monitors all placement decisions including out of area placements and challenges local authorities that need to improve. We are setting up a Residential Care Leadership Board, which will bring together representatives from local authorities and providers to explore how to improve commissioning of children’s residential placements. As part of this work, we expect the Board to assess data on the use of out of area placements.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 14/10/2017 10:59:57 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
	tabling member	458 label Biography information for Ann Coffey

419937

	registered interest
	date	09/10/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to extend Ofsted inspections to semi-independent care provision for 16 to 18 year olds; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Stevenage
	tabling member printed	Stephen McPartland
	uin	10971
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/10/2015 answer text <p>Local Authorities are responsible for ensuring that 16-and 17-year-olds that are either looked after or care leavers, are placed in safe and suitable accommodation. Statutory guidance sets out the factors that local authorities must take into account when determining the suitability of accommodation. The full guidance can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-act-1989-transition-to-adulthood-for-care-leavers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-act-1989-transition-to-adulthood-for-care-leavers</a></p><br /><p>Since 2013, Ofsted inspections of local authorities’ children’s social care services have included a separate sub-judgement on care leavers, which includes an assessment of whether the local authority is ensuring that care leavers have access to suitable accommodation. In particular, Ofsted inspect whether:</p><br /><ul><li>Accommodation for care leavers is appropriate for each young person to safely develop their independence skills;</li><li>Care leavers are safe and feel safe, particularly where they are living;</li><li>Care leavers are helped to find housing solutions that best meet their needs; and</li><li>Risks of tenancy breakdown are identified and alternative plans are put in place.</li></ul><br /><p>The government recognises that more needs to be done to improve care leavers’ outcomes and is considering how it can build on the achievements of the first ever cross-government care leaver strategy which was introduced in October 2013. This will include consideration of what can be done to drive further improvement in the quality of accommodation that care leavers receive.</p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 19/10/2015 16:22:35 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	4093 label Biography information for Stephen McPartland

782706

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2017
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children in England are subject to (a) Section 20, (b) Section 25, (c) Section 38 and (d) Section 31 of the Children Act 1989.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	111121
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/11/2017 answer text <p>At 31 March 2017, there were 50,470 looked after children who were subject to a care order, of which 40,190 were subject to a full care order under Section 31 and 10,270 were subject to an interim care order under Section 38.</p><p>There were 16,470 looked after children who were voluntarily accommodated under Section 20.</p><p>There were 170 looked after children who were placed in secure accommodation under Section 25.</p><p><strong><br> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 07/11/2017 17:44:03 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

782653

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2017
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that local councils have sufficient funds for children in care.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	111237
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2017 answer text <p>The Spending Review 2015 made available more than £200 billion to local councils for local services up to 2019-20.</p><p> </p><p>Funding for children’s services is an un-ring-fenced part of the wider local government finance settlement. It is for local councils to determine how to spend their non-ring fenced income on the services they provide, including services for children in care. Local councils increased spending on children and young people’s services to over £9 billion in 2015-16.</p><p>To help local councils redesign their children’s services to achieve higher quality and better value for money, we have invested £200 million since 2014 in our Innovation and Partners in Practice Programmes.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 10/11/2017 14:47:34 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

424266

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children leaving care to return home have subsequently returned to care in each local authority in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	East Worthing and Shoreham
	tabling member printed	Tim Loughton
	uin	13680
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2015 answer text <p>The Department does not routinely publish data on the annual number of children who have returned home and later re-entered care.</p><p>Addressing this issue remains a Government priority. In September 2013, the Department published the ‘Improving permanence for looked-after children’ data pack, which can be found at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/perm-data-13" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/perm-data-13</a>. This included information on the numbers of children who had returned home in the year 2006-7 and had re-entered care or accommodation by 2012. The purpose of the pack was to encourage local authorities to review their systems for returning children home, to improve their rate of success, and to inform decision-making.</p><p>The changes made to the statutory framework in April 2015 ensure a sharper focus on safe and successful reunification, where this is the best route to permanence. We have also provided funding for two research projects. These projects will research how we can improve support for children returning home and test a specific reunification framework.</p><p>The findings from that research will be published later this year. To inform these projects, the Department has shared analysis with the research teams on return home and re-entry to care or accommodation. We are considering the benefits of publishing this information more widely and will continue to work with the sector.</p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 30/10/2015 14:28:43 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	114 label Biography information for Tim Loughton

424265

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children have been placed in residential children's homes outside their home local authority area in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	East Worthing and Shoreham
	tabling member printed	Tim Loughton
	uin	13681
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2015 answer text <p>Information on the number of children accommodated in children’s homes inside and outside the Council boundary is published in table A2 of the statistical first release “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers), year ending 31 March 2015” at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015</a></p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 30/10/2015 14:31:47 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	114 label Biography information for Tim Loughton

349238

	registered interest
	date	09/06/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on improving outcomes for looked after children by improving (a) the collection of data and (b) quality of care.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	1535
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2015 answer text <p>The educational attainment of looked after children has improved over recent years at key stages 2 and 4, absence and exclusion rates have fallen, and offending and substance misuse rates have also fallen. Latest statistics are published in the statistical first release 'Outcomes for children looked after by local authorities': <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities</a>. It is not possible to attribute these improvements to single factors such as data collection improvements.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The department, working with its key users and interested parties, is regularly making improvements to the annual looked after children data collection from local authorities. Through our work to provide timely and relevant transparency information, the department is striving to help drive local and national improvement in the outcomes for looked after children. For example, in 2014, for the first time, information was collected on the activity and accommodation of care leavers aged 19, 20 and 21 (previously it was just 19-year-olds), which enables a fuller understanding of the numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training when they leave care. In 2016, in order to help understand the causes of placement instability, the department will begin to collect data on the reason for placement moves.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve the quality of care. The department has taken steps to streamline and strengthen the assessment and approval for foster carers and improve their recruitment and retention. The department has also taken steps to encourage social workers to give foster carers a more active role in day-to-day decisions. New qualifications requirements have been introduced to improve the level of skills for care workers and children’s homes. In April 2015, new quality standards regulations were introduced in order to improve the experience of children in residential care. These new quality standards can be found online here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/355577/Guide_to_the_children_s_homes_regulations.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/355577/Guide_to_the_children_s_homes_regulations.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The department has invested £36 million over the last four years in developing, testing and embedding evidence based interventions for looked-after children and those on the edge of care or custody. Long-term foster care as a distinct placement type was introduced in April 2015 to ensure that long-term arrangements are planned, stable and made in the best interests of the child. The department is also funding a two-year programme, until March 2016, to develop more effective ways of supporting vulnerable children through the Innovation Programme.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are committed to improving transitions from care. To that end we published a cross-departmental care leaver strategy in 2013 and a ‘one year on’ report in 2014 setting out the ways in which the strategy improved services for this group of young people.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 17/06/2015 15:24:52 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

349270

	registered interest
	date	09/06/2015
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to improve support and training for foster carers and key workers in children's homes on (a) helping children overcome past experiences and (b) building positive relationships with children.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	1611
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/06/2015 answer text <p>New mandatory qualifications for those working in and managing children’s homes were introduced in January 2015. These assess the key workers’ ability to build positive attachments and relationships with children and provide support for children who have experienced harm or abuse. On 6<sup>th</sup> April, the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 came into force. The regulations introduced new quality standards, ambitious in the outcomes they set out for children in residential care. Staff are being trained and supported to meet the quality standards through a one year implementation programme, funded by the Department for Education.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The government has invested significantly in supporting local authorities to embed evidence based interventions, offering training and support to foster carers, kinship carers, birth parents, residential workers and adopters. These interventions include ‘Keeping foster and kinship carers safe and supported’ (KEEP) and ‘Multidimensional treatment foster care’ (MTFC) which enable foster carers to support children and young people to build on their strengths, address the difficulties in every area of their lives and promote placement stability by building the skills and confidence of carers. Through the Innovation Programme, the Department is also supporting the introduction of the ‘Mockingbird project’, focusing on support for kinship and foster carers looking after adolescents.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Crewe and Nantwich answering member printed Edward Timpson question first answered 16/06/2015 14:57:21 answering member 1605 label Biography information for Edward Timpson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham