Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1667750

	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	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by Become entitled Gone Too Far, published in April 2023, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the proportion of local authorities that do not have a published sufficiency plan for children's social care.
	tabling member constituency	Knowsley
	tabling member printed	Sir George Howarth
	uin	68
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/11/2023 answer text <p>Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care. Ofsted currently inspect local authorities’ children’s services and how they are meeting their range of statutory duties.</p><p> </p><p>The department recognises that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care. The department wants to reduce out of area placements, but in some circumstances, it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is working to drive forward improvements at a national, regional, and local level to increase sufficiency and improve standards of care and regulations.</p><p> </p><p>By 2027, there will be an increase in the availability of high-quality, stable, and loving homes for every child in care, close to where they are from. To achieve this, the department is supporting local authorities to increase care placements and ensure they meet children’s needs. The department has allocated £259 million of capital funding for secure and open children’s homes and over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme.</p><p> </p><p>In the longer-term, Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) will plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements. The department is investing in two pathfinders to test the RCC model in collaboration with local authorities.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 14/11/2023 16:22:20 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	481 label Biography information for Sir George Howarth

1665740

	registered interest
	date	18/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	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 introducing early intervention services for children without an education, health and care plan.
	tabling member constituency	North East Hampshire
	tabling member printed	Mr Ranil Jayawardena
	uin	203359
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published March 2023, set out the department’s plans to deliver an inclusive system with improved, high-quality mainstream provision where children and young people have their needs identified early and can access prompt, evidence-based, targeted support. This will mean that more children and young people can have their needs met, without the need to rely on an Education, Health and Care plan to get the support they need. Our plan includes testing approaches to early intervention services through, for example, a Speech, Language and Communication Needs pilot, the Early Language Support for Every Child, co-funded with NHS England.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 203079 question first answered 25/10/2023 14:54:21 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4498 label Biography information for Mr Ranil Jayawardena

1665498

	registered interest
	date	17/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of providing early intervention services on the number of children that require EHCPs.
	tabling member constituency	North East Hampshire
	tabling member printed	Mr Ranil Jayawardena
	uin	203079
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published March 2023, set out the department’s plans to deliver an inclusive system with improved, high-quality mainstream provision where children and young people have their needs identified early and can access prompt, evidence-based, targeted support. This will mean that more children and young people can have their needs met, without the need to rely on an Education, Health and Care plan to get the support they need. Our plan includes testing approaches to early intervention services through, for example, a Speech, Language and Communication Needs pilot, the Early Language Support for Every Child, co-funded with NHS England.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 203359 question first answered 25/10/2023 14:54:21 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4498 label Biography information for Mr Ranil Jayawardena

1660607

	registered interest
	date	13/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish the results of the Children's social care: stable homes, built on love consultation.
	tabling member constituency	Darlington
	tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
	uin	199506
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/09/2023 answer text <p>The department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation, setting out plans to reform children’s social care on the 2 February 2023. It set out how the department will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life. The consultation closed on the 11 May 2023, and a response was published on the 21 September 2023.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 26/09/2023 16:08:36 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1659835

	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	Children: Social Services
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, beyond the school gates, to provide support to children who have interacted with the children’s social care system.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of Durham
	uin	HL10026
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/09/2023 answer text <p>Our analysis for reporting year ending March 2022 for children in social care shows:</p><ul><li>At Key Stage 2, the percentage of all pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2022 was 59%, compared to 29% for children in social care, also called children in need (CIN), which includes looked-after children.</li><li>At Key Stage 4, the percentage of all pupils achieving grade 5-9 in English and Maths in 2022 was 50%, compared to 12% for CIN pupils.</li></ul><p>After accounting for a wide range of factors such as rates of special educational need in these cohorts, children who have interacted with the social care system were around 25-50% less likely to achieve grades 5-9 in GCSE English and Maths, compared to pupils who were not in social care.</p><p>The government has put in place a number of measures to support the educational attainment of looked-after children. Every local authority in England must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. Looked-after children attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,530 per child up to age 16, which is managed by the Virtual School Head, working with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in their individual Personal Education Plans.</p><p>‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ sets out our strategy to reform the children’s social care system, including improving the education, employment, and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers. The department will introduce a gold standard accreditation scheme for further and higher education institutions supporting care leavers, consult on plans to expand the Virtual School Head role to include children in care and care leavers up to age 25, and roll out a further £24 million in Pupil Premium Plus style funding between 2023 and 2025 to bolster educational support available to children in care and care leavers in 16-19 education.</p><p>The Children in Need Review, which concluded in June 2019, identified for the first time that 1.6 million children needed a social worker between 2012 and 2018, and that these children have worse educational outcomes at every stage, with children who need a social worker in their GCSE year being 50% as likely to achieve a strong pass in English and Maths as their peers.</p><p>To address this, in June 2021 the department extended Virtual School Head duties to include all children with a social worker, giving them a strategic leadership role to champion the educational attendance, attainment, and progress of children with a social worker. This means that they have a lead role in levelling up educational outcomes for children with a social worker and narrowing the attainment gap, so every child has the opportunity to reach their potential.</p><p>We recently announced over £1 billion for programmes to improve early help services from birth to adulthood, including delivering on Family Hubs and helping families facing multiple-disadvantage through the Supporting Families programme and Holiday Activities and Food programme. Investing in support for families helps children to have happy, healthy childhoods. It can stop issues escalating and help them to achieve better outcomes. The Supporting Families Programme has supported over half a million families, to make sustained improvements to their lives, and is projected to help a further 300,000.</p><p>In ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, we outlined our plans to build on the strengths of current early help services, through the creation of family help. These reforms are central to ensuring children growing up with loving relationships and stability. The department is creating a service which meets the whole needs of a family and works to their strengths, delivered by multi-disciplinary teams working collaboratively with their local partners. Through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme, we will test implementation in up to 12 local areas over two years and help assess requirements to achieve meaningful change system-wide.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran grouped question UIN HL10024 HL10025 question first answered 25/09/2023 13:12:29 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4312 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of Durham

1658613

	registered interest
	date	06/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Birmingham Council issuing a Section 114 notice on children’s social (a) care and (b) services in Birmingham.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	198152
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>Councils are responsible for their own finances and the decision to issue a Section 114 notice is one taken locally. The issuing of a notice means the council is subject to a 21-day spending prohibition during which the council may not enter into any new spending agreement without approval by the Chief Financial Officer.</p><p>Birmingham City Council are tightening their current financial controls, and a framework will be set in place to ensure they have a complete grip, whilst ensuring that statutory and key services to children and vulnerable people are not affected because of these controls.</p><p>The Department for Education, along with colleagues from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the SEND Commissioner remain in regular contact with Birmingham City Council and will continue to monitor the situation closely.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 198202 question first answered 15/09/2023 13:15:44 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1656680

	registered interest
	date	01/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of children that required social care placements from their local authority in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	196440
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>The department has not yet published information on the number of children and young people who are looked after during the reporting year ending 31 March 2023. This data will be published in the annual statistical release later this year.</p><p> </p><p>Information on the number of children looked after as at 31 March 2022 and at any point during the 2021/22 reporting year is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after including adoptions’ at the following link: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions</a>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 15/09/2023 18:00:59 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1656681

	registered interest
	date	01/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the capacity of the regulated accommodation sector for child social care placements.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	196441
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2023 answer text <p>While the statutory responsibility for ensuring sufficient places for looked after children sits with local authorities, the department understands the current challenges in the looked after children placement market. Both the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and the Competition and Markets Authority’s Children’s Social Care Market Study made recommendations around the commissioning and sufficiency of care placements. In the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy, we set out our response to these reports and our plans to reform children’s social care to ensure that there are enough of the right homes in the right places for children who need them.</p><p>To support local authorities to meet their statutory duty in ensuring there is sufficient provision for children in their care, the department has announced £259 million capital funding to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open children’s homes that provide high quality and safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people across England.</p><p>The department is investing £27 million this Spending Review to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme to make foster care even more readily available for more children. This will boost approvals of foster carers in areas of specific shortage, such as sibling groups, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, teenagers, mother and baby placements and children who have suffered complex trauma.</p><p>We have also improved the offer of support, raising the national minimum allowance for foster carers by 12.43% to reflect the increasing costs of caring for a child and increasing the amount of income tax relief available to foster carers up to £18,140, from £10,000.</p><p>We are also developing two Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) pathfinders, each pathfinder will also receive up to £5 million in capital funding to develop new provision. These pathfinders will trial an approach to make RCCs work within the current legal framework ahead of bringing forward legislation when parliamentary time allows. In the long term, RCCs will plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 12/09/2023 13:10:03 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1656682

	registered interest
	date	01/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has issued guidance to local authorities on managing the transition period before the prohibition on using unregulated child social care placements; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	196442
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2023 answer text <p>​​This government is clear that all supported accommodation must be safe, high-quality and provide excellent support to our young people as they transition into adulthood. That is why the department is investing over £142 million to introduce new mandatory national standards and a system of Ofsted-led registration and inspection for providers who accommodate 16 and 17-year-old looked after children and care leavers. These reforms will drive up the quality and consistency of this provision.</p><p>​In March 2023, following extensive consultation with the sector, we announced that from 28 October 2023, all providers of supported accommodation must be registered with Ofsted, or have submitted a full application and paid their fee in advance of this date, to legally operate. Local authorities will be prohibited from placing children in unregistered supported accommodation.</p><p>​The department has published guidance for the sector on the new requirements which can be found here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1145117/Guide_to_the_supported_accommodation_regulations_March_2023.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1145117/Guide_to_the_supported_accommodation_regulations_March_2023.pdf</a>.</p><p>​Ofsted has also published guidance on 4 April 2023 to support providers through the registration process, which can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/registering-a-supported-accommodation-service" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/registering-a-supported-accommodation-service</a>.</p><p>​To further support the implementation of the new requirements, the department has awarded the National Children’s Bureau a contract up to April 2024, to provide practical support, information, and good practice resources targeted directly at providers and local authority commissioners.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 12/09/2023 16:43:02 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1654804

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish its response to the consultation entitled Children's social care national framework and dashboard, published on 2 February 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	195497
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/09/2023 answer text <p>The department published its bold and ambitious plans to reform children’s social care on 2 February 2023 through ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation.</p><p> </p><p>On 11 May 2023, three consultations closed on our proposals for reform, our draft children’s social care national framework and data dashboard, and our plans for addressing the high use of agency social workers in the workforce.</p><p> </p><p>The department is thankful to the thousands of people who engaged and responded to the consultations, including those with personal experience of the care system, dedicated professionals providing key services, and civil society. A government response to these consultations will be published in due course.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 195496 195498 question first answered 06/09/2023 13:35:36 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes