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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

1654805

	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 Child and family social worker workforce, published on 2 February 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	195498
	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 195497 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

1648340

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2023
	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 recent steps they have taken to improve the quality and accessibility of social care services for children.
	tabling member printed	Lord Hay of Ballyore
	uin	HL8828
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2023 answer text <p>On 2 February 2023 the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation, setting out plans to reform children’s social care. This strategy sets out how we 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.</p><p>As of 1 April 2023, there are 153 local authorities responsible for ensuring and overseeing the effective delivery of social care services for children. Since the introduction of our Improvement and Intervention programme in 2017, which aimed to reduce the number of local authorities rated Inadequate by Ofsted, the number of Inadequate local authorities has dropped from 20% to 8.5%, and the number of Good and Outstanding local authorities has risen from 36% to 59%. This programme specifically offers support to areas with early signs of failure and intervenes when failure has already taken place.</p><p>Over the next two years, through ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department will address urgent issues in children’s social care, and lay the foundations for wider-reaching reform across the whole system.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 11/07/2023 13:14:03 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4352 label Biography information for Lord Hay of Ballyore

1642610

	registered interest
	date	07/06/2023
	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 the (a) children's services budget for social care and (b) population was of (i) the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, (ii) Birmingham City Council, (iii) Blackpool Council, (iv) Blackburn with Darwen Council, (v) the City of Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council (vi) the London Borough of Hackney, (vii) Hartlepool Borough Council, (viii) the London Borough of Islington, (ix) Knowsley Council, (x) Hull City Council, (xi) Liverpool City Council, (xii) Leicester City Council, (xiii) Manchester City Council, (xiv) Middlesbrough Borough Council, (xv) Newham London Borough Council, (xvi) Nottingham City Council, (xvii) Oldham Council, (xviii) Rochdale Borough Council, (xix) Salford City Council, (xx) Sandwell Council, (xxi) South Tyneside Council, (xxii) Stoke-on-Trent City Council, (xxiii) Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, (xxiv) Tower Hamlets London Borough Council and (xxv) the City of Wolverhampton Council in (A) 2018-19, (B) 2019-20, (C) 2020-21, (D) 2021-22 and (E) 2022-23.
	tabling member constituency	Barking
	tabling member printed	Dame Margaret Hodge
	uin	188174
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/06/2023 answer text <p>Information on the budget for children’s social care by individual local authorities is collected as part of the Section 251 Budget return. Information is then published in the statistical publication, ‘Planned LA and School Finance’, which is available at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure</a>.</p><p>The total budget for children’s social care for the years 2018/19, 2019/20, 2021/22 and 2022/23 for each local authority is available at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/64266413-c584-419c-9d84-08db63516a24" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/64266413-c584-419c-9d84-08db63516a24</a>.</p><p>Section 251 Budget was not collected for 2020/21 in order to reduce burdens on local authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Information on populations is available from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) here: <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlandandnorthernireland" target="_blank">https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlandandnorthernireland</a>.</p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Claire Coutinho question first answered 15/06/2023 12:37:58 answering member 4806 label Biography information for Claire Coutinho
	tabling member	140 label Biography information for Dame Margaret Hodge

1641707

	registered interest
	date	05/06/2023
	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 assessment they have made of the briefing The Cost of Delaying Reform to Children’s Social Care, published in May, which summarised analysis commissioned by the children charities Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the Children’s Society, the NSPCC, and the National Children’s Bureau.
	tabling member printed	Lord Willis of Knaresborough
	uin	HL8240
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/06/2023 answer text <p>There needs to be a fundamental shift away from crisis intervention and towards earlier intervention, and the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ Implementation Strategy and Consultation sets out how the department intend to achieve that. The consultation can be found attached. These are complex reforms, with complicated systemic interactions, and it is critical that we take a test and learn approach and make sure we have models that can be rolled out effectively.</p><p>Alongside the Implementation Strategy, the department has announced we are investing £200 million by 2024/25 to address urgent issues facing children and families, to lay the foundations for whole system reform and set national direction for change. This is on top of the £142 million invested by 2024/25 to take forward reforms to unregulated provision in children’s social care, the £160 million as announced in March 2022 to deliver our Adoption Strategy over the next three years, the £259 million to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes over the Spending Review 21 period, and the £230 million over the same period to support young people leaving care.</p><p>This is all in addition to the £3.85 billion social care grant that the government is providing to local authorities for adults and children’s social care this year.</p><p>After two years, the department will refresh the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy, and seek to scale up the new approaches we have tested and developed, including bringing forward new legislation where necessary (subject to parliamentary time).​</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 16/06/2023 13:59:49 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL8240_Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf title HL8240_pdf
	tabling member	4151 label Biography information for Lord Willis of Knaresborough