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753930

	registered interest
	date	19/07/2017
	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	Her Majesty's Government (1) which local authority children's services departments have been found by Ofsted since January 2015 to be persistently or systemically failing; (2) which were made subject to the appointment of commissioners; and (3) which are currently run by commissioners.
	tabling member printed	Lord Black of Brentwood
	uin	HL1075
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>The Department has categorised local authority children’s social care services as ‘systemic’ or ‘persistent’ failures since December 2015 when it introduced a tougher intervention regime. The following authorities have been subject to this new policy:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>LA</p></td><td><p>Systemic/Persistent</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Barnet</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bromley</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dudley</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Kirklees</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Norfolk</p></td><td><p>Persistent</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Reading</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sandwell</p></td><td><p>Persistent</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sunderland</p></td><td><p>Systemic</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Torbay</p></td><td><p>Persistent</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Worcestershire</p></td><td><p>Persistent &amp; Systemic</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>All of these authorities have been subject to the appointment of Commissioners, with the exception of Barnet where recruitment for a Commissioner has not yet concluded. These authorities retain accountability for the effective running of their children’s services. Commissioners do not run the services, but do make recommendations to the Secretary of State on whether operational control of services should be removed from the council. Where Ministers accept a recommendation that services should transfer to alternative delivery arrangements, such as a new Children’s Services Trust, Commissioners will oversee this process</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 31/07/2017 08:43:09 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4171 label Biography information for Lord Black of Brentwood

753933

	registered interest
	date	19/07/2017
	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	Her Majesty's Government what steps are being taken to improve the performance of Ofsted in responding to family members who raise matters of concern in relation to children's services departments and children's homes.
	tabling member printed	Lord Black of Brentwood
	uin	HL1079
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to you and a copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 31/07/2017 08:46:17 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4171 label Biography information for Lord Black of Brentwood

753929

	registered interest
	date	19/07/2017
	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	Her Majesty's Government what steps, short of the appointment of commissioners, they can take to deal with children's services departments which are a cause of concern.
	tabling member printed	Lord Black of Brentwood
	uin	HL1076
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>The Department for Education intervenes in all local authorities that receive an inadequate Ofsted rating for children’s services.</p><p>In the most serious cases, improvement may require statutory intervention, whereby, under the Education Act 1996, the Secretary of State is able to direct a local authority to take whatever action is deemed necessary to secure improvement. In the last few years, Ministers have directed the setting up of new governance structures, including partnering with another local authority (e.g. Isle of Wight), bringing in extra improvement support (e.g. Somerset), or establishing a Children’s Services Trust (e.g. Doncaster).</p><p>In other cases the department takes non-statutory steps, issuing an ‘improvement notice’ detailing what actions a local authority is expected to take to improve its services and closely monitoring progress. We deploy government improvement advisers who are appointed to support and challenge these authorities to make rapid progress.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 31/07/2017 08:44:14 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4171 label Biography information for Lord Black of Brentwood

755107

	registered interest
	date	20/07/2017
	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	Her Majesty's Government whether they monitor the performance of Ofsted in relation to that agency's responses to family members who raise concerns relating to (1) children's services, and (2) children's homes; and what steps, if any, they are taking to improve that performance.
	tabling member printed	Lord Black of Brentwood
	uin	HL1116
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>Ofsted is a Non-Ministerial Government Department and is not an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE). The responsibility for performance rests with Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, with oversight undertaken by the Ofsted Board. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector also reports to the Education Select Committee on matters relating to Ofsted’s performance.</p><p>Officials from DfE’s and Ofsted’s social care teams engage with one another frequently so that any policy or operational issues, including how concerns raised by families are dealt with, can be addressed. Where appropriate DfE raises issues of concern with Ofsted and refers members of the public to Ofsted’s complaints procedure.</p><p>The details of how Ofsted addresses improvement in performance on these matters will be placed in the libraries of the House.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 31/07/2017 08:46:52 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4171 label Biography information for Lord Black of Brentwood

753932

	registered interest
	date	19/07/2017
	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	Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish the current detailed business plans of those sections of the Department for Education dealing with child welfare.
	tabling member printed	Lord Black of Brentwood
	uin	HL1078
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2017 answer text <p>The department has recently responded to the Public Accounts Committee on this question. The department agrees it is appropriate to set out its vision with timescales, as it has done in ‘<em>Putting Children First’</em><em>.</em> The department will also produce a roadmap of how the Department intends to transform services, which will be a publically available document. This will address the challenge in the NAO report and set out more clearly a timeframe for delivery of the reforms.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 31/07/2017 08:46:01 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4171 label Biography information for Lord Black of Brentwood

935189

	registered interest
	date	05/07/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy and efficacy of children's services in the light of the number of children being placed in child protection and being received into local authority care.
	tabling member printed	Lord Ouseley
	uin	HL9306
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2018 answer text <p>Ofsted assesses the effectiveness of all local authority children’s social care services departments in England through its inspection programme. Nearly two thirds of the country’s most vulnerable children are being served by local authorities where care is not yet rated as ‘Good’. The government acts quickly and decisively to intervene in local authorities found to be failing in their delivery of children’s services but we want to do more to get ahead of failure and develop a system where improvement for children’s social care is continuous and sustainable. We are investing more than £250 million through our Innovation Programme and Partners in Practice Programme to help local authorities learn from what works, and to support improvement in the sector.</p><p> </p><p>We want every child to be in a loving, stable home that is right for them. Whilst in most cases children are best looked after by their birth families, a child may be taken into care as a last resort, in the interests of their safety.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/07/2018 16:34:15 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	2170 label Biography information for Lord Ouseley

845365

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs to local authorities of children referred to children's services in each of the last five years.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bassam of Brighton
	uin	HL5565
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>Local authority spend in the last five years on looked after children and adoption services, and child protection and safeguarding services can be found in the below table:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>2012-13</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014-15</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015-16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2016-17</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>£5.46 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.69 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.90 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.17 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.50 billion</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: S251 Outturn data 2012/13 – 2016/17, ‘Total Children Looked After’ plus ‘Total Safeguarding Children and Young People's Services’.</p><p> </p><p>The numbers presented in the table do not include services provided, for example, under Family Support Services, where it is unknown as to whether children have been referred to children’s social care.</p><p>Local authorities increased spending on children and young people’s services to around £9.2 billion in 2016-17. The government provides funding annually for children’s services through the general, ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ approved by Parliament. Children’s services funding is not ring-fenced within the wider settlement.</p><p>The Local Government Association’s analysis is based on changes to elements of local government funding that can be spent on children’s services (including core council tax, locally retained business rates, the Revenue Support Grant and the Education Services Grant). It also includes a potential increase in demand for services arising from population trends and inflation.</p><p>The government recognises the role that councils play in providing services such as children’s social care. Local authorities in England will have access to more than <br> £200 billion to deliver these services between 2015/16 and 2019/20. This year’s finance settlement for local government will see a real term increase in resources available to councils, from £44.3 billion in 2017/18 to £45.6 billion in 2019/20. Local authorities will have two years of real term increases in resources.</p><p>To help the children’s social care sector innovate and re-design service delivery to achieve higher quality and better value for money, the department has invested almost £250 million since 2014 in our ‘Innovation Programme’ and ‘Partners in Practice Programme’. As part of this, the department has committed £20 million to provide additional support to local authorities where the risk of service failure is highest.</p><p>The former Department of Health has also committed an additional £1.4 billion for mental health services for children, young people and new mothers in the five years up to 2020; and the Government has been consulting on the green paper Transforming children and young people's mental health provision – which includes proposals to provide additional provision in support of mental health and wellbeing backed with a further £300 million in funding.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL5566 HL5567 question first answered 06/03/2018 17:42:09 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	3504 label Biography information for Lord Bassam of Brighton

809596

	registered interest
	date	19/12/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the estimate by the Local Government Association that there will be a £2 billion funding gap in children’s social care by 2019–20.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bertin
	uin	HL4305
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2018 answer text <p>Local authorities increased spending on children and young people’s services to £9.2 billion in 2016-17. The government provides funding annually for children’s services through the general, ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ approved by Parliament. Children’s services funding is not ring-fenced within the wider settlement.</p><p>The Local Government Association’s analysis is based on changes to elements of local government funding that can be spent on children’s services (including core council tax, locally retained business rates, the Revenue Support Grant and the Education Services Grant). It also includes a potential increase in demand for services arising from population trends and inflation.</p><p>The government recognises the role that councils play in providing services such as children’s social care. Local authorities in England will have access to more than £200 billion to deliver these services between 2015-16 and 2019-20. This year’s finance settlement for local government will see a real term increase in resources available to councils, from £44.3 billion in 2017-18 to £45.6 billion in 2019-20. Local authorities will have two years of real term increases in resources.</p><p>To help the children’s social care sector innovate and re-design service delivery to achieve higher quality and better value for money, the department has invested £200 million since 2014 in our ‘Innovation Programme’ and ‘Partners in Practice Programme’. As part of this, the department has committed £20 million to provide additional support to local authorities where the risk of service failure is highest.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 05/01/2018 13:36:18 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4577 label Biography information for Baroness Bertin

845367

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on service users of the projected £2 billion funding shortfall in children’s services by 2020 as forecast by the Local Government Association.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bassam of Brighton
	uin	HL5567
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>Local authority spend in the last five years on looked after children and adoption services, and child protection and safeguarding services can be found in the below table:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>2012-13</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014-15</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015-16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2016-17</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>£5.46 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.69 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.90 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.17 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.50 billion</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: S251 Outturn data 2012/13 – 2016/17, ‘Total Children Looked After’ plus ‘Total Safeguarding Children and Young People's Services’.</p><p> </p><p>The numbers presented in the table do not include services provided, for example, under Family Support Services, where it is unknown as to whether children have been referred to children’s social care.</p><p>Local authorities increased spending on children and young people’s services to around £9.2 billion in 2016-17. The government provides funding annually for children’s services through the general, ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ approved by Parliament. Children’s services funding is not ring-fenced within the wider settlement.</p><p>The Local Government Association’s analysis is based on changes to elements of local government funding that can be spent on children’s services (including core council tax, locally retained business rates, the Revenue Support Grant and the Education Services Grant). It also includes a potential increase in demand for services arising from population trends and inflation.</p><p>The government recognises the role that councils play in providing services such as children’s social care. Local authorities in England will have access to more than <br> £200 billion to deliver these services between 2015/16 and 2019/20. This year’s finance settlement for local government will see a real term increase in resources available to councils, from £44.3 billion in 2017/18 to £45.6 billion in 2019/20. Local authorities will have two years of real term increases in resources.</p><p>To help the children’s social care sector innovate and re-design service delivery to achieve higher quality and better value for money, the department has invested almost £250 million since 2014 in our ‘Innovation Programme’ and ‘Partners in Practice Programme’. As part of this, the department has committed £20 million to provide additional support to local authorities where the risk of service failure is highest.</p><p>The former Department of Health has also committed an additional £1.4 billion for mental health services for children, young people and new mothers in the five years up to 2020; and the Government has been consulting on the green paper Transforming children and young people's mental health provision – which includes proposals to provide additional provision in support of mental health and wellbeing backed with a further £300 million in funding.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL5565 HL5566 question first answered 06/03/2018 17:42:09 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	3504 label Biography information for Lord Bassam of Brighton

788927

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in the report by the Local Government Association, Bright Futures—getting the best for children, young people and families.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL3236
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2017 answer text <p>The government has noted the Local Government Association’s (LGA) recommendations in their report, Bright Futures – getting the best for children, young people and families. We are continuing to work closely with the LGA, and wider children’s sector, to develop and deliver the government’s strategy to ensure all children receive high quality care and support.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 28/11/2017 11:56:15 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding

797318

	registered interest
	date	29/11/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government what education and training on the culture of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities is provided to social workers who assess children for care or adoption.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Whitaker
	uin	HL3750
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/12/2017 answer text <p>The Chief Social Worker’s statement of knowledge and skills, published in November 2014, sets out our expectation of what all child and family social workers need to know and be able to do, to practice effectively. A separate knowledge and skills statement for achieving permanence, published in November 2016, explains how social workers should make long-term plans for children who are looked after or may become looked-after children.</p><p>Following registration, employers of social workers are responsible for determining the support and training they make available to social workers to meet the social care needs of children.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 13/12/2017 17:54:59 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	2510 label Biography information for Baroness Whitaker

942049

	registered interest
	date	16/07/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what measures they plan to put in place to prevent vulnerable children being taken into local authority care for their own safety due to underfunded local safeguarding services.
	tabling member printed	Lord Ouseley
	uin	HL9563
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2018 answer text <p>The government wants every child to be in the stable, loving home that is right for them. One of the key principles of the legislation which underpins England’s child protection system is that children are best looked after within their families. However, as a last resort, local authorities may apply to the independent courts for a decision about removing a child from his or her family – for the child’s safety. In making these decisions, the courts must be satisfied that the threshold for significant harm has been met and that taking the child from his or her family’s care will be in the child’s best interests.</p><p>The government set out its vision for delivering excellent children’s social care in ‘Putting Children First’. This outlines our reform programme which seeks to: improve the quality of social work practice; create systems and environments where great social work can flourish; promote learning and multi-agency working where all involved in supporting children and families can work together; and support children who both enter and leave the care system.</p><p>The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver the local services their communities want to see, including children’s services. In February, Parliament confirmed the 2018-19 settlement for local government, which has provided a £1.3 billion increase in resources to local government over the next two years, from £44.3 billion in 2017-18 to £45.6 billion in 2019-20. In addition, the current business rates retention scheme is yielding strong results. Local authorities estimate that in 2018-19 they will keep around £2.4 billion in business rates growth. This is on top of the core settlement funding. Funding for children’s services is an un-ring fenced part of the wider local government finance settlement. Local authorities have used this flexibility to increase spending on the most vulnerable children by around a £1 billion since 2010.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 25/07/2018 13:07:13 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	2170 label Biography information for Lord Ouseley

995641

	registered interest
	date	26/10/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to allocate additional funding to children’s services.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL11066
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/11/2018 answer text <p>Autumn Budget 2018 made £410 million available to local authorities, in 2019/20, for adult and children social care. The government also announced £84 million in targeted, evidence-based interventions which will transform services to reduce demand, saving money for local authorities but most importantly, improving the quality of services for our most vulnerable children.</p><p>The government will continue to work closely with the sector and other government departments to consider long-term children’s services funding as part of the upcoming spending review.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 09/11/2018 11:36:57 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding

846652

	registered interest
	date	21/02/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received regarding the funding of children’s services from (1) fostering and adoption agencies, (2) local authorities, (3) private providers, (4) nurseries, and (5) parents.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bassam of Brighton
	uin	HL5707
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/03/2018 answer text <p>The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is due to the volume of representations over a significant period of time.</p><p> </p><p>The government is listening to the views of the sector and service users, including about funding for children’s social care. The department meets regularly with sector representatives including local government, private providers and the voluntary sector. Discussions have included sector concerns around funding and demands on children’s services. In addition, the government is currently conducting a technical consultation as part of the Fair Funding Review of relative needs and resources. This review is seeking views on what factors drive local government spending, and how we account for this in a way that draws a more transparent link between local circumstances and local resources.</p><p> </p><p>The department regularly receives correspondence from private childcare providers, nurseries and other early years settings on a wide variety of topics related to the early years, including our funding rates. Getting our funding rates right is key to the successful delivery of our childcare entitlements, and the department is happy to hear from providers and other organisations.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As a result of consultations on schools and high needs funding in 2017 we received over 25,000 responses from local authorities, schools and other education providers, parents and others. The results of that consultation were published in September 2017 and a copy is attached. Since then the department has continued to receive representations from local authorities, schools and others about the funding allocated for children’s education.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 07/03/2018 15:36:57 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton attachment 1 file name HL5707a Attachment 1.pdf title National Funding Formula Policy Document
	tabling member	3504 label Biography information for Lord Bassam of Brighton

845366

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2018
	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 Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities are properly funded to deal with all children referred to children's services.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bassam of Brighton
	uin	HL5566
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>Local authority spend in the last five years on looked after children and adoption services, and child protection and safeguarding services can be found in the below table:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>2012-13</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014-15</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015-16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2016-17</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>£5.46 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.69 billion</p></td><td><p>£5.90 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.17 billion</p></td><td><p>£6.50 billion</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: S251 Outturn data 2012/13 – 2016/17, ‘Total Children Looked After’ plus ‘Total Safeguarding Children and Young People's Services’.</p><p> </p><p>The numbers presented in the table do not include services provided, for example, under Family Support Services, where it is unknown as to whether children have been referred to children’s social care.</p><p>Local authorities increased spending on children and young people’s services to around £9.2 billion in 2016-17. The government provides funding annually for children’s services through the general, ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ approved by Parliament. Children’s services funding is not ring-fenced within the wider settlement.</p><p>The Local Government Association’s analysis is based on changes to elements of local government funding that can be spent on children’s services (including core council tax, locally retained business rates, the Revenue Support Grant and the Education Services Grant). It also includes a potential increase in demand for services arising from population trends and inflation.</p><p>The government recognises the role that councils play in providing services such as children’s social care. Local authorities in England will have access to more than <br> £200 billion to deliver these services between 2015/16 and 2019/20. This year’s finance settlement for local government will see a real term increase in resources available to councils, from £44.3 billion in 2017/18 to £45.6 billion in 2019/20. Local authorities will have two years of real term increases in resources.</p><p>To help the children’s social care sector innovate and re-design service delivery to achieve higher quality and better value for money, the department has invested almost £250 million since 2014 in our ‘Innovation Programme’ and ‘Partners in Practice Programme’. As part of this, the department has committed £20 million to provide additional support to local authorities where the risk of service failure is highest.</p><p>The former Department of Health has also committed an additional £1.4 billion for mental health services for children, young people and new mothers in the five years up to 2020; and the Government has been consulting on the green paper Transforming children and young people's mental health provision – which includes proposals to provide additional provision in support of mental health and wellbeing backed with a further £300 million in funding.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL5565 HL5567 question first answered 06/03/2018 17:42:09 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	3504 label Biography information for Lord Bassam of Brighton

796024

	registered interest
	date	28/11/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government whether any assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the operating models of social care trusts in relation to improving local children’s services.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL3672
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2017 answer text <p>A small proportion of local councils have arrangements whereby some or the entirety of their service is run at arms’ length from the council, through a children’s services trust, including some that are in intervention. In two of these councils, Doncaster and Slough, the department established an independent trust after children’s social care services were found to be systemically and persistently inadequate.</p><p> </p><p>An evaluation of Doncaster Children’s Services Trust shows it was viewed favourably by its staff and has had a positive affect on culture and practice: the investment in staff, quality assurance and the way that the Trust communicates its work has led to a shift in culture. This has led to improved staff morale, workforce stability and some practice improvements. For example, the use of agency workers and staff turnover has reduced; and staff reported spending more time with children and families. However, it is too early to determine whether these changes will result in sustained improvements for children and families. An evaluation of Slough Children’s Services Trust is in progress.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Other alternative operating models are being tested by councils who are not in intervention. For example, ‘Achieving for Children’ (AfC) is a social enterprise company, set up and jointly owned by two councils, Richmond-upon-Thames and Kingston-upon-Thames. It has recently been funded by the Department for Education to expand to three more councils, the first of which is Windsor and Maidenhead, who joined in August 2017. A Department for Education review, published in 2016, into the establishment of AfC suggested that the main benefits of its creation were: better service quality; better staff engagement; higher levels of innovation; better recruitment and retention; and savings from the combining of services across the two local councils and the development of alternative revenue streams.</p><p> </p><p>The department is keen to broaden the developing evidence base on the potential of alternative delivery models to bring better outcomes for local councils. We are funding four projects to explore this through its ‘Innovation Programme’, and will be evaluating their efficacy.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 12/12/2017 17:37:45 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding

792457

	registered interest
	date	20/11/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government whether any evaluation has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of the Partners in Practice programme in improving local authority children’s services.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL3398
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2017 answer text <p>The Partners in Practice are a key part of this government’s efforts to improve practice across the children’s social care system and deliver better outcomes for children and families. The Partners in Practice are driving improvement by providing high quality support to those local councils who need it most. They are also developing and testing innovative approaches to supporting children and families, and sharing learning and best practice across the sector.</p><p>Building a robust evidence base is central to the programme and the Partners in Practice are all subject to detailed independent evaluation. Interim evaluation reports will be published in early 2019, with final reports due to be published in mid-2020. The Partners in Practice are also actively sharing live learning and best practice through conferences, workshops, study visits, guides and toolkits.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 04/12/2017 17:18:40 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding

768542

	registered interest
	date	11/10/2017
	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 Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish an independent inquiry into variation in access to children's services across England and the consequent impact on outcomes for vulnerable children; and if so, when.
	tabling member printed	Lord Judd
	uin	HL1896
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2017 answer text <p>Under the Children Act 1989, local councils have responsibility to provide services for the purposes of safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. It is important that every local council has clear criteria for taking action and providing help across the full continuum of need. Local Safeguarding Children Boards (and their replacements under new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements) should agree with the local council and their partners what services are to be commissioned and delivered so that the right help is given to children at the right time.</p><p>The government is supporting best practice, for example, through the dissemination of learning from the £200 million Social Care Innovation Fund, through which we have invested £5 million specifically to test targeted support to improve outcomes for children in need. In future, the new What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care will become the first port of call for evidence and latest research on the impact of government programmes, helping to inform local service design.</p><p>The government does not have plans to establish its own independent inquiry into children’s social care but we are engaging with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s newly announced inquiry into thresholds for children’s social care, a follow up to their ‘No Good Options’ report of March 2017. We will consider the inquiry’s findings in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 25/10/2017 15:04:54 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	1660 label Biography information for Lord Judd

999700

	registered interest
	date	01/11/2018
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.16 of Budget 2018, how the £410 million for adult and children social care will be distributed among local councils.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	187040
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2018 answer text <p>Details of the distributional allocation of the funding will be provided by the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government in due course.</p> answering member constituency South West Norfolk answering member printed Elizabeth Truss question first answered 06/11/2018 15:30:42 answering member 4097 label Biography information for Elizabeth Truss
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

999699

	registered interest
	date	01/11/2018
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.16 of Budget 2018, what proportion of the £410 million for adult and children social care is for children's social care.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	187039
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2018 answer text <p>Where necessary, local authorities should use the funding to ensure adult social care pressures don’t create additional pressure on the NHS, and councils can also use it to improve their offer for older people, people with disabilities, and children.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South West Norfolk answering member printed Elizabeth Truss question first answered 06/11/2018 15:34:44 answering member 4097 label Biography information for Elizabeth Truss
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

834252

	registered interest
	date	31/01/2018
	answering body	Cabinet Office
	answering dept id	53
	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2018 to Question 120865, if he will publish the reports (a) his Department and (b) other Government Departments have produced as a result of work to track the number of looked after children or children subject to child protection or child in need plans.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	125880
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2018 answer text <p>Referring to the answer of 25 January 2018 to Question 120865, it is not the practice of the Government to disclose internal discussions and advice to Ministers.</p> answering member constituency Aylesbury answering member printed Mr David Lidington question first answered 05/02/2018 14:47:10 answering member 15 label Biography information for Sir David Lidington
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

810520

	registered interest
	date	21/12/2017
	answering body	Cabinet Office
	answering dept id	53
	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which reports or reviews have been commissioned or conducted by his Department in respect of the number of looked after children or children subject to child protection or child in need plans.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	120865
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2018 answer text <p>The Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister by tracking the delivery of the Government's programme​. This includes working with departments to track the number of looked after children or children subject to child protection or child in need plans.​</p> answering member constituency Aylesbury answering member printed Mr David Lidington question first answered 25/01/2018 16:27:23 answering member 15 label Biography information for Sir David Lidington
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

790928

	registered interest
	date	23/11/2017
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Children: Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change in funding from her Department was for (a) Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, (b) Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, (c) Manchester City Council, (d) Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, (e) Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, (f) Salford City Council, (g) Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, (h) Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, (i) Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council and (j) Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council for children's social care in (i) 2014-15, (ii) 2015-16, (iii) 2016-17 and (iv) 2017-18; and what the average reduction in local authority funding in England was for children's social care in each of those years.
	tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
	tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
	uin	113616
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/11/2017 answer text <p>Full details of the councils' funding are detailed in the Local Government Finance Settlement, which is published on the Government's website at the following link:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2017-to-2018</a></p><p>Funding for children's social care is not ring fenced because this allows local authorities, who are independent of central Government, to manage their budgets in line with local priorities. We believe it is important that councils are able to set the policy agenda and target spending to match.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Nuneaton answering member printed Mr Marcus Jones question first answered 29/11/2017 16:47:30 answering member 4024 label Biography information for Mr Marcus Jones
	tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

1126881

	registered interest
	date	15/05/2019
	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, by how much local authorities overspent on the provision of children’s social care in the year ending 31 March 2018; and what assessment he has made of the future financial sustainability of local government children’s services departments based on current levels of overspend.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol East
	tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
	uin	254773
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>Local authorities are required under Section 251 of the ‘Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009’ to submit education and children’s social care budget and expenditure statements. This data is published in statistical releases annually. The most recent release shows local authorities had a difference of approximately £1 billion in 2017-18 when their planned spend is compared to their actual spend.</p><p>Funding for children’s services is made available through the Local Government Finance Settlement. We are in the final year of a multi-year settlement deal and have made £46.4 billion available this year for local services including those for children’s services. The government has also made £410 million available to local authorities this year specifically for adult and children social care.</p><p>My department is working with the sector, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and with HM Treasury, as part of our preparation for the next Spending Review, to understand the level of funding local government needs to meet demand and deliver statutory duties.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 22/05/2019 11:29:48 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi previous answer version 118964 answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

1105173

	registered interest
	date	26/03/2019
	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, for what reason his Department did not hold meetings with concerned charities when it received the letter of September 2018 on his Department's myth-busting document from experts and organisations.
	tabling member constituency	South Shields
	tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
	uin	237130
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/04/2019 answer text <p>The publication of the myth-busting guide, published in July 2018, was intended to clarify certain areas of the statutory guidance which practitioners had said were ambiguous or had given rise to incorrect assumptions about what is permissible.</p><p>When we received the letter from children’s rights organisations and experts we replied to make clear that nothing in the guide sought to alter legislation and that statutory guidance remained in force.</p><p>Our statutory guidance continues to set out how local authorities should operate in order to provide the best services for vulnerable children and young people and make sure everyone is given the chance to succeed.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi grouped question UIN 237129 237131 question first answered 01/04/2019 14:13:14 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck