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1718759

registered interest
date	16/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Childcare
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) improve the quality of and (b) increase the affordability of childcare in (i) Wandsworth and (ii) the UK.
tabling member constituency	Putney
tabling member printed	Fleur Anderson
uin	26772
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is determined to support as many families as possible with access to high-quality, affordable childcare, which is why the 2023 Spring Budget announced significant new investments to expand the free early education entitlements from April 2024.</p><p> </p><p>The department is providing over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for working parents with children aged nine months to three years in England. This will remove one of the biggest barriers to parents working by vastly increasing the amount of free childcare that working families can access. This is set to save working families using the fully-funded 30 hours up to £6,900 per year from when the child is nine months old until they are five years old by September next year.</p><p> </p><p>Already, over 200,000 two year olds are now confirmed to have places for 15 hours a week of free childcare, as part of the largest ever expansion of childcare in England. The take up nationwide for the validation codes already stands at 87.8%.</p><p>Funding will be key to delivering the existing and expanded childcare entitlements, so the department has substantially uplifted the hourly rate paid to local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. In 2024/25 alone, the department expects to provide over £1.7 billion to support local authorities and providers deliver the expansion to the early years entitlements. This is on top of over £400 million additional funding to deliver a significant uplift to the hourly rate paid to local authorities for the entitlements. The rates for the new entitlements have been independently confirmed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies to be well above market rates. For 2024/25, the department’s hourly funding rates for Wandsworth are: £15.21 for under twos, £11.17 for two year olds and £7.72 for three to four year olds.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, to ensure local authorities are fully supported in delivering the new entitlements, the department is funding local authorities an additional four weeks in 2024/25, at an estimated cost of £120 million, for the under twos working parent entitlement starting in September 2024.</p><p> </p><p>The quality of early years provision is a priority for the department. Evidence shows that high-quality early childhood education and care has a positive impact on children’s outcomes in the short and long term, particularly for the most disadvantaged children. Additionally, the department has invested up to £180 million in providing an early years education recovery package of workforce training, qualifications and support and guidance for the early years sector. This includes:</p><ul><li>Additional places for early years initial teacher training.</li><li>New level 3 qualifications criteria for early years educators to ensure higher-quality training and better care for children, which will come into effect from September 2024.</li></ul><p> </p><p>In addition to the expanded entitlements, the government has also taken action to support parents on Universal Credit with childcare costs upfront when they need it, rather than in arrears. The department has increased support for these parents by increasing the childcare cost maximum amounts to £950 for one child and £1629 for two children.</p><p> </p><p>Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0 to 11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children. This can save parents up to £2,000 per year, or up to £4,000 for eligible children with disabilities and has the same income criteria as 30 hours free childcare.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 23/05/2024 16:52:02 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4788 label Biography information for Fleur Anderson

1718323

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Foster Care: Barnet
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help increase the number of foster care placements in the London Borough of Barnet.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	26420
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost the number of foster carers recruited, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers that we have.</p><p> </p><p>Greater financial support for foster carers will help to improve the experience of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For the 2024/2025 financial year, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year, as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:02 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1718324

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care: Barnet
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 trends in the number of looked-after children in the London Borough of Barnet.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	26421
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The latest information on the number of looked after children at 31 March 2023 for the last five years by local authority, region and for England can be found in table LAA1 in the statistical release ‘Children Looked After in England: Including Adoption: 2022 to 2023’ at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2022-to-2023" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2022-to-2023</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Additional information on the numbers of looked after children can be found in the local authority interactive tool on GOV.UK. This shows rates of children looked after in Barnet are consistently below those of comparator areas and have remained broadly static in rate per 10,000.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 23/05/2024 16:34:47 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1718468

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to help increase the rate of reunification of children in kinship care with their birth families.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26536
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26537 26538 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718469

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact of local authority specialist family reunification teams on trends in the number of children who have been reunited with their birth parents in the last 10 years.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26537
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26536 26538 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718470

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring local authorities to (a) measure and (b) publish their performance on reuniting children in kinship care with their birth parents.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26538
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26536 26537 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1717861

registered interest
date	14/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Mental health services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help provide mental health support in schools for young people suffering from eating disorders.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	26163
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2024 answer text <p>Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.</p><p> </p><p>Having an eating disorder can often be devastating for young people suffering with the condition, as well as for those around them, which is why the department wants to ensure they have access to the right support, in the right place and at the right time.</p><p>​</p><p>Schools play a vital role in children’s mental health by promoting wellbeing and providing early targeted support and the department is committed to helping them do so effectively.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s statutory health education curriculum, which should be taught in all schools from primary, includes a strong focus on mental health. This includes teaching pupils how to identify the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns and where and how to seek support if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental health. As part of the secondary health curriculum, schools can teach pupils how to be safe and healthy and manage their lives in a positive way, seeking support when needed. They can also teach about eating disorders, drawing on qualified support or advice as needed for this specialist area. The statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education is currently under review. The department will be carrying out a full public consultation on the new guidance as soon as possible, and will be considering what more the department can do to strengthen content on eating disorders.</p><p> </p><p>Early intervention is key when a child or young person is experiencing a mental health issue, including problems with eating. To expand access to early mental health support, including supporting schools in liaising with specialist services regarding eating disorders, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2024, MHSTs now cover 44% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. The department is extending coverage of MHSTs to at least 50% of pupils and learners by the end of March 2025.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2016, extra funding has also gone into children and young people's community eating disorder services every year, with £53 million per year from 2021/22, rising to £54 million in 2023/24.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 22/05/2024 15:25:28 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1717979

registered interest
date	14/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Childcare: Suffolk
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase childcare provision in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency and (b) Suffolk.
tabling member constituency	Suffolk Coastal
tabling member printed	Dr Thérèse Coffey
uin	26129
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is providing over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week, or 38 weeks per year, for working parents with children aged 9 months to 3 years in England. This will remove one of the biggest barriers to parents working by vastly increasing the amount of free childcare that working families can access. Already, over 200,000 two year olds are now confirmed to have places for 15 hours a week of free childcare, as part of the largest ever expansion of childcare in England, and the rates for the new entitlements have been independently confirmed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to be above market rates. The take up nationwide for the validation codes already stands at 87.8%.</p><p> </p><p>Funding will be key to delivering the existing and expanded childcare entitlements, so the department has substantially uplifted the hourly rate paid to local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. In 2024/25 alone, the department expects to provide over £1.7 billion to support local authorities and providers deliver the expansion to the early years entitlements, on top of over £400 million additional funding to deliver a significant uplift to the hourly rate paid to local authorities for the entitlements. Furthermore, to ensure local authorities are fully supported in delivering the new entitlements, the department is funding local authorities an additional four weeks in 2024/25, at an estimated cost of £120 million, for the under 2s working parent entitlement starting in September 2024.</p><p><br> The department’s methodology and the uplift to the rates are informed by data it receives from providers and parents to ensure the department is meeting the pressures faced by the sector. The department regularly surveys a nationally representative sample of over 9,000 providers to gain insights into how they run their provision and the challenges they face. The department also regularly surveys over 6,000 parents to understand their usage of childcare.</p><p> </p><p>For 2024/25, the department’s hourly funding rates for Suffolk are £10.52 for under 2s, £7.74 for 2 year olds and £5.50 for 3 to 4 year olds.</p><p><br> To support the workforce, on 2 February 2024, the department launched ‘Do something Big, work with small children’, which is a new national recruitment campaign to support the recruitment and retention of talented staff to support the expansion of the 30 hours offer. This campaign will raise the profile of the sector, support the recruitment of talented staff and recognise the lifelong impact those working in early years and childcare have on children and their families.</p><p>The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity. The department will continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places across the sector. The department’s ‘Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey’ shows that both the number of places available and the workforce has increased since 2022.</p><p><br> Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract. Suffolk has not reported any sufficiency challenges.</p><p> </p><p>The department will continue to work closely with the sector on the implementation of these reforms as it delivers this substantial expansion.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 22/05/2024 15:23:34 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey

1717992

registered interest
date	14/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Suffolk
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in schools in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
tabling member constituency	Suffolk Coastal
tabling member printed	Dr Thérèse Coffey
uin	26142
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2024 answer text <p>The department shares the ambition that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should receive the vital support they need.</p><p> </p><p>Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a set of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.</p><p> </p><p>In March 2024, the department announced Unity Schools Partnership would run a new special education free school in Suffolk for pupils with severe learning difficulties. This is in addition to the six open special free schools in Suffolk already.</p><p> </p><p>The department is opening over 200 special free schools and, in total, providing over 21,000 places for pupils with special educational needs. Over 10,000 of these places have already been delivered.</p><p> </p><p>A joint local area SEND inspection was undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in November 2023. The local area partnership received an outcome of ‘widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns’. The inspection report was published on 30 January 2024. The Local Area Partnership has since produced a Priority Action Plan which sets out how they will address the two Areas for Priority Action and has also updated its strategic SEND Improvement Plan.</p><p> </p><p>Total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which represents an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Suffolk County Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £113.9 million in the 2024/25 financial year, which is a cumulative increase of 31% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 22/05/2024 15:24:53 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey

1718047

registered interest
date	14/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) children and (b) adults have required a SEND placement in each of the last 20 years.
tabling member constituency	Redditch
tabling member printed	Rachel Maclean
uin	26239
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2024 answer text <p>The department recognises that special educational needs (SEN) is a broad term, and that a child is defined as having a SEN if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. The Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan process is driven by a child's needs rather than any diagnosis they might have. The EHC needs assessment identifies the child or young person’s SEN, together with any relevant health or social care needs. The local authority, with advice from its partners, then considers whether to issue an EHC plan, which specifies provision to meet each identified need. The ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ makes it clear that meeting the needs of a child or young person with SEN does not require a diagnostic label or test. The ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have SEN that requires an EHC plan if they are requested to do so.</p><p>The department does not hold a breakdown by age group of individuals assessed over the last 10 years because the SEN2 collection has changed into an individual level collection from an aggregate level last year. Therefore, there is one year (2022) that shows the number of assessments carried out broken down by single years of age, which is attached.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of figures over time, the number of people assessed for a statement (which were replaced in 2014 by EHC plans, with no new statements since 2015), the number of individuals assessed for an EHC plan, and the number of people assessed where an EHC plan was issued are available at the following link: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b4f6814c-b0da-43d1-0b12-08dc74c3bb80" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b4f6814c-b0da-43d1-0b12-08dc74c3bb80</a></p><p> </p><p>The department publishes information about SEN and EHC plans annually on the GOV.UK website. The information for the 2022/23 academic year can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england</a>. The data for the 2023 reporting year can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans</a>.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26242 26243 question first answered 22/05/2024 15:26:46 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston attachment 1 file name 26239 26242 26243 Table attachment.xlsx title 26239_26242_26243_Table_attachment
tabling member	4668 label Biography information for Rachel Maclean