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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

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

749228

registered interest
date	06/07/2017
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 assessment they have made of the report of the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the public cost of student loans.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL564
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/07/2017 answer text <p>The Government has noted the recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.</p><p> </p><p>The student funding system is fair and sustainable. The cost of the system is not an unintended loss, nor a waste of public money. It is the policy subsidy required to make higher education widely available, achieving the Government’s objectives of increasing the skills in the economy and ensuring access to university for all with the potential to benefit.</p><p> </p><p>Andreas Schleicher of the OECD said in September 2016 that “the UK has been able to meet rising demand for tertiary education with more resources…by finding effective ways to share the costs and benefits”.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 20/07/2017 14:39:04 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

749230

registered interest
date	06/07/2017
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 is their response to the analysis in the report of the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the public cost of student loans that, for each £1 loaned to cover costs of tuition and maintenance, the long-term cost to the Treasury is 43.3p.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL566
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/08/2017 answer text <p>The Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge estimates the value of loans that will not be repaid during their 30-year term. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the loan outlay made in the relevant year.</p><p> </p><p>The estimate of the RAB charge referenced in the question appears to have been taken from the 2014 Institute for Fiscal Studies report on “Estimating the public cost of student loans”. However, the most recently published Institute for Fiscal Studies report of July 2017 has updated this estimate to 31.3%. This is broadly similar to the Government’s estimate of the RAB charge at around 30% for full time tuition fee and maintenance loans and part time fee loans issued in 2016/17.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Sugg question first answered 09/08/2017 16:22:22 answering member 4584 label Biography information for Baroness Sugg
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

749231

registered interest
date	06/07/2017
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 is their response to the estimate in the report of the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the public cost of student loans that the total cost of the taxpayer contribution in respect of young full-time undergraduates enrolling in English universities in 2012 is only five per cent lower than the estimated cost for that cohort had the changes to higher education funding not been introduced.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL567
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/08/2017 answer text <p>The most recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report (“Higher Education funding in England: past, present and options for the future”) of July 2017 states that the long run cost of the 2017 system in 2017 is £5.9 billion, 35% lower than the £9.0 billion that is the equivalent cost of the 2011 system.</p><p> </p><p>The figure of 5% was in a 2014 report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Sugg question first answered 09/08/2017 16:18:49 answering member 4584 label Biography information for Baroness Sugg
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

642884

registered interest
date	23/11/2016
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, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 16 November (HL3148), whether they will publish the questionnaire used in the Children's Services Omnibus Survey before they publish the research report.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL3486
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2016 answer text <p>The Department for Education intends to publish the questionnaire from the first Children’s Services Omnibus Survey in Spring 2017, as part of the research report. This is standard practice for research reports. There are no plans to publish the questionnaire prior to this.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 07/12/2016 17:56:39 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

632750

registered interest
date	09/11/2016
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, further to the remarks by Lord Nash on 6 July (HL Deb, col GC248), whether they will provide more details of the children's service omnibus survey, including how they intend to frame the request to local authorities about how they analyse demands for services; and whether they plan to consult on the construction of the questionnaire, and if so, when and with whom.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL3148
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/11/2016 answer text <p>The Department for Education (DfE) Children’s Services Survey, also referred to as the Children’s Services Omnibus Survey, is conducted by an independent research agency, NatCen social research, on behalf of the DfE.</p><p> </p><p>The survey has been funded for two years and will survey local authorities twice a year. The survey will help the DfE understand key issues facing children’s services and local authorities’ experiences of implementing different policies, focusing on Early Years and Childcare, Children’s Social Care and Special Educational Needs and Disability.</p><p> </p><p>The first survey was completed by local authorities in October 2016. The results from this survey will be published in a research report on the Government’s website, www.gov.uk, in spring 2017.</p><p> </p><p>One of the topics local authorities were asked about in the first survey was their use of data to analyse need for services. Local authorities were asked how confident they feel that their authority is able to identify unmet needs for individual children and families. Local authorities were also asked if they have a function or team that is able to (a) analyse the demand for children’s social care; (b) compare the cost of different interventions to make planning decisions for children’s services, (c) assess the impact of different interventions to make planning decisions for children’s services; and (d) identify unmet needs for individual children and families. The questionnaire for the second survey is currently in development.</p><p> </p><p>Questions for the survey are proposed by policy officials to the research team, and these are developed with an advisory group of local authority representatives. The survey is piloted in 20 local authorities; data and feedback from the pilot is used to develop the final questionnaire. The final questionnaire is signed off by children’s services policy directors.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 16/11/2016 15:24:57 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

592915

registered interest
date	03/10/2016
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 conclusions they have drawn from the research commissioned by the Department for Education in 2010 into the development of government guidance on governance arrangements in children’s services: <i>Research governance in children’s services: the scope for new advice</i>.
tabling member printed	Lord Ramsbotham
uin	HL2041
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/10/2016 answer text <p>This report highlighted the importance of governance and ethical consideration in children’s services research. The report suggested that at the time of the research, local practice was variable, but there were, and still are, a number of accepted research governance arrangements in place for local authorities and other research organisations to seek guidance and approval, including the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), the Social Research Association, the NSPCC, and university ethics boards. The Department for Education has concluded that these arrangements are the best route for local authorities and external research organisations to obtain external guidance on research governance and ethics.</p><p>Following publication of the report, the Department, in consultation with the ADCS Research Group, has developed ethics guidance and an ethics checklist for its own funded research and evaluation. This is based on the Government Social Research Professional Guidance, which sets out the principles that should be used when conducting social research for the Government. It states that those conducting, commissioning or managing Government social research have a responsibility to ensure that research is conducted using appropriate methods and that the rights and interests of all those involved in the research process are protected. Research should be conducted in a manner that:</p><ul><li><p>ensures valid, informed consent is obtained before individuals participate in research (for children under 16, parents/legal guardians as well as the children themselves must be approached for consent to participate);</p></li></ul><ul><li><p>takes reasonable steps to identify and remove barriers to participation;</p></li><li><p>avoids personal and social harm; and</p></li><li><p>protects the confidentiality of information about research participants and their identities.</p></li></ul> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 17/10/2016 16:58:42 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	3744 label Biography information for Lord Ramsbotham

525461

registered interest
date	15/06/2016
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, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL351), what consideration they are giving to (1) the issuing of guidance on the establishment of children's social care trusts so that lessons can be learned from earlier experiences of doing so; and (2) the regulatory implications for such bodies if more local authorities establish them given the regulatory arrangements in place for the outsourcing of adult social care.
tabling member printed	Lord Warner
uin	HL733
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/06/2016 answer text <p>The evaluations of Doncaster and Slough Children’s Services Trusts are underway and will provide learning from the experiences of establishing those organisations. There are no new regulatory implications for trusts. Where a trust is created to carry out children’s social care services on behalf of an authority, the statutory responsibility for those services remains with that authority. Ofsted will continue to inspect children’s social care services whether they are delivered by a local authority or by a trust.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 28/06/2016 16:23:14 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	1732 label Biography information for Lord Warner

525463

registered interest
date	15/06/2016
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, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL354), how long it took to set up the Trusts in Kingston-upon-Thames and Slough; what were the costs of setting up those Trusts; and who bore those costs.
tabling member printed	Lord Warner
uin	HL735
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/06/2016 answer text <p>Slough Borough Council was issued with a Statutory Direction in October 2014, which required the Council to cooperate in setting up a Trust. The Trust became operational in October 2015. The Department for Education met the costs of setting up the trust, which came to £3.3m.</p><p>Achieving for Children is a community interest company owned and established by the councils of Kingston-Upon-Thames and Richmond. The Department does not hold information about the total costs of setting up this company but Achieving for Children received grant funding of £500,000 from the Department of Communities and Local Government and £105,605 of professional advice and support from the Cabinet Office Mutuals Support Programme.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 28/06/2016 16:25:24 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
tabling member	1732 label Biography information for Lord Warner