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1131879

registered interest
date	12/06/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the Serious Case Reviews published by the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Board on 5 June, and (2) the report by the Commissioner for Children’s Services in Northamptonshire Optimum delivery and governance arrangements: children's services in Northamptonshire, published on 14 May; and what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities are sufficiently equipped to ensure that preventable deaths of children do not occur in future.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL16297
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>The two serious case reviews published by Northamptonshire’s local safeguarding children’s board, on 5 June 2019, identify serious and systemic practice issues in the local area. It is imperative that the analysis in the serious case reviews identifies the right learning points and recommendations. We have taken urgent action to improve services in Northamptonshire by appointing Malcolm Newsam as the Commissioner for Children’s Services. He has a remit to secure immediate remedial action and drive a longer-term programme of improvement in the county. The department has also written to Mr Newsam to ask that he consider the lessons learnt and assure himself that the recommendations are indeed the right ones to effect change.</p><p> </p><p>We are also funding Lincolnshire county council, an outstanding local authority and part of the Government’s Partners in Practice initiative, to provide immediate improvement, support and capacity to Northamptonshire county council to ensure the safety of children in the county.</p><p>On 14 May 2019, My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government made a written statement signalling the government’s intention to act on recommendations from the Commissioner's report. The intention is to establish a Children’s Services Trust that provides a stable base for improvement during a period of wider re-organisation in Northamptonshire. On 10 June 2019, a statutory direction was issued to Northamptonshire county council to co-operate with the Commissioner in the establishment of the Trust.</p><p> </p><p>This initiative is just part of an extensive range of support and comprehensive reforms that allow us to take swift, decisive action to either prevent or address failure in local authorities. These reforms include establishing a new specialist social work regulator, Social Work England, and rolling out a national assessment and accreditation system for social workers. We are also committing £84 million (over the next five years) to build on learning from the most promising innovation projects, such as the ‘Strengthening Families, Protecting Children’ programme. This programme aims to improve social work practice and decision-making so that children’s social workers are confident in their support of children and young people to enable them to stay safely at home with their families, where this is deemed to be in their best interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 25/06/2019 13:18:25 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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