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805142

registered interest
date	12/12/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the amount spent under section 17 of the Children's Act 1989 by public bodies in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	South Shields
tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
uin	118814
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2017 answer text <p>The Department for Education collects data on local council spending on a range of services for children and young people. Local councils are not required to provide separate data regarding spend on children provided with support under section 17 of the Children Act 1989.</p><p> </p><p>The following local authority gross spend may be on children in need but may also provide services to children not assessed as needing support under section 17:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>2012-13 £000s</p></td><td><p>2013-14 £000s</p></td><td><p>2014-15 £000s</p></td><td><p>2015-16 £000s</p></td><td><p>2016-17 £000s</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Child protection and safeguarding</p></td><td><p>£1,965,569</p></td><td><p>£2,026,366</p></td><td><p>£2,122,368</p></td><td><p>£2,226,843</p></td><td><p>£2,334,268</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Early years and children’s centres</p></td><td><p>£1,193,408</p></td><td><p>£1,053,716</p></td><td><p>£945,453</p></td><td><p>£843,954</p></td><td><p>£774,349</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Family support</p></td><td><p>£973,056</p></td><td><p>£1,043,722</p></td><td><p>£1,078,865</p></td><td><p>£1,073,944</p></td><td><p>£1,087,140</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Other children and families services</p></td><td><p>£110,534</p></td><td><p>£100,008</p></td><td><p>£86,959</p></td><td><p>£102,933</p></td><td><p>£87,175</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Services for young people</p></td><td><p>£815,910</p></td><td><p>£712,771</p></td><td><p>£627,070</p></td><td><p>£527,980</p></td><td><p>£447,532</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: Section 251 Outturn</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 19/12/2017 19:43:02 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck

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

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

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

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

790934

registered interest
date	16/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which high-performing children's services departments have provided assistance to other local authorities whose departments were judged inadequate since 2012.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	113557
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>The department does not hold information on all cases when high-performing children's services departments have provided assistance to other local councils because local councils may freely make these arrangements among themselves. The following list shows all those local councils that have been contracted by the department since it started routinely to appoint intervention advisers to work with inadequate local councils in 2015:</p><ul><li>Achieving for Children (Richmond Upon Thames and Kingston);</li><li>Cornwall County Council;</li><li>Essex County Council;</li><li>Hampshire County Council;</li><li>Islington Borough Council;</li><li>Leeds City Council; and</li><li>Lincolnshire County Council.</li></ul> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 24/11/2017 09:01:25 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

790935

registered interest
date	16/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which children's services departments have (a) been judged inadequate by Ofsted and (b) had outside commissioners take responsibility for their services in each year from 2012.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	113558
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>The attached table shows local councils which have been judged inadequate for Children’s Social Care Services by Ofsted since 2012.</p><p>Rotherham is the only local council to have had executive commissioners take over and exercise council children’s services functions since 2012. However, since 2012 the following local councils have had a non-executive children’s services commissioner appointed to review how services are delivered, whether those services should remain in council control and direct improvements:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Barnet</li><li>Birmingham</li><li>Bromley</li><li>Croydon</li><li>Doncaster</li><li>Dudley</li><li>Kirklees</li><li>Norfolk</li><li>Reading</li><li>Sandwell</li><li>Sunderland</li><li>Slough</li><li>Torbay</li><li>Worcestershire</li></ul><p> </p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 24/11/2017 14:56:39 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill attachment 1 file name 113558 - Table Local councils judged inadequate.docx title Local councils judged inadequate
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

790936

registered interest
date	16/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of reductions in the number of social workers on (a) children at risk, (b) disabled children and (c) carers.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	113549
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>According to information supplied to the department by local councils, the number of child and family social workers has not decreased and therefore no such assessments have been made. Information on the number of children’s social workers in local councils in England has been collected as at 30 September each year since 2013. The most recent data as at 30 September 2016 was published by the department on 16 February 2017 and is available online at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-childrens-social-care-workforce" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-childrens-social-care-workforce</a>.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 24/11/2017 12:23:30 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

790937

registered interest
date	16/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authority children's services departments are not run directly by the local authority; and what the structure is within which each such department operates.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	113550
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>Many local councils use a variety of commissioning approaches to have specific parts of their children’s services run by organisations other than themselves. I am sorry, but the department does not have a record of such arrangements.</p><p> </p><p>A small proportion of local councils have arrangements whereby the entirety of their service is run at arms’ length from the council, including some that are in intervention. The department has used different approaches for local councils in intervention, depending on their needs and circumstances. In two local councils (Doncaster and Slough), the department established an independent trust to deliver children’s services after services had consistently been judged as inadequate. Sunderland local council has also established a children’s services trust, <em>Together for Children</em>, after its services were judged as inadequate. In the Isle of Wight, children’s services are currently delivered through a partnership with Hampshire local council, which has been enforced through a Statutory Direction. In Rotherham, the government removed control of all services from the council following publication of reports on historic child sexual exploitation and appointed a team of Commissioners. Some services have been handed back to the council but this does not yet include children’s services.</p><p> </p><p>We are also aware of a number of autonomously established alternative delivery models. The most notable example is Achieving for Children, a social enterprise company that was set up and co-owned by Richmond and Kingston local authorities to run both their children’s services. It has since expanded to include the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The department now provides funding to Achieving for Children through the Partners in Practice Programme to extend their approach and so that we can understand the impact of this model better. Beyond this, however, the department does not track each local council’s operating model.</p><p> </p><p>In all of these examples, the council maintains statutory responsibility for the children in their care.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 24/11/2017 12:33:54 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

790938

registered interest
date	16/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities (a) are in intervention and (b) have been issued with improvement notices for children's services.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	113551
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>The following local councils are in intervention:</p><p>Barnet, Birmingham, Bromley, Buckinghamshire, Croydon, Cumbria, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gloucestershire, Isle of Wight, Kirklees, Lambeth, Lancashire, Manchester, Norfolk, Reading, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Sunderland, Surrey, Tameside, Torbay, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Wirral and Worcestershire.</p><p> </p><p>Of these local authorities in intervention, the following have been issued with improvement notices:</p><p>Darlington, Gloucestershire, Lambeth, Lancashire, Manchester, South Gloucestershire, Surrey, Tameside, Wandsworth and Wirral.</p><p> </p><p>The remaining local councils have been issued with statutory directions.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 24/11/2017 09:18:23 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne