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1191471

	registered interest
	date	28/04/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, under the Everyone In initiative, local authorities should continue to support people into self-contained emergency accommodation regardless of priority need, local connection or immigration status.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL3651
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2020 answer text <p>Over 90% of those on the streets at the beginning of the crisis known to local authorities have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic. This includes those rough sleeping or who have been living in accommodation with communal sleeping spaces such as night shelters.</p><p>We are ensuring local authorities are supported, with £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.2 billion provided to local authorities as part of the wider Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding has been provided to help local authorities to reduce risks to public health and to support individuals on the basis of need.</p><p>The Government is aware of concerns about those with no recourse to public funds experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis. The legal position on those with no recourse to public funds has not been amended. The Government recognises that these are unprecedented times, and expects local authorities to support people who are sleeping rough, and also to minimise unnecessary risks to public health, acting within the law.</p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh question first answered 13/05/2020 14:59:52 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1191472

	registered interest
	date	28/04/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Temporary Accommodation: Coronavirus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) amount, and (2) percentage, of the £3.2 billion funding announced for local authorities during the COVID-19 outbreak will be dedicated to support local authorities to secure self-contained accommodation and provide assistance to people sleeping rough and in night shelters.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL3652
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2020 answer text <p>The £3.2 billion of funding provided to local government is paid through a grant that is not ring-fenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how this funding is spent. This funding will enable local authorities to respond to COVID-19 pressures across all the services they deliver, stepping up support for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people. This is in addition to £3.2 million in targeted funding for councils to support vulnerable rough sleepers.</p><p>More than 5,400 rough sleepers – over 90% of those on the streets at the beginning of the crisis known to local authorities have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic. This includes those rough sleeping or who have been living in accommodation with communal sleeping spaces such as night shelters.</p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh question first answered 13/05/2020 15:00:26 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1191473

	registered interest
	date	28/04/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Sleeping Rough
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make permanent housing and support, including the Housing First model, the default option for people with complex needs who had previously been sleeping rough and who have been supported under the Everyone In initiative.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL3653
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2020 answer text <p>More than 5,400 rough sleepers – over 90% of those on the streets at the beginning of the crisis known to local authorities have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic. This includes those rough sleeping or who have been living in accommodation with communal sleeping spaces such as night shelters.</p><p>The Government allocated £28 million to pilot Housing First at scale in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and West Midlands combined authorities in May 2018. Our independent contractors for the evaluation, ICF, are making progress and the first interim process report is due to be published later this year. We will use this to inform any potential future decisions on roll out.</p><p>This funding is alongside significant investment including £112m across England in 2020/21 for the Rough Sleeping Initiative to help around 270 areas tackle rough sleeping across 2020/21. The funding is a 30% increase on the previous year and will be used to introduce and expand a range of measures, including housing support and housing-led solutions, as well as specialist support workers.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh question first answered 13/05/2020 15:00:55 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1245695

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Homelessness
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they plan to give to local councils to provide permanent accommodation to those at risk of homelessness.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL9409
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2020 answer text <p>As part of the Government’s investment of £433 million to deliver 6,000 new homes for rough sleepers by the end of this Parliament, on 29 October we announced that more than 3,300 new long-term homes for rough sleepers and other vulnerable people have been approved, subject to due diligence and contracting.</p><p>Backed by Government investment of more than £150 million the new homes will be made available in every region of England. This will enable people who sleep rough, or at risk of sleeping rough, to be rehoused in secure, long-term accommodation, providing some of the most vulnerable in society with a permanent place to live and help to rebuild their lives.</p><p>This funding is in addition to the £91.5 million allocated to 274 councils in September to fund their individual local plans for rough sleepers over the coming months, and to help provide short-term and interim accommodation for vulnerable people, as well as the £10 million Cold Weather Payment for councils to help to keep rough sleepers safe this winter.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Greenhalgh question first answered 03/11/2020 17:09:51 answering member 4877 label Biography information for Lord Greenhalgh
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

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

1144090

	registered interest
	date	03/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	School Libraries
	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 call by the Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell, for there to be a statutory requirement for each school to provide a library.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL17578
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">In August 2019, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced a £14 billion increase in investment for schools across England over the next three years. The department welcomes the Children’s Laureate’s commitment to these issues and publication of her ‘reading rights’, which aligns with the government’s commitment to raising literacy standards.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">The National Curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils develop the habit of reading widely and often, becoming independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read for pleasure and for information. Reading aloud is a part of this, and teachers are encouraged to read poetry, stories and non-fiction to younger pupils, as well as longer books to older pupils. The National Curriculum also contains guidance for teachers setting out that pupils should have opportunities to exercise choice in selecting books.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">It is for individual schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided.</ins></p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 09/09/2019 16:33:00 question first ministerially corrected 07/10/2019 16:17:26 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton previous answer version 135409 answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1144091

	registered interest
	date	03/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Reading
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, and if so how, they intend to adopt any of the children’s reading rights recommendations by the Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell, as part of their policy on developing literacy among schoolchildren.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL17579
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">In August 2019, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced a £14 billion increase in investment for schools across England over the next three years. The department welcomes the Children’s Laureate’s commitment to these issues and publication of her ‘reading rights’, which aligns with the government’s commitment to raising literacy standards.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">The National Curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils develop the habit of reading widely and often, becoming independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read for pleasure and for information. Reading aloud is a part of this, and teachers are encouraged to read poetry, stories and non-fiction to younger pupils, as well as longer books to older pupils. The National Curriculum also contains guidance for teachers setting out that pupils should have opportunities to exercise choice in selecting books.</ins></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">It is for individual schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided.</ins></p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 09/09/2019 16:32:16 question first ministerially corrected 07/10/2019 16:17:51 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton previous answer version 135400 answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1149716

	registered interest
	date	14/10/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Literacy
	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 increase literacy levels in England
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL9
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2019 answer text <p>The government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding. The new national curriculum, introduced in 2014, has increased the focus on reading in the primary curriculum and has a focus on phonics. There is a substantial body of evidence that shows that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading.</p><p>The government introduced the light touch phonics screening check for year 1 pupils in 2012. The check is designed to assess pupils’ ability to decode and read words using phonics. Phonics performance is improving, with 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in 2019, compared to 58% when the check was introduced.</p><p>Building on this success, in 2018 the department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs Programme is supporting nearly 3000 schools in England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in Reception and Year 1.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 24/10/2019 15:09:05 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1245692

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Training: Coronavirus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to facilitate the mass retraining and upskilling of people to enable them to work in COVID-19-proof industries.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL9406
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2020 answer text <p>The department wants to make the skills systems more responsive to employer skills needs in all sectors and will do whatever it takes to support businesses and people affected by COVID-19, which is why we offer a variety of programmes that businesses and individuals can use to retrain and upskill.</p><p>Adult skills are key in supporting the economy and tackling disadvantage. We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) (£1.34 billion in the 2020/21 financial year). The principal purpose of the AEB is to engage adults and provide the skills and learning they need to equip them for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. This includes fully funded courses in English and maths for adults who need to improve their literacy and numeracy, fully funded first full level 2 and/or level 3 for learners aged 19 to 23 and from 1 August 2020, fully funded specified digital skills qualifications for adults with no/low digital skills. The AEB also funds learning in the workplace, where a learner has a statutory entitlement to full funding.</p><p>Employers can offer apprenticeships to new recruits and existing staff, supporting the creation of new jobs as well as opportunities to upskill. They can choose between more than 580 apprenticeship standards that have been designed by employers to deliver the skills they need.</p><p>The government is also providing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations), for the National Skills Fund.</p><p>The fund aims to boost productivity and ensure more people and places can share in the rewards that improved productivity can bring. It also presents a great opportunity to create a more coherent and simpler system that learners, providers, local areas and employers can more easily understand and navigate.</p><p>My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister recently announced that for adults who do not currently have a level 3 qualification, the government will be fully funding their first full level 3 through the National Skills Fund. We will target this level 3 entitlement at subjects and qualifications with economic value and the strongest alignment with government priorities, to ensure the best possible returns for individuals, employers and the nation.</p><p>The Prime Minister also announced the launch of our new digital bootcamps, in 6 areas, to support local regions and employers to fill in-demand vacancies. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills based on employer demand and will offer a fast track to a job interview on completion. Pending the success of the initial bootcamps, we are planning to expand the digital bootcamps to more of the country from Spring 2021 and we also want to extend this model to include other technical skills training.</p><p>Further plans for the National Skills Fund will be communicated in due course.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Berridge question first answered 03/11/2020 13:57:23 answering member 4218 label Biography information for Baroness Berridge
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1245693

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2020
	answering body	Cabinet Office
	answering dept id	53
	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
	hansard heading	Viral Diseases: Planning
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that the UK is prepared for pandemics and other threats in the future.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL9407
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2020 answer text <p>The Government regularly undertakes lessons learned reviews following civil emergencies. COVID-19 is the biggest challenge that the UK, together with nations around the world, has faced in decades. The Government has always been clear that there will be opportunities to look back, analyse and reflect on all aspects of the response to COVID-19. As the Prime Minister has said, this will include an independent inquiry at the appropriate time. We are still at a critical phase in our ongoing response to the pandemic.</p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 04/11/2020 18:00:36 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird