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1417623

	registered interest
	date	28/01/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Adoption Support Fund
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending access to the Adoption Support Fund to allow foster children who have experienced trauma to apply for funding for therapeutic services.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	113751
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2022 answer text <p>The Adoption Support Fund was developed in recognition that children who have left the care system, through adoption or special guardianship orders, were not getting the therapeutic support necessary for them to attach to their new permanent parents and carers.</p><p>The law is very clear that children in foster care must have a care plan that sets out their needs and how their local authority will meet them. The care plan should include information about the child’s emotional and behavioural development, and how any emotional or behavioural difficulties are to be managed. It must also include what support should be available to the foster carer to meet the needs of the child.</p><p>From 2019 to 2021, the government have invested over £1 million to pilot high quality mental health assessments to maximise learning and inform changes needed to the mental health assessments of looked after children going forward.</p><p>The pilots generated considerable learning and we will be working closely with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure learning from the pilots is embedded in service delivery for looked after children moving forward, building on the commitment in the NHS Long-Term plan. The department aims to support pilot sites to embed and sustain the learning and good practice from the pilot within their local areas.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/02/2022 17:52:20 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1403661

	registered interest
	date	17/01/2022
	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 plans the Government has to improve provision of social services to protect vulnerable children.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	105789
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2022 answer text <p>Local authorities children’s social care spending on the most vulnerable children – those needing a social worker, children in care, and care leavers – has increased by over £3 billion since financial year 2012-13.</p><p>The department takes robust action when an authority does not meet its requirements to protect all children and young people. Local authorities rated inadequate by Ofsted receive comprehensive support from the department. Those performing well are supported to share best practice.</p><p>In this financial year, 2021-22, we have invested £5.7 million to expand our sector-led improvement (SLI) programme so that 19 of our strongest performing local authorities are able to work with their peers, to improve children’s social care services. Since July 2021, SLI partners have worked with 42 local authorities, the majority of which are judged to be inadequate or require improvement by Ofsted, and have delivered around 5,500 days of support to the sector.</p><p>We are investing over £4 million over the three years to March 2024 to support the development of corporate and political leadership across children’s services, working closely with the Local Government Association. 146 local authorities out of a total of 151 have benefited from the programme to date.</p><p>We have also invested £22.2 million in the COVID-19 Regional Recovery and Build Back Better Fund this year, which seeks to support local authorities to work together to address COVID-19 pressures, where a regional approach would be beneficial in addressing issues that face the sector.</p><p>Looking to the future, this government is committed to making a real difference to the needs, experience and outcomes of vulnerable children and families supported by children’s social care. To do this, we need to make fundamental changes to the current system. That is exactly why this government launched the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, a bold and broad review with the aim of contributing to ambitious and deliverable reforms.</p><p>The review will share its final recommendations in spring 2022 and the government will then consider and respond to them. Further, the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’s death and the Joint Targeted Area Inspection of Solihull will make sure we learn what needs to be changed nationally, and that we can understand and strengthen local work to safeguard children.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 25/01/2022 10:25:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1399768

	registered interest
	date	05/01/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Mental Health Services: Local Government
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will offer additional support and resources to local authorities' early intervention teams within their education departments.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	98329
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>In the autumn Budget a package of £500 million for ‘Early Help’ was announced. This includes a £300 million package to transform ‘Start for Life’ services and create a network of family hubs in half of council areas in England and a £200 million uplift to the ‘Supporting Families’ programme.</p><p>The additional funding provided for ‘Supporting Families’ takes the total investment to £695 million over the next 3 years, around a 40% real-terms uplift in funding for the programme by financial year 2024-25.</p><p>The ‘Supporting Families’ key workers consider the whole family’s needs and work through a multi-agency approach which includes schools and education specialists.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 11/01/2022 16:47:08 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1399769

	registered interest
	date	05/01/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Codes of Practice
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will review the resources provided to local authorities in order to meet the service standards set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	98330
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>The department announced on 16 December that high needs funding for children and young people with complex needs is increasing in financial year 2022-23 by £1 billion to over £9.1 billion.</p><p>This unprecedented increase of 13% comes on top of the £1.5 billion increase over the last 2 years and will continue to support local authorities and schools with the increasing costs they are facing. Every local authority will attract an increase of at least 12% per head of the 2 to 18-year-old population in financial year 2022-23, with some local authorities seeing increases of up to 16% compared to the previous year.</p><p>As well as substantial increases in high needs funding for all local authorities, we are also targeting extra support for those authorities in the most financial difficulty and reviewing the overall system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).</p><p>The SEND Review is considering all elements of the SEND system, and the outcome of that review will be published in the first quarter of 2022 as a green paper for full public consultation.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 11/01/2022 17:17:57 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1387596

	registered interest
	date	14/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Codes of Practice
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress his Department has made on reviewing the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	92969
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2021 answer text <p>The department is currently conducting a major review of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system. In the first three months of 2022 we will launch a consultation on our proposals. We will need to consider the outcome of our consultation to determine whether any legislative changes are required in relation to any parts of the SEND system.</p><p>The SEND Code of Practice is statutory guidance about the exercise of SEND functions under Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014. We will therefore be consulting on updating the Code as part of delivering a reformed SEND system.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 21/12/2021 15:30:38 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385223

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the capacity of local authorities, educational settings and health and care services to provide a high level of support and choice for families, as set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	87723
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>The department closely monitors a range of data and intelligence to assess the operation and delivery of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. This includes data on:</p><ul><li>special educational needs in schools via the annual collection of data from schools</li><li>the numbers of new assessments, plans and placements</li><li>local authority expenditure and dedicated schools grant assessment on spend/financial sustainability including Section 251 returns</li><li>feedback from local authorities and the Parent and Pupil Panel survey</li><li>inspection or revisit reports from the local area SEND inspections undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC).</li></ul><p> </p><p>The government recognises that the current SEND system does not deliver the outcomes we want or expect for children and young people with SEND, their families or the people and services who support them. The SEND Review is seeking to improve the outcomes for children, with high expectations and ambitions. We need to build a financially sustainable system, where there is clear accountability. The Review will publish as a green paper for full public consultation in the first three months of 2022.</p><p>The department, with SEND advisers and NHS England advisers, provides support and challenge to 89 local authority/health/social care areas who, following their Ofsted and CQC inspection or revisit, were required to produce a written statement of action (71 local authorities) or accelerated progress plan (19 local authorities) to improve the local areas’ ability to meet their statutory duties as set out in the SEND Code of Practice. In addition, the department commissions specialist support from delivery partners and delivers training programmes to local authorities, health and social care staff across the country on their statutory assessment duties.</p><p>We recognise that pressures on high needs budgets have contributed to some local authorities finding it difficult to manage their dedicated schools grant funding.</p><p>By financial year 2021-22, annual funding allocations to local authorities for high needs will have increased by more than £2 billion, or one third, since 2019-20. As a result of the recent Spending Review, overall funding for the core schools budget, from which high needs funding is drawn, will increase by a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to previous plans, representing further real terms per pupil increase each year. We will announce how that increase will be split between mainstream schools and high needs in due course.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/12/2021 17:59:10 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385224

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of returning to a 26 weeks from the request for assessment for local authorities to finalise Education and Health Care Plans, as was the case for the previous statementing process.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	87724
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>The education, health and care plan (EHCP) needs assessment system was introduced as part of the new special educational needs and disability (SEND) Regulations in 2014 and is different from the assessment for a statement of special educational needs that had previously been in place.</p><p>The time limit of 20 weeks was set to reflect the changed process of assessment as well as responding to the need to ensure a smoother and swifter system for determining special educational provision for children and young people.</p><p>The department is currently looking at the EHCP process as a whole as part of the SEND Review.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/12/2021 18:17:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385225

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Young People
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional support he has made available to local authorities following the increased age range eligible for support from 19 to 25 brought in under the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	87725
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>When the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) was created in financial year 2013-14, it included the extension to age 25. The expected additional cost to local authorities was considered by:</p><ul><li>Moving all funds previously allocated to supporting young people aged 16-25 with high needs through the previous funding system, into the high needs block of the DSG; and</li><li>Increasing the high needs block further to reflect the likely increase in numbers of young people requiring high needs funding.</li></ul><p>£272 million was added to the DSG in the financial year 2013-14, and £390 million in the financial year 2014-15, to take account of the extended age range to 25 covered by the DSG. The difference between the two years is mainly because some of the changes post-16 started in August 2013 rather than at the start of the financial year in April 2013.</p><p>These increases in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years were consolidated into the funding baseline that informed the 2015 Spending Review settlement reached between the department and HM Treasury. Local authorities’ increased spending, including on 16-25-year-olds, was also considered in subsequent baselines used for allocations of high needs funding through the DSG, and for informing overall Spending Review settlements.</p><p>The autumn 2021 Spending Review delivers an additional £4.7 billion for the core schools' budget by financial year 2024-25. This settlement includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in the financial year 2022-23, on top of the funding we announced in the summer of 2021, following the previous Spending Review. We will confirm in due course how this additional funding for the financial year 2022-23, and the two subsequent years, will be allocated for schools and high needs.</p><p>In 2017 the department produced guidance for local authorities about education, health and care (EHC) plans for 19 to 25-year-olds with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This non-statutory guidance is primarily for local authorities. It aims to support them in making fair and consistent decisions about when they should maintain an EHC plan beyond the age of 19 or issue an EHC plan to a young person aged 19 or over, in line with their duties under the Children and Families Act 2014, and as described in the SEND Code of Practice.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/12/2021 10:05:35 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385226

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Educational Psychology: Higher Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking with universities to increase the number of places on training courses for educational psychologists.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	87726
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.</p><p>The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 87727 question first answered 09/12/2021 18:04:22 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385227

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Educational Psychology: Higher Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a centralised system that pays for bursaries for trainee educational psychologists.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol West
	tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
	uin	87727
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.</p><p>The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 87726 question first answered 09/12/2021 18:04:22 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire