We are providing local authorities with more money to support vulnerable children, with an additional £410 million invested this year across adults\u2019 and children\u2019s social care. Separately, we are investing £84 million over 5 years to drive improvements in children\u2019s services across local authorities, especially through early intervention.<\/p>
In 2018, the department introduced a new, tougher Ofsted inspection framework to drive improvement in children\u2019s services. The department intervenes robustly in every local authority judged \u2018inadequate\u2019 by Ofsted, bringing in experts to assess which improvements will ensure better services. This might include removing service delivery from the council\u2019s control by establishing a trust, giving children\u2019s services a fresh start.<\/p>
Since May 2010, 46 local authorities have been lifted out of intervention and have not returned, and the number of inadequate local authorities has reduced from 30 to 19 since July 2017. We aim to continue making these improvements at pace so that, by 2022, less than 10% of local authorities are rated \u2018inadequate\u2019 by Ofsted, halving failure rates within 5 years and providing consistently better services for thousands of children and families across the country.<\/p>
To get ahead of failure, we are investing an additional £20 million in our regional improvement strategy, working collaboratively with the Association of Directors of Children\u2019s Services, Local Government Association, Solace and the rest of the sector to identify local authorities that need additional support. Our Regional Improvement Alliances and high-performing \u2018Partners in Practice\u2019 local authorities support those at risk of failure, embedding a system of sector-led improvement with more than 70 local authorities receiving support to date.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4113", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Stratford-on-Avon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Nadhim Zahawi"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-22", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-22T16:46:42.68Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "60"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-18", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Children: Social Services"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve local authority support for vulnerable children.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4649", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Thelma Walker"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Colne Valley"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Thelma Walker"} ], "uin" : "912085"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }