Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 22 Jun 2022
Social Care: Children
"The report recommends technology to achieve frictionless sharing of information, and a national data and technology task force. Is this the body that would decide on the unique identifying number for which the children’s workforce has been calling, to avoid children disappearing through the cracks between services?..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Social Care: Children
Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 22 Jun 2022
Social Care: Children
"My Lords, since there is time, I will ask another question. The review calls for a reformed children’s social care system to be based on children’s rights, putting children’s voices at the centre of decisions. What framework will the Government use for this approach? Will they consider using the existing …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Social Care: Children
Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 24 May 2022
Safeguarding of Young Children
"My Lords, is the Minister aware that both Scotland and Wales have banned parents and carers from hitting their children? Is she interested to know that, when I had a meeting with the Minister responsible for this area in another place to ask why England is not considering doing the …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Safeguarding of Young Children
Written Question
Friday 28th June 2019
Asked by:
Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the eligibility for Pupil Premium Plus funding to include children adopted from overseas.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is currently considering the application of pupil premium plus to children adopted from care outside England and Wales and have not set a timetable for any changes. However, this should not prevent schools from providing full support to these children now, including, for example, the expertise of both designated teacher and virtual school heads, whose duties to promote the educational attainment of previously looked-after children include children adopted from care from abroad.
Speech in Lords Chamber - Mon 10 Sep 2018
Child Sexual Abuse: Safeguarding Failures
"To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to respond to the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse regarding safeguarding failures at Downside and Ampleforth schools, published in August 2018...."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Child Sexual Abuse: Safeguarding Failures
Speech in Lords Chamber - Mon 10 Sep 2018
Child Sexual Abuse: Safeguarding Failures
"My Lords, is the Minister aware that the committee had evidence that one of the schools consulted its legal adviser as to whether it was legally obliged to report the abuse that it knew about. Having learned that it was not so obliged, it decided to cover it up. How …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Child Sexual Abuse: Safeguarding Failures
Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 12 Jul 2018
Sure Start
"Following up on the previous question, is the Minister aware that yesterday, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children published a report showing that many local authorities are unable to afford the early intervention programmes that have just been mentioned and are so effective? The result is that a lot of …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Sure Start
Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 20 Mar 2018
Free School Lunches and Milk, and School and Early Years Finance (Amendments Relating to Universal Credit) (England) Regulations 2018
"My Lords, I too echo the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, about the Government’s proposals to introduce an earnings threshold for eligibility for free school meals and milk. This is very unfair, because it takes no account of the number of children who the parents have to feed. …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Free School Lunches and Milk, and School and Early Years Finance (Amendments Relating to Universal Credit) (England) Regulations 2018
Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 02 Nov 2017
A Manifesto to Strengthen Families
"My Lords, I start by welcoming the Minister to the House of Lords and congratulate him on his meteoric rise to the Government Front Bench. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for a very interesting debate and extremely important manifesto. There are so many policy areas that could …..."Baroness Walmsley - View Speech
View all Baroness Walmsley (LD - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: A Manifesto to Strengthen Families
Written Question
Monday 16th October 2017
Asked by:
Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many young children placed into care out of area subsequently go missing or become victims of abuse.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
- Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold information on looked after children placed out of area who subsequently go missing or become victims of abuse. However, local authorities, police and other partners share current local data to safeguard on all looked after children if they go missing. This includes understanding patterns of missing episodes to put preventative steps in place.
The government considers this an important issue. The Missing Children and Adults strategy, (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/missing-children-and-adults-strategy) which focuses primarily on vulnerable people who go missing within England and Wales, provides a core framework in which we can all work to deliver collectively the best protection possible for missing children, adults and their families.
The government is clear that the needs of the child are paramount when making decisions about the right care placement. Local authorities have a statutory duty to consider the right placement for the child and take into account a number of factors, one of which is placement area. For some children in care a placement outside of a home local authority area is in their best interests, provided there is effective planning and oversight. In recent years we have strengthened the safeguards around children being placed out of area, for example since 2013, Directors of Children’s Services must approve all placements at ‘distance’ (i.e. more than 20 miles away).