Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Markham on 11 March (HL Deb col 1802), and taking account of the latest Households Below Average Income data, which shows a 300,000 increase in the number of children living in absolute poverty in the past year, what assessment they have made of the impact on health and well-being of the two-child limit for child benefit; and what assessment they have made of the strengths and weaknesses of using the measure of absolute poverty rather than relative poverty.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie

It is not possible to produce a robust assessment of the impact of the two-child limit.

Child Benefit continues to be paid for all children in eligible families.

Relative poverty sets a threshold as a proportion of the UK median income and moves each year as average income changes.

Typically, a household is in relative poverty if its income is less than 60 per cent of the median household income.

Absolute poverty, by our definition, is a threshold as a proportion of the UK average income in a given year (2010/11) and moves each year in line with inflation.

This government prefers to look at Absolute poverty over Relative poverty as relative poverty can provide counter-intuitive results.

Relative poverty is likely to fall during recessions, due to falling median incomes. Under this measure, poverty can decrease even if people are getting poorer.

The absolute poverty line is fixed in real terms, so will only ever worsen if people are getting poorer, and only ever improve if people are getting richer.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of new fathers have taken (1) their full statutory paternity leave entitlement, and (2) shared parental leave, in each year since 2017.

Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston

Data on the proportion of fathers taking Paternity and Shared Parental Leave is not available for each year since 2017. The 2019 Parental Rights Survey shows that, of all employee fathers who took any type of leave following the birth of their child, 74 per cent took Paternity Leave and 7 per cent took Shared Parental Leave. The same survey finds that 76 per cent of all fathers that took Paternity Leave took up their full Paternity Leave entitlement.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the National Audit Office’s report Investigation into asylum accommodation, published on 20 March, which found that (1) using large sites to accommodate asylum seekers could cost £46 million more than using hotels, and (2) the Home Office rated their own plans as “high risk or undeliverable”, why the large sites accommodation programme will be continued.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government has always been clear that the use of asylum hotels is unacceptable, and that’s why we acted swiftly to reduce the impact on local communities by moving asylum seekers on to barges and former military sites.

Thanks to the actions the Government has taken to maximise the use of existing space and our work to cut small boat crossings by a third last year, the cost of hotels will fall, and we are now closing dozens of asylum hotels every month to return them to communities.

Large sites provide adequate and functional accommodation for asylum seekers and are designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, helping to minimise the impact on local communities and services. They reduce demand on an already pressured private rental market and their larger capacity allows the Home Office to be agile in responding to fluctuations in demand.

It is better value for money for the taxpayer to continue with these sites than to continue using hotels. The latest assessment of value for money, which excludes committed or spent costs in line with the Green Book methodology, shows that large sites would be £153 million cheaper than hotels.

Despite the need to stand up large sites at speed, controls were in place to assure value for money for the taxpayer. Operational challenges at the sites have changed our costs since original estimates. We continue to keep costs under review while developing ways to reduce it.

The latest Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) review has upgraded the rating of the programme, meaning that the successful delivery of time, quality and cost is feasible.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 27 March (HL3520), why it is not possible to undertake a robust assessment of the impact of the two-child limit.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie

We do not have the data to fully measure health and well-being behavioural impacts that may have resulted from the two-child limit.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Institute for Fiscal Studies report The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes, published on 9 April, which found that access to a Sure Start centre in early years increased the early identification of a special educational need or disability and reduced the need for an Education, Health and Care Plan in later years, what steps they are taking to incorporate lessons from the Sure Start programme in their (1) Family Hubs policy, and (2) Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.

Answered by Baroness Barran

The department welcomes the latest research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies on the impact of Sure Start. The family hub model builds on what was learned from Sure Start as well as on wider external evidence of the long-term benefits of early intervention. The model includes at its core the Start for Life offer with a prominent focus on babies and young children, encouraging engagement with the very youngest and their parents and including targeted services for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It enables early identification of additional needs through integrated and connected service offers and provides funding for workforce training to better identify and respond to need in a co-ordinated way.

Family hubs bring together services for children of all ages and so respond to the needs of the whole family. The government is investing approximately £300 million across 75 local authorities to embed the family hub approach and enhance Start for Life services across the country for families with children aged 0-19 years, and or up to 25 years for those with SEND. On 10 January 2024, the government announced that every one of the 75 local authorities in the family hubs and Start for Life programme have now opened family hubs, creating a welcoming place where families can be connected to a wide range of services.

The department has developed guidance for participating local authorities. The Programme Guidance includes expectations on the support available to families who have children with SEND, in line with the recommendations in the SEND and alternative provision (AP) green paper. This includes staff in the family hub being knowledgeable about local SEND services and able to connect families to appropriate support – this could include for example SEND-appropriate parenting programmes, peer support for parents, short breaks, support for siblings or specialist health services. The Programme Guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide.

Last year, the department also published its SEND and AP Improvement Plan to outline its plans to ensure children and young people across England get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country. This includes new national SEND and AP standards which will help families understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education.

The department is also funding training of up to 7,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators who will learn how to identify and assess SEND and implement effective support so that children get the early support they deserve at the right time.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 24 April (HL3765), what plans they have to collect data to evaluate the success of the two-child benefit cap, especially in relation to the statements in the 2015 Impact Assessment which suggest the two-child limit would (1) encourage parents to consider their readiness to support an additional child, (2) help people move into sustained employment, and (3) provide incentives to have fewer children.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie

There are no such plans to collect data to evaluate the success of the two-child benefit cap. The Department committed to publishing statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children annually. The latest statistics were published in July 2023 and can be accessed at: Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

DWP is committed to supporting families and helping parents into work. This requires a balanced system that provides strong work incentives and support for those who need it, but that also ensures a sense of fairness to the taxpayer and many working families who do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 29 April (HL3846), what plans they have to (1) roll out Family Hubs to the remaining 242 local authorities, and (2) sustain the funding for the Family Hubs programme beyond 2025.

Answered by Baroness Barran

The department is currently investing around £300 million in 75 local authorities, half of all upper tier local authorities in England, to transform to a Family Hub model. Funding has been targeted to the most deprived local authorities, ensuring families get the support they need.

The department has also invested in a £12 million transformation fund to open Family Hubs in 13 additional local authorities in England.

All 88 local authorities now have opened at least one Family Hub, with over 400 government-funded Family Hub sites now open across the country.

Further funding for the current programmes is dependent on future fiscal events. It was confirmed at Spring Budget that the next spending review will come after a General Election, the timing of which is still to be determined.

The government would like to see Family Hubs across the country, but it is crucial that the department now focuses on delivering well in these local authorities and building the evidence base.