Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they will take in response to the report by the National Audit Office Managing children's residential care, published on 12 September.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department welcomes the National Audit Office's (NAO) report and its recommendations. Many of the report’s themes chime with the action already being taken as part of the government's reform programme.

The department is reforming children’s social care (CSC) with a £2 billion investment this Parliament which will enable local authorities to prioritise prevention and keep more families together safely, reducing the number of children needing care.

We have introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will give us more powers to regulate the broken care market.

The department’s investment and legislation will transform care. We will recruit more foster carers, build children’s homes with the right support in the right places, innovate to support those with complex needs and regulate to ensure safety and quality of provision. The introduction of Regional Care Cooperatives will enable local authorities to better plan, forecast and commission places and negotiate with private providers, ensuring they can provide the placements children need at a sustainable cost to taxpayers.

The department welcomes the important insight of the NAO and will continue to reflect on how to bring about the change needed to tackle the challenges across the CSC system.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the child poverty strategy.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This Government is determined to bring down child poverty. The Child Poverty Taskforce was established by the Prime Minister to develop an ambitious child poverty strategy to achieve this. The strategy will be published in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 22 July (HL9231), when their review on Universal Credit will be published.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.

The Minister for Social Security and Disability is leading this work and is engaging with a wide range of organisations and people, including those with first-hand experience of claiming Universal Credit, those who support them and those with expertise in the system and how it works. We are hosting workshops, roundtables and focus groups and undertaking research, including a survey of 10,000 customers.

We will continue to work closely with stakeholders throughout this process and will provide an update at an appropriate time.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the under-registration of eligible children for free school meals following the extension of entitlement to all children in households receiving Universal Credit; and whether they plan to introduce free school meal auto-enrolment to ensure all eligible children receive the support to which they are entitled.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, lifting 100,000 children across England out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.

We want to ensure that all families who need it are able to claim the support they are eligible for. Expanding FSM to all children in households claiming Universal Credit will make it easier for parents to know whether they are entitled to receive free meals.

To support take-up of free meals, we are also rolling out improvements to the checking system that we make available to all local authorities to help verify eligibility for free meals. This will make the process of claiming free meals more seamless for families by allowing them to directly check whether they can receive this entitlement.