Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to health services for care leavers in light of the finding of the independent Review of early deaths of care leavers, published on 25 August, that mortality rates are significantly higher among that group.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government commissioned this review to examine the shockingly high number of early deaths of care experienced young people. We are determined to address this national tragedy and are working quickly, across central government and with local partners, to deliver a significant programme of improved support for care leavers as part of our wider reforms to children’s social care.
Work is already underway in this area, including implementing free NHS prescriptions, dental care and eyecare for care leavers from age 16 to their 25th birthday, funding the development of a toolkit to help local authorities and health partners to develop their own co-located mental health services for care-experienced young people, and embedding a mental health worker into local authority leaving care teams as part of further rollout of Staying Close. We will also ensure that statutory guidance for local authorities as well as health services takes account of the review’s findings, including to improve access to physical and mental health services for care leavers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to increasing and ringfencing funding for leaving care teams in light of the finding of the independent Review of early deaths of care leavers, published on 25 August, that the current workforce supporting young people leaving care is not fit for purpose for those with the greatest need.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government commissioned this review, bringing to the country’s attention the tragic number of young care leavers who die far too young. The transition to adulthood is an important moment to get right, and the leaving care personal adviser workforce plays a crucial role in that.
We are reviewing the personal adviser workforce and setting higher expectations in the relevant guidance. We have confirmed £25 million of funding this financial year alone, to continue the rollout of Staying Close for care leavers, alongside imposing new duties on councils to strengthen their local offer for young people leaving care, which took effect at the end of September.
The final 2026/27 Local Government Finance Settlement offers £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026/27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025/26. This includes the Revenue Support Grant, which contains funding for the Leaving Care Allowance uplift, extended personal adviser duties, and Staying Put.
The government has a long-standing commitment to provide funding to councils on a non-ringfenced basis, supporting effective and innovative financial management locally and giving local authorities the flexibility to prioritise spending based on local needs and priorities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider the Music and Dance Scheme to have successfully enabled social mobility through arts education; and whether they intend to provide a full £4 million increase to the funding of the scheme recommended to reflect the costs of delivering specialist education.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) remains central to providing access to specialist performing arts education for high achieving young musicians and dancers, through means-tested bursaries to attend one of eight private schools or one of 20 Centres for Advanced Training (CAT). For the 2024/25 academic year, this includes paying fees in full for 23% of MDS students attending schools and 57% of students attending CATs, for those from families on the lowest incomes.
The scheme will be allocated future funding of £37.8 million for the 2026/27 academic year. This is a £1.3 million increase to the funding this academic year. We will confirm future funding for the 2027/28 academic year before the end of this calendar year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide a timetable for updating the Statutory Guidance on Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Looked After Children.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The government gave a commitment to update the statutory guidance ‘Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children’, and to extend it to care leavers up to age 25, in the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy for the reform of children’s social care. The update forms part of the wider mission in the strategy “to reduce the disparities in long-term mental and physical health outcomes and improve wellbeing for care-experienced people”. This commitment was reaffirmed in September 2023.
Work is underway to understand how the current guidance is working in practice and where changes are necessary. Timeframes will depend on the scope of changes needed. The Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care will keep relevant stakeholders in the health and children’s social care sectors updated as the work progresses.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase investment in early intervention and prevention as part of children’s social care reform.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The government has invested billions in local services. This year alone, the total social care grant for local government is over £2 billion. In the ‘Stable Homes Built on Love’ Strategy, the department outlined its plans to build on the strengths of current early help and Child in Need services, through the creation of Family Help.
The department is investing £200 million in Children’s Social Care reforms, including £45 million for the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme, which will test how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children and families receive. The pathfinder will inform the next stage of the department’s reform programme which will look to deliver transformation more widely.
The department also announced over £1 billion of funding for programmes to improve early help services, including delivering Family Hubs.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Josh MacAlister The independent review of children’s social care, published on 23 May 2022; and what progress they have made in improving council-run homes in the children’s social care system given the findings of that report.
Answered by Baroness Barran
In February 2023 the department published its consultation and implementation strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. This sets out the department’s plans for a system-wide transformation of children’s social care, and details how the department will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life.
To support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to ensure there is sufficient provision for children in their care, the department has announced £259 million capital funding to maintain capacity and expand provision in both secure and open children’s homes that provide high-quality, safe homes for some of the most vulnerable children and young people across England. The department has allocated a portion of the £259 million capital funding to open children’s homes enabling a total of 69 projects to be delivered, which will create an additional 350 beds across this sector.
The department has also committed to developing a core overarching set of Standards of Care for fostering, children’s homes, and supported accommodation. This will help simplify the regulatory landscape, raise quality, and ensure there are consistent safeguards across different types of settings.
The department will develop a programme to support improvements in the quality of leadership and management in children’s homes, including exploring proposals for a leadership programme to attract and train new talent.
In addition, the department is investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wider range of places to meet children’s needs better.
The department is also making good progress on addressing challenges relating to the retention and recruitment of social workers, which is key to supporting the delivery of the wider children’s social care reforms. This includes introducing an Early Career Framework to better support newly qualified social workers to meet the challenges of child and family social work, increasing the number of social worker apprenticeships, and supporting local authorities with their retention and workload challenges. Alongside ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department also published a consultation on a set of rules for local authority engagement of agency child and family social workers. The response to this consultation was published on 25 October 2023 and sets out a set of national rules intended to increase workforce quality and sustainability. The department will consult on statutory guidance on the technical detail in Spring 2024. These reforms are in addition to the department’s £50 million annual investment in recruiting, training and developing the workforce.