Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish the current detailed business plans of those sections of the Department for Education dealing with child welfare.
Answered by Lord Nash
The department has recently responded to the Public Accounts Committee on this question. The department agrees it is appropriate to set out its vision with timescales, as it has done in ‘Putting Children First’. The department will also produce a roadmap of how the Department intends to transform services, which will be a publically available document. This will address the challenge in the NAO report and set out more clearly a timeframe for delivery of the reforms.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government whether they have received representations about failings in children's services in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Answered by Lord Nash
The London Borough of Lambeth Council’s children’s social care services became subject to Government intervention in May 2015, following Ofsted’s judgement that these services are ‘Inadequate’. The Department has issued the Council with an improvement notice and has appointed an expert adviser to provide the Council with advice and challenge and to report regularly to the Department on improvement progress. Ofsted also conducts quarterly monitoring visits to Lambeth’s children’s social care services, and publishes progress reports on its website.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government what steps, short of the appointment of commissioners, they can take to deal with children's services departments which are a cause of concern.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education intervenes in all local authorities that receive an inadequate Ofsted rating for children’s services.
In the most serious cases, improvement may require statutory intervention, whereby, under the Education Act 1996, the Secretary of State is able to direct a local authority to take whatever action is deemed necessary to secure improvement. In the last few years, Ministers have directed the setting up of new governance structures, including partnering with another local authority (e.g. Isle of Wight), bringing in extra improvement support (e.g. Somerset), or establishing a Children’s Services Trust (e.g. Doncaster).
In other cases the department takes non-statutory steps, issuing an ‘improvement notice’ detailing what actions a local authority is expected to take to improve its services and closely monitoring progress. We deploy government improvement advisers who are appointed to support and challenge these authorities to make rapid progress.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government (1) which local authority children's services departments have been found by Ofsted since January 2015 to be persistently or systemically failing; (2) which were made subject to the appointment of commissioners; and (3) which are currently run by commissioners.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department has categorised local authority children’s social care services as ‘systemic’ or ‘persistent’ failures since December 2015 when it introduced a tougher intervention regime. The following authorities have been subject to this new policy:
LA | Systemic/Persistent |
Barnet | Systemic |
Bromley | Systemic |
Dudley | Systemic |
Kirklees | Systemic |
Norfolk | Persistent |
Reading | Systemic |
Sandwell | Persistent |
Sunderland | Systemic |
Torbay | Persistent |
Worcestershire | Persistent & Systemic |
All of these authorities have been subject to the appointment of Commissioners, with the exception of Barnet where recruitment for a Commissioner has not yet concluded. These authorities retain accountability for the effective running of their children’s services. Commissioners do not run the services, but do make recommendations to the Secretary of State on whether operational control of services should be removed from the council. Where Ministers accept a recommendation that services should transfer to alternative delivery arrangements, such as a new Children’s Services Trust, Commissioners will oversee this process
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of homophobic bullying were recorded in schools in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government does not hold information on the number of homophobic cases of bullying recorded in schools. The recording of incidents of bullying is managed locally by schools.
We are, however, investigating overall prevalence rates for a range of types of bullying, including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, through surveys such as the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Teacher Voice and Pupil and Parent/Carer omnibus surveys which will report later this year.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Commissioners have been appointed to run local authority children’s services since January 2015.
Answered by Lord Nash
Commissioners are appointed where Ofsted find persistent or systemic failure by a council to deliver children’s services to an acceptable quality.
Persistent failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate more than once within a five year period. Systemic failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate across the board on all key Ofsted judgements.
Commissioners are appointed to direct the improvement of children’s social care services; the Council’s leadership and management of them; and, increasingly, to review whether these services should be removed from council control in order to secure more rapid and sustainable improvement.
Since January 2015 the Secretary of State has appointed five Children’s Services Commissioners.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria they apply, and what circumstances they take into account, in deciding whether to appoint a Commissioner to take over the running of a local authority’s children’s service.
Answered by Lord Nash
Commissioners are appointed where Ofsted find persistent or systemic failure by a council to deliver children’s services to an acceptable quality.
Persistent failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate more than once within a five year period. Systemic failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate across the board on all key Ofsted judgements.
Commissioners are appointed to direct the improvement of children’s social care services; the Council’s leadership and management of them; and, increasingly, to review whether these services should be removed from council control in order to secure more rapid and sustainable improvement.
Since January 2015 the Secretary of State has appointed five Children’s Services Commissioners.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to consult family members and children in the London Borough of Lambeth about their experience of children’s services in the Borough.
Answered by Lord Nash
As part of Ofsted’s inspection of children’s social care services in Lambeth (reported on 12 May 2015), Ofsted met with children, young people, parents, carers, care leavers and Lambeth’s Children in Care Council, who provided direct evidence about their experiences of Lambeth’s children’s services.
Ofsted inspectors also talk to young people as part of bi-annual visits to children’s homes; and take children’s and parents’ views as part of an annual survey of all children’s homes and fostering agencies. These surveys inform Ofsted’s lines of enquiry for subsequent inspections and decisions about the timing of inspections.
The independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by the Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard DNZM, is taking evidence from those affected by child sexual abuse in Lambeth.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they have in place to assess the performance of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills Board overall, and of its individual members.
Answered by Lord Nash
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector reports to the Education Select Committee at least twice a year on matters relating to Ofsted’s performance.
The performance of the Ofsted Chair is reviewed by the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education on behalf of the Secretary of State.
The Chair undertakes performance reviews of the Chief Inspector and Ofsted Board members.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they have in place to assess the performance of the Department for Education Board overall, and of its individual members.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education Board is assessed through a board effectiveness evaluation carried out in accordance with the Code of Good Practice of Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments, published in 2011 by HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office.