Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the breakdown of spending by local authorities of Reducing Parental Conflict grants, in terms of matters such as internal human and other resources, training, and direct delivery to parents; and what are local evaluations showing is the impact of the way the grant is allocated locally.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
This phase of the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme (2022-25) focuses on supporting and funding Local Authorities (LAs) to integrate RPC into their family help offer. As such, the programme does not directly put parents through RPC interventions, these decisions are instead taken at a local level.
LAs receive RPC funding through the RPC Local Grant, which makes up to £19m available from 2022-25. In the first year of grant funding, LAs have directly supported around 18,000 parents, and over 30,000 training places for staff. Further details on LA breakdowns of grant funding have been appended to the end of this PQ.
In the first year of the RPC Local Grant, LAs had spent £159,000 of their Local Grant funding to undertake evaluation activities. As we are at the start of the second year of a three-year grant process, this work is ongoing. There are however positive findings emerging from local evaluation work. For instance, through our partnered working with ‘Foundations’, these have been published on their website.
LAs are not required to provide data on whether those parents are together or separating/separated. The forthcoming Reducing Parental Conflict evaluation reports, announced on 19th July, will provide further detail on the effects of support on the relationships between intact parents and separating/separated parents.
RPC Local Grant Year 1 | |
Activity Type | LA Spend |
Training | £3,430,000 |
Delivery | £1,260,000 |
Co-ordination | £2,520,000 |
Admin | £400,000 |
Evaluation | £159,000 |
To Note:
The information in this PQ is derived from internal management information and is not quality assured to Official Statistics standards.
As this is ongoing Management Information, derived from 134 LAs, small amounts of additional resource which LAs have committed beyond their Grant Funding has not been disaggregated from the figures, as such totals may slightly exceed overall allocation in some places and the final reported figures will differ.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many parents have been directly supported since the start of phase two of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme through tested interventions that are proven to help parents who (1) want to stay together, and (2) are separating or separated.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
This phase of the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme (2022-25) focuses on supporting and funding Local Authorities (LAs) to integrate RPC into their family help offer. As such, the programme does not directly put parents through RPC interventions, these decisions are instead taken at a local level.
LAs receive RPC funding through the RPC Local Grant, which makes up to £19m available from 2022-25. In the first year of grant funding, LAs have directly supported around 18,000 parents, and over 30,000 training places for staff. Further details on LA breakdowns of grant funding have been appended to the end of this PQ.
In the first year of the RPC Local Grant, LAs had spent £159,000 of their Local Grant funding to undertake evaluation activities. As we are at the start of the second year of a three-year grant process, this work is ongoing. There are however positive findings emerging from local evaluation work. For instance, through our partnered working with ‘Foundations’, these have been published on their website.
LAs are not required to provide data on whether those parents are together or separating/separated. The forthcoming Reducing Parental Conflict evaluation reports, announced on 19th July, will provide further detail on the effects of support on the relationships between intact parents and separating/separated parents.
RPC Local Grant Year 1 | |
Activity Type | LA Spend |
Training | £3,430,000 |
Delivery | £1,260,000 |
Co-ordination | £2,520,000 |
Admin | £400,000 |
Evaluation | £159,000 |
To Note:
The information in this PQ is derived from internal management information and is not quality assured to Official Statistics standards.
As this is ongoing Management Information, derived from 134 LAs, small amounts of additional resource which LAs have committed beyond their Grant Funding has not been disaggregated from the figures, as such totals may slightly exceed overall allocation in some places and the final reported figures will differ.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the new private clinic Gender Plus operates safely for the children and young people who come under its care.
Answered by Lord Markham
All healthcare providers should follow clinical best practice and must be registered with their professional body and any other regulators, as appropriate, for that service.
If a private organisation which is within the scope of regulated practice fails to meet the standards expected of it, then regulators, including the Care Quality Commission, have powers to inspect these services to determine whether patient safety is at risk or if best practice is not being followed.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the Universities UK strategic advisory panel involves students from Sensible Drug Policy UK; and what assessment they have made of the implications of this involvement for illegal drug use on university campuses.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department is clear there is no safe way to take illegal drugs. These drugs can devastate lives, ruin families, and damage communities. The government welcomes activity by universities and other organisations to raise awareness of the harms of illicit drugs and discourage drug misuse. This includes focusing on the health, safety and wellbeing of students, while working with public health and law enforcement agencies.
This government has invested a record £780 million to rebuild the national drug treatment and recovery system, to improve treatment and provide wider support, such as employment and housing, that people need to rebuild their lives.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support older workers who left the labour market during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now in financial hardship get back into work.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The latest study by The Office of National Statistics (Working and workless households in the UK: January to March 2023) shows a decrease of 23,000 in the number of people aged 50-64 in workless households against the same period in 2022.
However, the Government recognises the challenges that older jobseekers face which is why we are delivering a comprehensive package of support to help them return to work.
In addition to the help in place for all Universal Credit claimants, eligible older jobseekers can access additional intensive, tailored support in the first 9 months of their Universal Credit claim.
A network of dedicated 50PLUS: Champions are in place in Jobcentre Plus districts across Great Britain, upskilling Work Coaches in supporting over 50s to return to work and engaging with employers to maximise opportunities for recruitment.
The Midlife MOT is delivered in Jobcentres across Great Britain, to help older workers to take stock of their finances, skills and health and, on 5th July 2023, an enhanced digital Midlife MOT went live to provide access to financial, health and career guidance.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for the 22 per cent rise in divorce applications since reforms were introduced in April 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government continues to monitor and assess divorce application statistics. In the first year since divorce reforms were introduced in April 2022, 119,000 divorce applications were made through the new process, compared to almost 108,000 applications for the last full year under the previous legislation. This is an increase of 11 per cent. We expected a temporary spike in the volume of applications following implementation of the divorce reforms. This is because people will have waited to apply for a divorce under the new process. However, international evidence shows that long-term divorce rates are not increased by removing ‘fault’ from the divorce process. We expect volumes to return to previous levels once the initial peak has occurred.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will ensure guidance for the Down Syndrome Act 2022 is compliant with the Equality Act 2010 in respect of other genetic conditions similarly profound in their impact, such as 22q deletion and duplication syndromes.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Down Syndrome Act does not remove the duties under the Equality Act 2010 for services to assess all the needs of people they provide support to, including those with genetic conditions such as 22q deletion and duplication syndromes. We are clear that prioritising funding or resources for people with Down syndrome above other groups without proper assessment of people’s needs would be unlawful.
We recognise that there are overlaps between the services that support people with Down syndrome and those that support people with other genetic conditions and/or a learning disability. The Down Syndrome Act guidance will focus on the unique support needs of people with Down syndrome. We will, however, highlight where best practice in service delivery would also be applicable to those with another genetic condition and/or a learning disability, including DiGeorge syndrome (22q11.2 deletion syndrome) and duplication syndromes.
An Equality Impact Assessment will be carried out on the draft guidance once produced to ensure it does not disadvantage certain groups relative to others. There will be a full public consultation on the draft guidance. The guidance will make clear the requirements on relevant authorities in respect of the Equality Act.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the implementation of the Down Syndrome Act 2022 fits with their wider strategy for supporting people affected by disabilities.
Answered by Lord Markham
No specific assessment has been made. Under the Down Syndrome Act 2022 we will be developing guidance for relevant authorities focused on how to meet the unique support needs of people with Down syndrome but which highlights where best practice in service delivery would also be applicable to those with another genetic condition and/or a learning disability. There will be a full public consultation once a draft of the guidance has been produced.
The Act will help achieve the Government’s wider commitment to improving outcomes for disabled people. In December 2022, Minister Pursglove, Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, announced a new Disability Action Plan (DAP) which will be consulted on and published this year. The Government will consider all responses to the consultation carefully before publishing the final DAP.
This Plan will set out the practical action planned across government over the next two years to improve disabled people’s lives. The Plan will lay out joint action government departments can take to make a tangible difference to disabled people’s lives in the immediate term, as well as where we can make meaningful progress towards a longer-term goal, for example improved disability data and evidence.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 9 June 2022 (HL Deb col 1240) that re-categorising crime types and publishing a “violence against men and boys” strategy could lead to complaints from women and domestic abuse organisations, what steps they have taken to confirm this concern is justified.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, and the commitments they make, address all victims of these crimes, regardless of gender.
These documents were informed by the Violence Against Women and Girls Call for Evidence. It received over 180,000 responses, including over 500 written submissions from experts, academics, and stakeholders, with a broad spectrum of representation across domestic abuse charities and organisations. We also ran several focus groups on specialist areas, including male victims, migrant victims/survivors and perpetrator management.
We analysed responses and found a set of key themes. They included a call for a joined-up response to supporting victims and survivors and for a more co-ordinated approach across government and society to tackling these crimes.
It is our assessment that the introduction of a separate strategy for ‘violence against men and boys’ could be perceived to directly contradict this feedback.
We do understand that there are specific challenges that male victims of these crimes do face. This is why we published the refreshed Supporting Male Victims policy document in 2022, which strengthens the government’s response to male victims.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to take a more holistic approach to men’s health, given that there are common underlying factors such as alcohol and drug abuse, and suicide, which are identifiable and frequently preventable.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Government is taking action to address conditions that affect men, including suicide, alcohol and drug abuse. As with other major conditions and drivers of ill health, we consider the impact that each issue has at a population level and the most effective ways to address them, including for the groups most impacted.
On Tuesday 24 January, in the Written Statement on Major Conditions and Diseases, we announced that we will publish a refreshed suicide prevention strategy. This will reflect the most up to date evidence and address current challenges, risks, and opportunities to prevent suicide. The strategy will set out key areas for action, including those the government will take, to prevent suicide. We will continue working with our expert advisory network to inform this, including the National Advisory Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group chaired by Professor Sir Louis Appleby.