Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether local authority social care services are funded and equipped to meet the needs of the 621,880 children referred to them in 2024.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) for the 2025/26 financial year will grant councils in England access to over £69 billion in funding, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase on the 2024/25 financial year. Decisions on allocation of funding for all local authority-delivered services, including children’s social care, are for local authorities to take based on local need, priorities and statutory duties.

In recognition of the need to ensure local authorities have the resources needed to deliver good quality children’s social care services, the LGFS for 2025/26 provides two new grants for children and family services. A new Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant is set to be introduced, which will provide £270 million of new funding for investment in additional prevention activity through the implementation of Family Help and child protection reforms. The Children and Families Grant, worth £414 million, will also be available. This will consolidate several previous departmental children’s social care grants, including £253.5 million from the former Supporting Families Programme.

The government’s investment in 2025/26 is a significant step in our ambition to rebalance the children’s social care system and will enable local authorities to move towards financial sustainability and deliver improved outcomes for children and families.

Funding for future years will be subject to phase two of the spending review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to address the fact that 34 per cent of children in care moved home at least once during their GCSE or A level years, as estimated by the charity Become in their recent report Moving during exams: the instability crisis affecting children in care.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. We recognise the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any transitions well-planned and supported. Where a change to a child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their personal education plan should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.

The government is introducing measures, including through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to rebalance the market, improve regulation and commissioning of placements, and bring greater visibility to the prices local authorities are paying. This includes a focus on addressing the barriers that prevent homes from being established where they are needed.

Through our Plan for Change, we are also investing £2 billion over this Parliament to give more children a safe, loving home, including expanding the children’s home estate, delivering more foster care placements and helping keep families together by providing targeted support before problems escalate.

These measures will provide greater placement availability, stability and ensure that, where it is in a child's best interests, they are placed closer to home.

Found: : Baroness Morris of Yardley (The Chair); Lord Bradley; Lord Carter of Coles; Baroness Coffey; Lord Laming

Found: Morris of Yardley (The Chair); Lord Blencathra; Lord Bradley; Baroness Cass; Baroness Coffey; Lord Laming

Found: We have had lots of reviews, dating back to Lord Laming in 2009, and the Alexis Jay review I think took

Found: 200 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 E TERNAL CONTE T GOVERNMENT ACTION 200 -2015 March 200 Lord Laming

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