Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report from the Local Government Information Unit, The State of Local Government Finance in England 2024, published on 28 February, which suggests that half the councils in England will face bankruptcy within the next Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Noble Lord to the written statement made by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities HCWS241 and by the Minister for Local Government HCWS300 on 5 February.
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £64.7 billion, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24 – an above inflation increase. This Settlement includes additional measures worth £600 million announced on 24 January.
On the 29 February, the Government published details of financial flexibilities agreed with a small number of other councils that requested financial support on an exceptional basis, due to specific local issues that they are unable to manage themselves. Nearly three quarters of the support announced relates to six councils where there has been severe local failure, forcing the government to step in and take action through statutory intervention.
As a result of this action by Government, we anticipate that all councils will be able to set a balanced budget and continue to deliver vital services for their communities.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking in response to the final report of the Competition and Markets Authority's children’s social care market study published on 10 March 2022, particularly with regard to the finding on excessive charging by private providers of residential care homes for children in public care.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.
The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.
As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.
In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:
Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to achieve a better distribution of residential care homes for children so that they are not placed great distances from their families, friends and school.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.
The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.
As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.
In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:
Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that young children in public care are not placed in unregistered accommodation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.
The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.
As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.
In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:
Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to tackle the increase of children being taken into public care.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of looked-after children in the care of their local authority has increased by 2% to 83,840 at 31 March 2023 from 82,080 last year. The number of children in children’s homes has increased by 16% since 2019.
The department knows that the care system does not currently work for every child and that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care, resulting in some children living far from where they call home. Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each decision and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.
As the Competition and Markets Authority found in their 2022 market study, the largest private providers are making materially higher profits and charging materially higher prices than would be expected if the market was functioning effectively. The department recognises these issues, particularly around large providers with complex ownership structures, and agrees that sometimes placement costs can be too high.
In February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out a broad, system-wide transformation. This can be accessed attached. As part of this strategy, the department is:
Finally, the department is supporting kinship families through the first ever national kinship care strategy, which is backed by the following funding: £20 million in 2024/25; over £36 million in a fostering recruitment and retention programme this Spending Review; and £160 million over the next three years to deliver the department’s adoption strategy, entitled ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that non-custodial sentences command public and judicial confidence by ensuring that, when offenders undertake such interventions, they are demanding, well organised, purposeful, and with the clear intention of reducing recidivism.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the effective delivery of non-custodial sentences, and it is important that both judges and the public have confidence in the delivery of these sentences.
Courts have the power to impose a range of requirements to sentences served in the community. All community orders must have a compulsory punitive element to ensure that offenders are punished for their crime, and to deter further reoffending. For example, Unpaid Work (UPW) ensures offenders are making visible reparations for their crimes, such as cleaning graffiti. We have invested up to £93m in Community Payback over a three-year period to boost delivery of UPW hours. We have also relaunched the UPW nominations website on GOV.UK to make it easier and more accessible for the public to have a say in how and where UPW hours should be used.
Electronic monitoring is a well-established tool available to courts and probation staff to strengthen offender management in the community. We are increasing the number of defendants and offenders that can be tagged at any one time to 25,000 by March 2025.
Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CSTRs) can also be imposed as part of a community sentence for offenders with mental health, drug or alcohol issues, offering a robust alternative to custody which addresses the root causes of offending. We have recruited Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators across all probation regions to ensure strong links between probation and healthcare to support these requirements.
Public confidence is maintained by ensuring our staff are equipped with the right tools so that they can make the most of their expertise and judgement. We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit record levels of staff, so that we can bring down caseloads, and deliver better and more consistent supervision of offenders in the community.
We recognise the importance of ensuring the public is properly informed about sentencing as a whole and that the public has access to a range of information to enable this. We are also building and maintaining the confidence of the judiciary by improving arrangements to increase understanding and transparency in probation delivery at national, regional and local levels.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide support to local authorities in financial difficulty.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
We monitor the financial health of local authorities closely, including through extensive direct engagement with councils. We stand ready to speak to any council that has concerns about its ability to manage its finances, or that faces pressures it has not planned for.
The provisional local government finance settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to an additional £3.9 billion to local authorities in England, an increase of 6.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. We have launched a consultation on the provisional settlement, which closes on 15 January 2024.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Carers UK report State of Caring 2023 — The impact of caring on: health, published in November; and what steps they intend to take in response.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are grateful to Carers UK for having undertaken the research for this report, and we recognise that caring is not always easy or straightforward. There is a wide variety of caring circumstances, experiences and needs among unpaid carers, and the enormous contribution of unpaid carers is reflected throughout Next Steps to Put People at the Heart of Care, published on GOV.UK in April 2023 in an online-only format.
On 24 October 2023, we announced our £42.6 million Accelerating Reform Fund to support innovation and scaling up in adult social care, and to kick-start a change in services provided to support unpaid carers.
We are also investing at least £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. This extra funding will enable an extra two million people, including unpaid carers, to be treated by mental health services within the National Health Service by March 2024.
We know that breaks and respite are important for unpaid carers. This year, £327 million from the Better Care Fund has been earmarked to provide short breaks and respite services and additional advice and support to carers, together with a small number of additional local authority duties.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Children's Commissioner report Missing Children, Missing Grades, published on 2 November; and what steps they are taking in response.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving attendance is one of the department’s priorities. The report provides vital insight into the relationship between attendance and attainment. The recommendations echo the department’s ‘support first' approach to attendance and its goal to make attendance everyone's business. In response, the department continues to implement its comprehensive plan to address the issue.
The department has published guidance encouraging all schools and local authorities to adopt the practices of the most effective schools. All schools are now expected to publish an attendance policy and appoint an attendance champion. Local authorities are expected to meet termly with schools to agree individual plans for at risk children. 86% of schools subscribe to the department’s attendance data tool to spot at risk pupils. The department’s attendance hubs now support 800 schools benefiting over 400,000 pupils.
These measures are in addition to the implementation of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms which will ensure that children with SEND receive high quality, early support in attending school wherever they live in England.
The department’s approach is starting to turn the tide, with recent data showing there were 380,000 fewer pupils who were persistently absent from or not attending school in the 2022/23 academic year compared to 2021/22, but absence levels remain too high.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they intend to take in response to the findings of the His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation's Annual Report 2022/2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice fully recognises the challenges raised by the Chief Inspector in his annual report and my Right Honourable Friend, the Prisons and Probation Minister will respond to him in full. We are committed to addressing the issues he outlines, most vitally around staffing levels and the need to improve the management of risk. We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safe. The unified Probation Service is delivering greater consistency in supervision and we are already giving local leaders greater decision-making powers so they can better address the issues that are unique to their local area.