Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children identified as potential victims of human trafficking have gone missing from local authority care in each financial year from 2009–10 to 2018–19.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Information on the number of looked after children who have been identified as potential victims of human trafficking and who go missing from care is not held centrally.
The latest figures on looked after children who go missing in England as at 31 March are published in Table G1 of the statistical release ‘Children Looked after in England including adoptions: 2018 to 2019’, which is attached and is also available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.
Slavery and trafficking of children is a very serious offence and the government is committed to protecting children from this harm. The response to trafficking should be primarily about protecting victims and bringing those who exploit them to justice.
Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area, including child victims of modern slavery. The department’s statutory guidance for local authorities on care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery is clear on authorities’ duties to work with local partners to protect child victims of modern slavery from further risk from their traffickers and preventing exploitation from taking place. In particular, there should be a clear understanding between the local authority and the police of their respective roles in planning for this protection and responding if a child victim of modern slavery goes missing.
Section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 makes provisions for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates, which have been renamed Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs). ICTGs are an independent source of advice for trafficked children; somebody who can speak up on their behalf and act in the best interests of the child. Currently, ICTGs have been rolled out to one third of local authorities in England and Wales and the government remains committed to a national rollout.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms are in place to monitor the number of children identified as potential victims of human trafficking who go missing from local authority care.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Information on the number of looked after children who have been identified as potential victims of human trafficking and who go missing from care is not held centrally.
The latest figures on looked after children who go missing in England as at 31 March are published in Table G1 of the statistical release ‘Children Looked after in England including adoptions: 2018 to 2019’, which is attached and is also available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.
Slavery and trafficking of children is a very serious offence and the government is committed to protecting children from this harm. The response to trafficking should be primarily about protecting victims and bringing those who exploit them to justice.
Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area, including child victims of modern slavery. The department’s statutory guidance for local authorities on care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery is clear on authorities’ duties to work with local partners to protect child victims of modern slavery from further risk from their traffickers and preventing exploitation from taking place. In particular, there should be a clear understanding between the local authority and the police of their respective roles in planning for this protection and responding if a child victim of modern slavery goes missing.
Section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 makes provisions for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates, which have been renamed Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs). ICTGs are an independent source of advice for trafficked children; somebody who can speak up on their behalf and act in the best interests of the child. Currently, ICTGs have been rolled out to one third of local authorities in England and Wales and the government remains committed to a national rollout.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that some schools are encouraging families to home school children with complex difficulties, possibly with an eye to those schools' performance statistics; and what plans they have to ensure that such children benefit from the support of the proposed mental health support teams.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department shares concerns that some children are potentially being educated at home as a result of pressure by schools. However, it is not in a position to confirm how far these concerns are justified by actual cases.
A pupil’s name can only lawfully be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in Regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended. Schools should not seek to persuade parents to educate their children at home as a way of excluding the pupil or because the pupil has a poor attendance record. It is unlawful to permanently exclude a pupil from a school other than for disciplinary reasons. Schools may not exclude pupils because of their academic attainment or ability, or because they cannot meet their needs. Sending a pupil home without recording it as an exclusion is also not permitted.
Parents have a duty to ensure their child of compulsory school age receives a suitable full-time education but this does not have to be at a school. On receipt of written notification from a parent to home educate their child, the school must inform the pupil’s local authority that the pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register.
We will test how the new mental health support teams proposed in the green paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’ can provide support to all children in an area, including those not at school.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are taking steps to ensure that where there is a lack of evidence about the most suitable interventions for looked after children, those at risk of entering care, adopted children, and care leavers, the use of resources such as personal budgets and the post-adoption support fund is monitored and evaluated, and, where possible, that interventions purchased are subject to a suitably designed research trial.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Personal health budgets and the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) are generally used for interventions that are not universally offered or commissioned locally, offering access to support that would not ordinarily be available to meet the child’s needs.
The use of personal health budgets for looked after children and young people is being piloted and independently evaluated. The evaluation includes assessment of the benefits of personal health budgets, including impact on mental health outcomes. Regular reviews also take place at an individual level to ensure the support provided continues to meet the child’s needs.
An independent evaluation of the ASF was published in August 2017, which can be found attached. The government gave a commitment, in ‘Adoption: a vision for change’, also attached, to strengthen the evidence base of ‘what works’ in terms of preventative and therapeutic adoption support. The department is currently exploring ways to achieve this, including through use of the findings of a new independent evaluation of the ASF, monitoring the impact of the fund for children, families, local authorities and providers.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that personal budgets for looked after children, those at risk of entering care, adopted children, and care leavers, are spent on evidence-based interventions and not on the replication of services offered by universal provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Personal health budgets and the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) are generally used for interventions that are not universally offered or commissioned locally, offering access to support that would not ordinarily be available to meet the child’s needs.
The use of personal health budgets for looked after children and young people is being piloted and independently evaluated. The evaluation includes assessment of the benefits of personal health budgets, including impact on mental health outcomes. Regular reviews also take place at an individual level to ensure the support provided continues to meet the child’s needs.
An independent evaluation of the ASF was published in August 2017, which can be found attached. The government gave a commitment, in ‘Adoption: a vision for change’, also attached, to strengthen the evidence base of ‘what works’ in terms of preventative and therapeutic adoption support. The department is currently exploring ways to achieve this, including through use of the findings of a new independent evaluation of the ASF, monitoring the impact of the fund for children, families, local authorities and providers.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the stability of care placements and education provision for children in care.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
A happy and stable home life is key to making sure children can achieve their full potential. Stability and educational attainment will be promoted by the introduction, via the Children and Social Work Act 2017, of corporate parenting principles for local councils – including principles to promote high aspirations and seek to secure the best outcomes and to strive for stability in the home lives, relationship and education of looked after children.
There are a number of factors that contribute to instability for children in care and we are now collecting data on the reason for placement changes. This will help us better understand why children move.
We have introduced a legal definition of long term fostering to ensure greater stability – where possible – for foster carers and children. The government has also invested £36m to test a range of evidenced-based interventions which support placement stability and improve the capacity of parents, foster carers and residential childcare workers to manage challenging behaviours.
The government has introduced a specific duty on local councils to promote the education of looked after children. We have also introduced Virtual School Heads and designated teachers for looked after children and Pupil Premium Plus for looked after children, additional funding to help raise their educational attainment.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that children who may have been victims of modern slavery are placed with foster carers or support workers who have received specific training on how to care for such children.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are no plans to update the practice guidance ‘Safeguarding children who may have been trafficked’. The revised statutory guidance ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ will be published this autumn.
The training for foster carers and support workers that DfE commissioned from the Refugee Council and ECPAT enables those caring for unaccompanied and trafficked children to understand the challenges and risks facing these children, and equips participants with the knowledge and tools to respond effectively to their needs. Participants were also provided with access to an e-learning course to help recognise the needs of child and adult victims of trafficking and guidance on actions carers and professionals should take to identify and safeguard victims.
Foster carers and support workers attended training courses located in 48 local authorities (see list below). Training was not limited to carers from those authorities.
The forthcoming safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children will address the need for any additional training required by foster carers and support workers to care for children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Further to the training which has recently commissioned, the statutory guidance on ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ states that “Everyone involved in the care of unaccompanied and trafficked children should be trained to recognise and understand the particular issues likely to be faced by these children. This includes recognising the indicators of trafficking as a child’s previous history or current experience of being trafficked might not be apparent on entering care."
List of local authorities where the training by ECPAT and Refugee Council was located:
Bolton
Bournemouth
Bristol
Bromley
Cambridgeshire
Camden
Cheshire East
Cornwall
Coventry
Croydon
Derbyshire
Devon
Doncaster
East Riding
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Haringey
Harrow
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lambeth
Lancashire
Leeds
Leicester City
Leicestershire
Liverpool
Manchester
Medway
Merton
Middlesbrough
North Somerset
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Nottingham City
Oldham
Sheffield
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Sunderland
Thurrock
Walsall
Warrington
West Sussex
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL4582), what plans they have to commission further training for foster carers and support workers to assist those carers and workers to care for children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are no plans to update the practice guidance ‘Safeguarding children who may have been trafficked’. The revised statutory guidance ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ will be published this autumn.
The training for foster carers and support workers that DfE commissioned from the Refugee Council and ECPAT enables those caring for unaccompanied and trafficked children to understand the challenges and risks facing these children, and equips participants with the knowledge and tools to respond effectively to their needs. Participants were also provided with access to an e-learning course to help recognise the needs of child and adult victims of trafficking and guidance on actions carers and professionals should take to identify and safeguard victims.
Foster carers and support workers attended training courses located in 48 local authorities (see list below). Training was not limited to carers from those authorities.
The forthcoming safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children will address the need for any additional training required by foster carers and support workers to care for children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Further to the training which has recently commissioned, the statutory guidance on ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ states that “Everyone involved in the care of unaccompanied and trafficked children should be trained to recognise and understand the particular issues likely to be faced by these children. This includes recognising the indicators of trafficking as a child’s previous history or current experience of being trafficked might not be apparent on entering care."
List of local authorities where the training by ECPAT and Refugee Council was located:
Bolton
Bournemouth
Bristol
Bromley
Cambridgeshire
Camden
Cheshire East
Cornwall
Coventry
Croydon
Derbyshire
Devon
Doncaster
East Riding
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Haringey
Harrow
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lambeth
Lancashire
Leeds
Leicester City
Leicestershire
Liverpool
Manchester
Medway
Merton
Middlesbrough
North Somerset
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Nottingham City
Oldham
Sheffield
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Sunderland
Thurrock
Walsall
Warrington
West Sussex
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL4582), in which local authorities was training given to foster carers and support workers by the Refugee Council and ECPAT to help those carers and workers care for unaccompanied asylum-seeker or refugee children.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are no plans to update the practice guidance ‘Safeguarding children who may have been trafficked’. The revised statutory guidance ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ will be published this autumn.
The training for foster carers and support workers that DfE commissioned from the Refugee Council and ECPAT enables those caring for unaccompanied and trafficked children to understand the challenges and risks facing these children, and equips participants with the knowledge and tools to respond effectively to their needs. Participants were also provided with access to an e-learning course to help recognise the needs of child and adult victims of trafficking and guidance on actions carers and professionals should take to identify and safeguard victims.
Foster carers and support workers attended training courses located in 48 local authorities (see list below). Training was not limited to carers from those authorities.
The forthcoming safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children will address the need for any additional training required by foster carers and support workers to care for children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Further to the training which has recently commissioned, the statutory guidance on ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ states that “Everyone involved in the care of unaccompanied and trafficked children should be trained to recognise and understand the particular issues likely to be faced by these children. This includes recognising the indicators of trafficking as a child’s previous history or current experience of being trafficked might not be apparent on entering care."
List of local authorities where the training by ECPAT and Refugee Council was located:
Bolton
Bournemouth
Bristol
Bromley
Cambridgeshire
Camden
Cheshire East
Cornwall
Coventry
Croydon
Derbyshire
Devon
Doncaster
East Riding
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Haringey
Harrow
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lambeth
Lancashire
Leeds
Leicester City
Leicestershire
Liverpool
Manchester
Medway
Merton
Middlesbrough
North Somerset
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Nottingham City
Oldham
Sheffield
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Sunderland
Thurrock
Walsall
Warrington
West Sussex
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL4582), to what extent the training for foster carers and support workers commissioned from the Refugee Council and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking addresses (1) the indicators of modern slavery, and (2) particular risks and needs of children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are no plans to update the practice guidance ‘Safeguarding children who may have been trafficked’. The revised statutory guidance ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ will be published this autumn.
The training for foster carers and support workers that DfE commissioned from the Refugee Council and ECPAT enables those caring for unaccompanied and trafficked children to understand the challenges and risks facing these children, and equips participants with the knowledge and tools to respond effectively to their needs. Participants were also provided with access to an e-learning course to help recognise the needs of child and adult victims of trafficking and guidance on actions carers and professionals should take to identify and safeguard victims.
Foster carers and support workers attended training courses located in 48 local authorities (see list below). Training was not limited to carers from those authorities.
The forthcoming safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children will address the need for any additional training required by foster carers and support workers to care for children who are, or might be, victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Further to the training which has recently commissioned, the statutory guidance on ‘The care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children’ states that “Everyone involved in the care of unaccompanied and trafficked children should be trained to recognise and understand the particular issues likely to be faced by these children. This includes recognising the indicators of trafficking as a child’s previous history or current experience of being trafficked might not be apparent on entering care."
List of local authorities where the training by ECPAT and Refugee Council was located:
Bolton
Bournemouth
Bristol
Bromley
Cambridgeshire
Camden
Cheshire East
Cornwall
Coventry
Croydon
Derbyshire
Devon
Doncaster
East Riding
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Haringey
Harrow
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lambeth
Lancashire
Leeds
Leicester City
Leicestershire
Liverpool
Manchester
Medway
Merton
Middlesbrough
North Somerset
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Nottingham City
Oldham
Sheffield
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Sunderland
Thurrock
Walsall
Warrington
West Sussex
Wiltshire
Worcestershire