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Written Question
Child rearing
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the accessibility of evidence-based parenting support for parents and families residing in local authority areas that do not offer Family Hubs.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme aims to improve access to services for parents and families with children 0-19 or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities. It provides funding for parenting support as part of the Start for Life offer to be used on evidence-based programmes alongside peer support and community outreach activities.

The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage. The department would like to see Family Hubs open across the country. The departments initial focus is on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently working with and building a model and evidence base. The department can then look to expand further in the future.

The published programme guide sets out requirements for local authorities to invest in evidence-based programmes with encouragement to select those that feature in published guidance, which have been rigorously evaluated and demonstrated impact.

The programme guide can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide. The published guidance is available at: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool.

The department is working with the local authorities selected for the programme to assess delivery of all funded services in Family Hubs, and evidence-based parenting programmes are included as part of this. A comprehensive external evaluation of the parenting support offer has been commissioned and is due to report in late 2025. This evaluation will explore how well different parenting programmes have been implemented into the Family Hubs model. It will include a quasi-experimental impact evaluation that will assess the outcomes for families and an assessment of the value for money offered by the programme as a whole.

The department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through Family Hubs and as such undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department considers policies from across the world, including Australia, to inform departmental thinking. This scoping work also includes engaging with the Social Mobility Commission following their recent report into family and parenting programmes.

The department is also investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in order to improve the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. This evidence-based programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months for those on free school meals. Over 500,000 children have had their language screened, with 160,000 reception age children having received extra support with their speech and language development from this proven programme.

Alongside investing in parenting support and the NELI programme, the department has also launched a national media campaign ‘Little Moments Together’ to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their pre-school children. The campaign, run jointly with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, provides evidence-based advice for parents on the NHS Better Health Start for Life website, and support from national partners on activities for parents. Little Moments Together is based on long-standing evidence on the importance of the home learning environment to providing children the best start to life. The Better Health Start for Life website can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/.


Written Question
Child rearing
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference the Social Mobility Commission's publication entitled Family and parenting programmes: rapid evidence assessment, published in October 2023, what assessment her Department has made of the role of evidence-based parenting programmes in ensuring value for money from expenditure on parenting support.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme aims to improve access to services for parents and families with children 0-19 or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities. It provides funding for parenting support as part of the Start for Life offer to be used on evidence-based programmes alongside peer support and community outreach activities.

The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage. The department would like to see Family Hubs open across the country. The departments initial focus is on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently working with and building a model and evidence base. The department can then look to expand further in the future.

The published programme guide sets out requirements for local authorities to invest in evidence-based programmes with encouragement to select those that feature in published guidance, which have been rigorously evaluated and demonstrated impact.

The programme guide can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide. The published guidance is available at: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool.

The department is working with the local authorities selected for the programme to assess delivery of all funded services in Family Hubs, and evidence-based parenting programmes are included as part of this. A comprehensive external evaluation of the parenting support offer has been commissioned and is due to report in late 2025. This evaluation will explore how well different parenting programmes have been implemented into the Family Hubs model. It will include a quasi-experimental impact evaluation that will assess the outcomes for families and an assessment of the value for money offered by the programme as a whole.

The department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through Family Hubs and as such undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department considers policies from across the world, including Australia, to inform departmental thinking. This scoping work also includes engaging with the Social Mobility Commission following their recent report into family and parenting programmes.

The department is also investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in order to improve the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. This evidence-based programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months for those on free school meals. Over 500,000 children have had their language screened, with 160,000 reception age children having received extra support with their speech and language development from this proven programme.

Alongside investing in parenting support and the NELI programme, the department has also launched a national media campaign ‘Little Moments Together’ to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their pre-school children. The campaign, run jointly with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, provides evidence-based advice for parents on the NHS Better Health Start for Life website, and support from national partners on activities for parents. Little Moments Together is based on long-standing evidence on the importance of the home learning environment to providing children the best start to life. The Better Health Start for Life website can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/.


Written Question
Child rearing
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of (a) evidence-based parenting programmes and (b) other interventions to support parents.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme aims to improve access to services for parents and families with children 0-19 or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities. It provides funding for parenting support as part of the Start for Life offer to be used on evidence-based programmes alongside peer support and community outreach activities.

The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage. The department would like to see Family Hubs open across the country. The departments initial focus is on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently working with and building a model and evidence base. The department can then look to expand further in the future.

The published programme guide sets out requirements for local authorities to invest in evidence-based programmes with encouragement to select those that feature in published guidance, which have been rigorously evaluated and demonstrated impact.

The programme guide can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide. The published guidance is available at: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool.

The department is working with the local authorities selected for the programme to assess delivery of all funded services in Family Hubs, and evidence-based parenting programmes are included as part of this. A comprehensive external evaluation of the parenting support offer has been commissioned and is due to report in late 2025. This evaluation will explore how well different parenting programmes have been implemented into the Family Hubs model. It will include a quasi-experimental impact evaluation that will assess the outcomes for families and an assessment of the value for money offered by the programme as a whole.

The department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through Family Hubs and as such undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department considers policies from across the world, including Australia, to inform departmental thinking. This scoping work also includes engaging with the Social Mobility Commission following their recent report into family and parenting programmes.

The department is also investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in order to improve the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. This evidence-based programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months for those on free school meals. Over 500,000 children have had their language screened, with 160,000 reception age children having received extra support with their speech and language development from this proven programme.

Alongside investing in parenting support and the NELI programme, the department has also launched a national media campaign ‘Little Moments Together’ to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their pre-school children. The campaign, run jointly with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, provides evidence-based advice for parents on the NHS Better Health Start for Life website, and support from national partners on activities for parents. Little Moments Together is based on long-standing evidence on the importance of the home learning environment to providing children the best start to life. The Better Health Start for Life website can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/.


Written Question
Child rearing: Finance
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of funding a digital roll out of evidence-based parenting programmes similar to the scheme announced by the Australian Federal Government in 2022.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme aims to improve access to services for parents and families with children 0-19 or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities. It provides funding for parenting support as part of the Start for Life offer to be used on evidence-based programmes alongside peer support and community outreach activities.

The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage. The department would like to see Family Hubs open across the country. The departments initial focus is on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently working with and building a model and evidence base. The department can then look to expand further in the future.

The published programme guide sets out requirements for local authorities to invest in evidence-based programmes with encouragement to select those that feature in published guidance, which have been rigorously evaluated and demonstrated impact.

The programme guide can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide. The published guidance is available at: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool.

The department is working with the local authorities selected for the programme to assess delivery of all funded services in Family Hubs, and evidence-based parenting programmes are included as part of this. A comprehensive external evaluation of the parenting support offer has been commissioned and is due to report in late 2025. This evaluation will explore how well different parenting programmes have been implemented into the Family Hubs model. It will include a quasi-experimental impact evaluation that will assess the outcomes for families and an assessment of the value for money offered by the programme as a whole.

The department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through Family Hubs and as such undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department considers policies from across the world, including Australia, to inform departmental thinking. This scoping work also includes engaging with the Social Mobility Commission following their recent report into family and parenting programmes.

The department is also investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in order to improve the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. This evidence-based programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months for those on free school meals. Over 500,000 children have had their language screened, with 160,000 reception age children having received extra support with their speech and language development from this proven programme.

Alongside investing in parenting support and the NELI programme, the department has also launched a national media campaign ‘Little Moments Together’ to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their pre-school children. The campaign, run jointly with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, provides evidence-based advice for parents on the NHS Better Health Start for Life website, and support from national partners on activities for parents. Little Moments Together is based on long-standing evidence on the importance of the home learning environment to providing children the best start to life. The Better Health Start for Life website can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/.


Written Question
Families: Social Workers
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to tackle shortages in family social workers.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Social workers play a valuable role in supporting the most vulnerable in society and the department is committed to ensuring there is an excellent child and family social worker for everyone who needs one. The department recognises the ongoing challenge facing local authorities across the country in recruiting and retaining child and family social workers, with reasons for social workers leaving the profession varied and complex.

On 2 February 2023, the department published the care reform strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which set out proposals to help stabilise the workforce. This includes supporting the recruitment of up to 461 social worker apprentices, a new Early Career Framework that will set out the development plans for a social worker’s first five years, proposals to reduce the overreliance on agency social workers, and setting up a National Workload Action Group to tackle unnecessary workload drivers which keep social workers away from direct time with children and families.

Every year, through the department’s fast track and development programmes, the department trains an average of 800 new social workers and provides professional development for around 4,000 others.

The number of full time equivalent child and family social workers in post at 30 September 2023 was 33,100. This is the highest figure we've seen since gathering this data. The statistics show that the department’s £50 million average yearly investment over this Spending Review on recruitment and training child and family social workers, alongside the hard work of local authorities is generating positive results.


Written Question
Family Hubs
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding Family Hubs to all local authorities in England.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Family Hubs are a one stop shop for families to make it easier for them to get the help they need. The government would like to see Family Hubs across the country. The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage to target the areas with the highest levels of deprivation and disproportionately poor health and educational outcomes. It is crucial that the department focuses on delivering fairly in these 75 local authorities already committed to and building the evidence base. The department has appointed Ecorys, Sheffield Hallam University and Ipsos to assess the family hubs aspect of the ‘Family Hubs and Start for Life’ programme. The newly commissioned evaluation will explore how the programme is being implemented across local authorities, where improvements can be made, and how it offers value-for-money. The department expects to publish the findings of the evaluation in late 2025.


Written Question
Schools: Discipline
Friday 1st March 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to commence section 93A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department will commence Section 93a of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, making recording and reporting incidents of reasonable force a legal duty. This will be enacted to coincide with the publication of updates to the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance, originally published in 2013, to ensure that schools have adequate advice on how they should be recording and reporting any incidents where reasonable force, including restrictive interventions, is used.


Written Question
Schools: Discipline
Thursday 29th February 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is to respond to her Department's consultation entitled Use of reasonable force and restrictive practices in schools which closed on 11 May 2023.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises that the misuse of reasonable force and restrictive interventions can have a significant and long-lasting effect on the pupils, staff members and parents involved, as well as the wider classroom, which can potentially hinder the creation of a calm, safe and supportive school environment. The government is committed to minimising the use of reasonable force and restrictive interventions in all schools in England, including special schools and alternative provision.

This commitment includes updating the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance, published in 2013, to provide advice for schools on creating environments that minimise the use of reasonable force and restrictive interventions, the powers of school staff to use reasonable force and restrictive interventions safely, appropriately and within the law, and making recording and reporting incidents of reasonable force a legal duty.

Updates to the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance will be informed by the call for evidence which closed on 11 May 2023, as well as independent research into the use of reasonable force, physical restraint and other restrictive practices in special schools and alternative provision settings, stakeholder engagement, and data collection through departmental omnibus surveys. The department is considering all responses to the call for evidence as part of its work before the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance goes out for public consultation later this year.


Written Question
Foster Care: Allowances
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the implementation of the increase in foster carers allowances announced in February 2023.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Every year, the Department for Education (DfE) works with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to review the allowance and consider any changes in inflation and affordability for local government.

In February 2023, the DfE raised the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) for foster carers by 12.43% for the 2023/24 financial year. The DfE has also raised the NMA by 6.88% for the 2024/25 financial year. Both allowances are above the rate of inflation and demonstrate the government’s commitment to supporting foster carers.

The DfE expects all local authorities to pay at least the NMA, to ensure that foster carers are never financially disadvantaged by their fostering role.

The duty to pay this allowance is set out in the Fostering National Minimum Standards, issued under the Care Standards Act 2000. All carers should receive the allowance, along with any other agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them.

In December, I wrote to all local authorities reminding them of this duty and the expectation to pay.


Written Question
Electronic Cigarettes: Health Hazards
Friday 20th October 2023

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance includes a requirement for pupils to be taught about the risks associated with e-cigarettes and vapes.

Answered by Nick Gibb

On 1 June 2023, the Prime Minister announced steps to prevent pupils getting access to vapes illegally. As part of this, the Department is planning to include a specific reference to the harms of vaping in the amended Relationships, Sex and Health education (RSHE) curriculum.

The RSHE statutory guidance, which sets out the curriculum topics, already states that in primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use, and drug-taking. To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the Department published a suite of teacher training modules, including on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes (vaping).

In addition, the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco are taught in compulsory health education. This supplements drug education which is part of the National Curriculum for science in Key Stages 2 and 3.

Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises. This should be communicated to all pupils, parents and school staff.

Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include vapes. Items banned by the school can be searched for as outlined in the department’s Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation.