Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2024 to Questions 15600 and 15601 on Children in Care and Foster Care, if she will publish the number of children looked after who were cared for in a (a) relative and (b) friend foster placement by (i) age, (ii) gender, (iii) ethnicity and (iv) local authority level as of 31 March 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements. Therefore, the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after on 31 March 2023.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who were looked-after in a (a) relative and (b) friend foster placement in each local authority in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the looked-after children who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement on 31 March 2023 had also been in (a) an unrelated foster placement, (b) another relative or friend placement, (c) a children's home and (d) other provision for looked-after children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) ethnicity who were looked-after in a (i) relative and (ii) friend foster placement in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council’s PFI academisation process.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department can confirm that officials are already engaged with the local authority and are providing assistance with the issues affecting the academisation process in the borough.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that private finance initiative contracts are not used to prevent the statutory academisation of schools following relevant inspection findings.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department routinely works with local authorities to address issues which arise in the context of the academisation of private finance schools.
Officials are happy to work with the hon. Member to address any specific cases you may wish to discuss.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's estimated timescale is for the completion of the academisation of Denton Community College.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
An academy order was issued to the governing body of Denton Community College and Tameside local authority on 22 March 2023. The Regional Director for the North West then agreed for the Northern Education Trust to be the academy trust match for the school in July 2023.
Project planning meetings between the school, trust and local authority take place regularly and these meetings form the basis for discussions on timescales. The current agreeable date for conversion is estimated to be June 2024. This is reliant on Tameside Council’s Cabinet Board approving the school’s Private Finance Initiative agreement.
The Regional Director’s office have been asked to contact the honourable Member for Denton and Reddish to keep him updated on progress.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the financial capability of Tameside Council to effectively provide and manage her Department's improvement process for Children’s Services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not responsible for the overall financial health of local authorities. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities provide authorities with an overall funding agreement which local authorities are then responsible for dispersing within their services, of which children’s services is a part of. It is therefore for the local authority to decide how funding is allocated to improve its children’s services.
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion, or 9.4% in cash terms, in 2022/23. The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced, in recognition of local authorities being best place to understand local priorities.
A breakdown of the key element of annual funding for each local authority in England, including Tameside Council, since 2016/17, as announced at that year’s settlement, are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-information-for-local-authorities-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will allocate additional funding for high needs provision in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The majority of high needs funding from the department is allocated to local authorities, as they are responsible for allocating that funding to schools to support pupils with complex needs. The department has substantially increased high needs funding in recent years and has announced a further increase of £440 million for the 2024/25 financial year, which will bring the total high needs budget to over £10.5 billion, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has received the data from the Tameside Children’s Services diagnostic exercise conducted before summer 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The exercise referenced did not conclude as the Council re-directed the resource to concentrate on improvements. As a result, a formal report was not provided. However, the department has discussed the findings with the Council and are assured that the areas identified are embedded within the Council-owned Improvement Plan.