Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL Deb, col 167), whether the investigation by the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education into the handling of the Trojan horse allegations in 2010 will be made public; and what is the timeframe for the report.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Secretary of State has asked the Permanent Secretary to conduct an internal review into how the Department for Education dealt with warnings in Birmingham since the formation of this Government in 2010, and before. The Permanent Secretary intends to present his findings to the Secretary of State later in the summer.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in relation to their proposals to extend the power for local authorities to outsource their children's social work functions including child protection, what assessment has been made of (1) the risks to children and young people, (2) the risks to the impartiality and integrity of statutory decision-making and interventions, and (3) the risks of conflicts of interest arising for third-party providers that bid for social work functions and for commissioned care placement.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government is considering the outcome of its consultation on delegation of children's social care functions. The proposals would place no obligations on local authorities and do not remove their statutory accountability for child protection and wider children's social care.
Should the proposals proceed, local authorities will need to ensure that any arrangements they put in place allow them to meet their statutory duties and properly manage questions of risk and conflicts of interest.
Ofsted will consider these arrangements as part of local authority inspections and hold the authority to account for the quality of its children's services.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many, and which, local authorities have made representations to the Department for Education asking it to legislate to extend the power to outsource children's social work functions, including child protection, under the Children and Young Persons Act 2008.
Answered by Lord Nash
Formal representations concerning outsourcing of social care functions, potentially including child protection, have been made by Staffordshire, Kingston, and Richmond local authorities. In addition a number of informal discussions on this topic have taken place with other local authorities.