Children’s Social Care

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Education Committee.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I welcome the action that the Government have announced today to improve children’s social care. The Secretary of State will know that families from the poorest neighbourhoods are 14 times more likely to be referred to children’s social care than those from the richest areas, and that there is a growing body of evidence linking child poverty to the rise in children entering the care system. How will she ensure that the upcoming child poverty strategy delivers more stability and safety for children and ensures that fewer families enter the kind of crises that result in their children being removed from their care?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend has long championed this cause and brings considerable expertise to the role that she now undertakes as Chair of the Select Committee. I look forward to discussing these issues with her and her Committee in due course. She is right to identify that child poverty is a significant issue in this area. That is why we got the work of the child poverty taskforce under way in August; we know that that work is crucial. What she has set out today is something that I have heard from parents the length and breadth of the country as part of the work that we are undertaking. It is important that, alongside tackling child poverty, we ensure that all families have early support and early intervention to ensure that they can thrive, and that, as she says, problems do not escalate in the way that they currently do.