Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for launching the kinship allowance trial scheme; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children.
In October 2024, we announced a £40 million package to trial a kinship allowance in up to ten local authorities. The pilot will provide a weekly financial allowance to kinship carers to support them with the additional costs incurred when taking on the parental responsibility of a child.
The kinship allowance pilot will begin in autumn 2025, with assessment of immediate impact and options for national rollout informed by an independent evaluation. The department will confirm the eligible cohort for the pilot, as well as the participating local authorities, in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authority areas have been selected to take part in the kinship allowance trial scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children.
In October 2024, we announced a £40 million package to trial a kinship allowance in up to ten local authorities. The pilot will provide a weekly financial allowance to kinship carers to support them with the additional costs incurred when taking on the parental responsibility of a child.
The kinship allowance pilot will begin in autumn 2025, with assessment of immediate impact and options for national rollout informed by an independent evaluation. The department will confirm the eligible cohort for the pilot, as well as the participating local authorities, in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department plans to assess the outcomes of the kinship allowance trial scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children.
In October 2024, we announced a £40 million package to trial a kinship allowance in up to ten local authorities. The pilot will provide a weekly financial allowance to kinship carers to support them with the additional costs incurred when taking on the parental responsibility of a child.
The kinship allowance pilot will begin in autumn 2025, with assessment of immediate impact and options for national rollout informed by an independent evaluation. The department will confirm the eligible cohort for the pilot, as well as the participating local authorities, in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Future of Work Cabinet Committee on (a) employment support and (b) paid employment leave for kinship carers.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the challenge that many kinship carers face in continuing to work alongside the pressures of taking in and raising a child.
‘Kinship Carers in the Workplace: Guidance for Employers’ sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including how to adapt internal policies, signpost existing entitlements and create a culture of support to best meet the needs of kinship carers. The department encourages all organisations to review their guidance and explore what changes can be made.
The department employs more than 7,500 public sector workers and has recently joined a small number of private sector employers, including Card Factory, Tesco and John Lewis, in offering a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers.
This government has also committed, in the Plan to Make Work Pay, to review the system of parental leave to ensure that it better supports working families.
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place at Cabinet and its committees is not normally made public.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department conducted an equality impact assessment prior to the decision to withdraw funding for non-specialist disabled students' allowance software.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department made the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from the disabled students’ allowance (DSA) funding on the grounds that there are now free-to-access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs. It is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through the DSA. Full details of the policy change are available at: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/2070/ssin-spelling-and-grammar-software.pdf.
The department conducted an equality impact assessment prior to the decision, which is attached to this response.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons her Department has withdrawn funding for non-specialist disabled students' allowance software.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department made the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from the disabled students’ allowance (DSA) funding on the grounds that there are now free-to-access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs. It is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through the DSA. Full details of the policy change are available at: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/2070/ssin-spelling-and-grammar-software.pdf.
The department conducted an equality impact assessment prior to the decision, which is attached to this response.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of families unable to access the Support for Families with Disabilities grant scheme due to oversubscription in 2024-25.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all families with children and young people with disabilities receive the right support, regardless of socio-economic background. The Supporting Families with Disabled Children programme provides individual grants to around 60,000 low-income families raising a disabled or seriously ill child to support with the additional costs that families can face.
Where families experience challenges, the department signposts available support from the family’s local Information, Advice and Support Service. This is independent of the local authority and can provide impartial advice about local special educational needs and disabilities arrangements and support for children’s needs.
In addition, the department also signposts families to Contact, a national charity for families with disabled children, which provides information, advice and support, and brings families together to support each other.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for future teacher pay increases.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to supporting schools to deliver on the opportunity mission, as shown by the funding increases seen in the core schools budget grant for 2024/25 and at the Autumn Budget 2024, in the context of a challenging fiscal picture. Planning for the multi-year spending review is taking place across government, and the department will provide further updates on funding for schools in due course.
Pay for teachers and leaders in maintained schools is set through an annual statutory process with independent recommendations made by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB). Each year the STRB recommends a pay award based on different factors, including the economy, school workforce data and evidence from organisations including the department, employers and the teaching unions. The government then considers the recommendations in depth and decides on the pay award teachers receive for the coming year.
Final decisions on the teacher’s pay award for 2025 will be made following recommendations from the independent pay review body process.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Lifelong Links on (a) children and young people in care and (b) care leavers.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Stable support networks and loving relationships are crucial to supporting children in care and helping care leavers to thrive.
The department launched the family finding, befriending and mentoring programme in 2023. It is testing a range of programmes that seek to enable children and young people to connect with the important people in their lives, improve their sense of identity and community, and help them create and sustain consistent, stable and loving relationships. We are currently funding 50 programmes across 45 local authorities, and this includes 23 Lifelong Links programmes.
The family finding, befriending and mentoring programme is subject to a formal evaluation, with an initial report due later this year. The evaluation will help us understand the impacts for children in care and care leavers and assess the practicability of extending family finding and befriending and mentoring programmes in the future.
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the overall settlement for the department for the 2025/26 financial year, providing additional funding for core schools, early years and children’s social care, amongst other areas. We are actively working to finalise the details of the 2025/26 budgets, including funding for the family finding, befriending and mentoring programme.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) family finding, (b) befriending and (c) mentoring programmes.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Stable support networks and loving relationships are crucial to supporting children in care and helping care leavers to thrive.
The department launched the family finding, befriending and mentoring programme in 2023. It is testing a range of programmes that seek to enable children and young people to connect with the important people in their lives, improve their sense of identity and community, and help them create and sustain consistent, stable and loving relationships. We are currently funding 50 programmes across 45 local authorities, and this includes 23 Lifelong Links programmes.
The family finding, befriending and mentoring programme is subject to a formal evaluation, with an initial report due later this year. The evaluation will help us understand the impacts for children in care and care leavers and assess the practicability of extending family finding and befriending and mentoring programmes in the future.
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the overall settlement for the department for the 2025/26 financial year, providing additional funding for core schools, early years and children’s social care, amongst other areas. We are actively working to finalise the details of the 2025/26 budgets, including funding for the family finding, befriending and mentoring programme.