Asked by: Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have been removed from their parents by social services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The following table shows the number of children who were taken into care in each of the last five years. Children who were taken into care were children who started to be looked after under a care order, police protection, emergency protection order or child assessment order.
Children who were taken into care during the years ending 31 March:
Year | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Number of children taken into care | 8,180 | 9,580 | 9,560 | 10,140 | 11,100 |
The information provided in the table is also published in table C2 of the statistical release, which is available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption
Asked by: Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures are in place to check whether the decision made by Somerset County Council on safeguarding children are fair in their treatment of parents.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In ‘Working Together 2013', the Department for Education set out the expectations and requirements of all local authorities in relation to their statutory duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. A copy of ‘Working Together 2013' can be found in the library of the House, or online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/281368/Working_together_to_safeguard_children.pdf. This includes how children and families should be treated during any investigations. Should any parent be dissatisfied about the way a local authority has handled a specific case, they may find it helpful to obtain details of the authority's own complaints procedure.
Parents may wish to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman if they feel dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint under the local authority procedures. It is the Ombudsman's role to investigate complaints in a fair and independent manner.
Assessment of overall children's services provision and safeguarding is undertaken independently by Ofsted under the new Single Inspection Framework.
Asked by: Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what resource is available to parents who believe that Social Services departments are behaving unreasonably in pursuing their children's safeguarding activities.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Parents should, in the first instance, complain to the service provider or the local authority's complaints officer if they are unhappy about the way a local authority has handled a specific case. They may find it helpful to contact the local authority to obtain details of the authority's own complaints procedure. Details of how to complain about a local authority service can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/understand-how-your-council-works/make-a-complaint
Parents may wish to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) if they feel dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint under the local authority procedure. More information on making a complaint to the LGO is available at www.lgo.org.uk or by calling the LGO advice line on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983.
Asked by: Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the performance of the children and families department in Somerset County Council.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Ofsted inspected Somerset County Council's arrangements for the protection of children between 24 June 2013 and 3 July 2013 and published their findings on 5 August 2013. Ofsted judged the authority's performance as ‘inadequate'.
My officials met with representatives of Somerset County Council on 20 August 2013 to discuss the Ofsted judgement, the Department's proposed course of action and the Council's immediate plans for improvement.
I wrote to the leader of Somerset County Council, John Osman, on 13 September 2013 to underline my concern at the Ofsted judgement of performance and set out my intention to issue the council with an Improvement Notice.
I issued a 12-month Improvement Notice to Somerset County Council on 22 November 2013, requiring the council to institute an improvement board headed by an independent chair to drive improvement and hold partners to account. The improvement board has sat monthly since October 2013 and I am represented at each Board by my officials.
I plan to visit Somerset County Council to assess improvements for myself. My officials will also undertake a review of progress in June 2014 and report findings to me. I will then assess progress against the Improvement Notice and Ofsted recommendations and decide whether to intervene further.