Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances where alternatives are available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has launched a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to deliver on our legally binding targets to save nature. This includes how best to manage chemicals, including the risks posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). A Regulatory Management Options Analysis (RMOA), published in April 2023, made a detailed assessment of the range of hazards and risks from PFAS identified in Great Britain, as well as a preliminary analysis of the availability of alternatives for a range of applications. The RMOA recommended a range of actions including the development of UK REACH restrictions for a wide range of PFAS uses. We have started work on a UK REACH dossier investigating whether to restrict PFAS in fire-fighting foams, and we are scoping further action across a wide range of industrial and consumer PFAS uses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory minimum fee framework for foster carers.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I pay tribute to the vital efforts of foster carers, who carry out a challenging role that requires skill, dedication and love. Our policy statement, ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’ sets out our plans to recruit and retain more foster carers and provide access to support for both kinship and foster carers. This statement can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf

This government has also confirmed its commitment to further reforms to children’s social care in the future. As part of these reforms, the department will consider how it can further support foster carers and ensure that more children receive loving care in foster families. However, there are no current plans to introduce a statutory minimum fee framework for foster carers.

Fostering service providers, including local authorities, have the flexibility to pay additional fees. Decisions to pay fees are therefore made independently by the fostering service provider. The department encourages all fostering service providers to regularly review the fees they pay to their foster carers to ensure they remain appropriate.

All foster carers should receive at least the National Minimum Allowance (NMA), to cover the costs of raising an extra child in their home. The NMA has been uplifted by 3.55% for the 2025/26 financial year

If any foster carers receive less than the NMA, they should discuss this with their fostering service and use their complaints procedure if necessary. If the issue is not resolved, it can be escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who has assured the department that these cases will be considered and dealt with appropriately.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, published on 26 November 2024; and what steps she is taking to include the (a) prevention and (b) tackling of child sexual abuse in her Department's plans for introducing Multi-Agency Child Protection Units.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to keeping children safe and to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their success. Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.

The department is very grateful for the work of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, including their report published last week on child sexual abuse in the family environment. Any instance of child abuse is abhorrent, and this report importantly highlights the weaknesses in the system that have shielded abusers and left children at risk of harm. There is a renewed government focus in which we will be driving a holistic and ambitious response to tackling all forms of abuse, including child sexual abuse. Multi-agency child protection teams are based on a recommendation from a previous Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, Child Protection in England. They are part of the Families First for Children (FFC) pathfinders that draw on evidence from the ‘Supporting Families’ and ‘Strengthening families, protecting children’ programmes, which deliver multi-agency and multi-disciplinary whole-family support for children and young people. Evaluation of the ‘Supporting Families’ programme showed a 32% reduction in children going into care from families within two years of being on the programme. The ‘Family Safeguarding’ programme evaluation also found significant reductions in the numbers of new looked after children aged under 12, which reduced by 26%, average number of children on Child Protection Plans aged under 12, which reduced by 43%, and police call outs, the monthly average of which reduced by 64%.

In the ten FFC pathfinder areas, multi-agency child protection practitioners from the local authority, police, health and other relevant agencies are working together in a much more integrated way with overall responsibility for protecting children from harm, alongside social workers with the highest levels of knowledge and skills in child protection work. We know that by working together, agencies are better able to accurately and quickly identify when children are likely to experience, or are experiencing, significant harm and take decisive and skilled action to address this.

In addition to the £45 million already invested in the FFC pathfinder programme, last week the government announced two grants for Children’s Services in 2025/26 which should be used together, alongside the £680 million increase in the Social Care Grant:

• A Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant worth £250 million of new funding to enable direct investment in additional prevention activity through transition to Family Help.
• A Children and Families Grant worth £415 million, including £253.5 million of what was ‘Supporting Families’ funding in 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to provide funding for alternative low carbon technologies in places where it is (a) difficult and (b) expensive to install a heat pump.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Heat pumps will have a major role to play in all net zero pathways and the Government expects most properties will ultimately switch to heat pumps as these are a proven technology and have been installed in high numbers in other countries.

We recognise that heat pumps may not be feasible in a small number of off-gas-grid properties and have commissioned a package of research to collect data on the costs of different approaches to decarbonising the most complex housing archetypes, including the use of alternative low carbon heating solutions. We expect to receive results from that research in 2025.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to provide funding for thermal storage in homes where it is difficult to install a traditional hot water cylinder.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government recognises that thermal storage can be advantageous, because of its smaller physical size, for properties that may struggle to install a traditional hot water cylinder. If installed at the same time as a heat pump, the installation of thermal storage will be zero rated for VAT purposes.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme does not fund thermal storage because we are directing funding at heat pumps and in limited circumstances biomass boilers. However, we will keep our policy under review as further evidence emerges. In addition, Government is funding innovation in thermal storage through its energy research programmes.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the impact of financial exclusion on (a) care experienced and (b) older people.

Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Ensuring people have access to appropriate financial products and services is a key priority for the Government and is vital to supporting people’s financial resilience and wellbeing. It is also an essential part of achieving inclusive growth and ensuring individuals are able to fully participate in the economy.

On 5 December, I convened a Financial Inclusion Committee which has been established to tackle the problems of financial exclusion. Through this committee, I will work with consumer groups and industry on the development of a Financial Inclusion Strategy. This will consider a range of barriers to inclusion for excluded groups, with a particular focus on access to banking, credit, and insurance.

Disclosure and Barring Service checks for hon. Members and Peers

Violence against women and girls

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Dr

Submit Evidence (by 30 Jan 2025)

A number of recent reports have set out in detail the extent of the crisis in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, which is letting down children and their families, creating intense pressure on local authority funding and on schools.