Oral Answers to Questions

Lyn Brown Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ms Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to reform children’s social care services.

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

20. What steps he is taking to reform children’s social care services.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

We will publish an ambitious implementation strategy later this year following three important pieces of work: first, the independent review of social care—the MacAlister review—and then the Competition and Markets Authority study on the children’s social care market, and the national panel review of the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson.

[Ms Brown]

Many years ago, as a residential social worker, I saw the pain and despair of many children in care, alongside their talents, their ambitions and their amazing resilience. None of this has changed, and we know that the most dangerous and difficult time for a child is the transition into leaving care. Too often services are just cut off and the child is left adrift. Will the Secretary of State promise me today that he will look at what more can be done to provide care leavers with consistent, quality support during and beyond those transitions, enabling them to live with foster families into their adulthood?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

As the hon. Lady will know—and as she probably remembers from when I was Children and Families Minister—we launched the care leaver covenant, which has made a significant difference to many of our young people in care as they transition out of care. There is also the work we are doing to support those 300,000 families who need that additional support. The work of MacAlister will make a huge difference. The hon. Lady knows that we have “staying put” and “staying close” to help those young people as they transition through, but I give her a pledge that we are serious about implementing the MacAlister review.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Robin Walker]

I very much welcome the success of the school that my hon. Friend has highlighted and will be happy to meet him to discuss the issues further.

[Ms Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)]

T5.   Our further education colleges in Newham give real opportunity to children from the second poorest part of the country, but now our colleges face increasing national insurance contributions and skyrocketing utility bills. What is more, pay increases may be essential for the recruitment and retention of school staff. What are the Government doing to engage properly with the Association of Colleges to keep these engines of social mobility and growth going?

[Alex Burghart]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that FE colleges are engines of social mobility, and we are well aware of the pressures that they are under. We are engaging constantly with the Association of Colleges, principals and colleagues across Government to make sure that we can help them.