Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Oral Answers to Questions

Melanie Onn Excerpts
Monday 19th March 2018

(6 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nadhim Zahawi Portrait Nadhim Zahawi
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Local authorities have been increasing their investment in children’s services. I visited Hackney, Wigan and Doncaster, and my impression is that the real differentiator is leadership, which is why we are investing £2 million in the Local Government Association to look at leadership and the partners in practice programme.

Melanie Onn Portrait Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)
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Early intervention is critical to preventing children from ending up as in need, so why have the Government cut funding that supported the excellent Sure Start and Home-Start projects, which did so much excellent work with new parents in Great Grimsby?

Nadhim Zahawi Portrait Nadhim Zahawi
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Different local authorities do things differently. I visited Stafford, and Stafford and Newcastle have improved the outcomes for children in need by reaching out to those families, rather than by investing in bricks and mortar. There are different ways to deal with this, and local authorities do it best.