Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce the locations that will receive funding through the Holiday Activities and Food scheme in 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
School summer holidays can be a particularly difficult time for some families due to increased food and childcare costs and reduced incomes. That is why we have announced funding for the 2020 summer school holidays to again support children and their families with free access to holiday clubs across the country.
This follows our £9 million investment in 2019 which explored a model of local coordination of free holiday provision in 11 local authority areas.
We held a competitive bidding round for the summer 2020 fund which closed on 13 December. All bids were assessed against our published criteria and applicants needed to demonstrate that they could coordinate high-quality holiday clubs for children across their areas.
We will contact all bidders both successful and unsuccessful in the very near future.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to schools in Blackpool in each year since 2009-10.
Answered by Nick Gibb
??The revenue funding allocated for schools for financial years 2009-10 to 2018-19 for Blackpool local authority (LA) is shown in the table below.
Financial Year | Blackpool LA (£ millions) |
2009-10 | 98.6 |
2010-11 | 103.2 |
2011-12 | 102.9 |
2012-13 | 105.3 |
2013-14 | 114.6 |
2014-15 | 117.2 |
2015-16 | 117.8 |
2016-17 | 116.8 |
2017-18 | 118.4 |
2018-19 | 122.9 |
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department holds on the geographical location of looked-after children placed by their local authority in out-of-area placements.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department collects two separate pieces of information in relation to placement location, the distance the child is placed away from their home postcode, and whether the placement is located inside or outside their responsible local authority. These figures were published in tables A4 and A5 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2018 to 2019’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.
To calculate the distance the child is placed away from their home postcode, the department does collect some postcode information but coverage is not complete as in some instances distance is recorded instead. The department does not hold the full address of a child’s placement centrally.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are registered in Blackpool local authority as being home schooled.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held by the department. We do not currently collect data on the number of home-educated children.
In the spring of 2019, a consultation was held on proposals for a mandatory register of children not attending state or registered independent schools to help local authorities carry out their responsibilities in relation to children not in school. Almost 5000 responses were received to the consultation which closed in June 2019. They have now been considered and a formal government response document setting out next steps will be issued in due course.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department gathers on the safeguarding of children and the monitoring and review of safeguarding practice.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Local authorities’ services for safeguarding children are inspected under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework; this is the principal means by which the Department for Education monitors and reviews practice.
Under the Single Inspection Framework, Ofsted publish a judgement on the overall effectiveness of the local authority’s services, as well as sub-judgements for: children who need help and protection; children looked after and achieving permanence (including separate sub-judgements for adoption performance, and the experiences and progress of care leavers); and leadership, management and governance. In addition, the Ofsted report includes a rating for the effectiveness of the local safeguarding children board.
The department monitors inspection findings closely and intervenes formally in those local authorities whose performance is considered to be inadequate and where children are or may be at risk of harm. This intervention may be by way of an improvement notice, a statutory direction or – in the most serious cases – by the removal of services from the local authority.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) disabled and (b) non-disabled children were subject to (i) section 47 enquiries, (ii) child protection plans, (iii) care proceedings and (iv) serious case reviews in the last six months for which data is available.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The latest published figures, derived from data collected through the children in need census, are available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2013-to-2014
The Department for Education collects information on looked after children, however, the figures do not include information on disability. Information is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children
The Department does not hold complete data on whether a child who is the subject of a serious case review has a disability.
Ofsted gathers a range of safeguarding information from its inspection activity, and reports are publicly available.
The children in need census is an annual statutory census for all local authorities that is run by the Department for Education. The census collects data on children referred to local authority social care services because their health or development is at risk. This includes:
children in local authority care;
children who are receiving support from their local authority’s social care services;
children who are the subject of a child protection plan; and
unborn children who will potentially need support from social care services.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what actions her Department is taking to promote a joined-up approach within and across Government departments to maintain and improve safeguarding for disabled children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
At the heart of the government’s agenda for all children, including those with disabilities, is how to safeguard and protect their wellbeing and help develop their resilience in preparation for modern life. An important part of this will be the work of the cross-government ministerial taskforce, chaired by the Secretary of State for Education, to take forward work on child protection.
The taskforce will look at how we get the best people to deliver the right outcomes for all children. In particular through social work reform and improving leadership; through improving systems and practice – building a better performing, more innovative social care sector; and through accountability and governance, looking at how arrangements locally and nationally help to drive a strong and improving system.
Through the Innovation Programme, the Department for Education is funding the Council for Disabled Children to lead a partnership of five local authorities for a one year project. They are testing new approaches to Social Work Assessment and aiming to determine accurate thresholds for service provision for disabled children which combine child and family centred services.
The newly-developed education, health and care (EHC) plan system is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs, setting out the additional support required to meet those needs, and many disabled children will benefit.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote the safeguarding of disabled children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
At the heart of the government’s agenda for all children, including those with disabilities, is how to safeguard and protect their wellbeing and help develop their resilience in preparation for modern life. An important part of this will be the work of the cross-government ministerial taskforce, chaired by the Secretary of State for Education, to take forward work on child protection.
The taskforce will look at how we get the best people to deliver the right outcomes for all children. In particular through social work reform and improving leadership; through improving systems and practice – building a better performing, more innovative social care sector; and through accountability and governance, looking at how arrangements locally and nationally help to drive a strong and improving system.
Through the Innovation Programme, the Department for Education is funding the Council for Disabled Children to lead a partnership of five local authorities for a one year project. They are testing new approaches to Social Work Assessment and aiming to determine accurate thresholds for service provision for disabled children which combine child and family centred services.
The newly-developed education, health and care (EHC) plan system is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs, setting out the additional support required to meet those needs, and many disabled children will benefit.