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.
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 her Department routinely gathers about the safeguarding of disabled children from (a) inspection activity and (b) data returns; and how such information is analysed.
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 steps she is taking to ensure that Local Safeguarding Children Boards and local agencies are implementing the recommendations of the Ofsted 2012 thematic inspection on protecting disabled children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Government statutory guidance, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, which was revised in 2013 and again in 2015, sets out the requirements and expectations for all those involved in protecting children, including local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) and partner agencies. This includes children with disabilities, who are subject to particular protections under the Children Act 1989. Under its November 2013 single inspection framework, Ofsted now reviews LSCBs and publishes reports on their performance.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which of her Department's capital investment programmes have involved expenditure in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency since 2010.
Answered by David Laws
Since April 2010 schools in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency have been directly allocated funding to support capital investment through the following programmes:
Priority Schools Building Programme
Free Schools
Building Schools for the Future
Academies Capital Maintenance Fund
Demographic Growth Capital Fund
Building Condition Improvement Fund
Locally Co-ordinated Voluntary Aided Programme
Devolved Formula Capital
In addition to the above, the Department for Education also allocates much of its available capital funding at a local authority level so that capital investment decisions can be made according to local priorities. These funds could be used by Blackpool and Lancashire local authorities to support capital investment in the Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency. These capital programmes include: Basic Need, Local Authority Capital Maintenance, and Universal Infant Free School Meals.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has provided through the Family Fund to support access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Over the last five years, the Department for Education has provided £132,661,000 to the Family Fund to support families who live on the lowest of incomes while caring for disabled or seriously ill children. This includes supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for disadvantaged children, young people and their families. A breakdown of the total amounts awarded by the Department for Education is provided in the table below:
Financial year | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | Total |
Amount awarded | £26,028,000 | £24,664,000 | £27,323,000 | £27,323,000 | £27,323,000 | £132,661,000 |
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 he has taken to include financial capability education in the national curriculum; and what guidance his Department has issued on such education.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The new mathematics curriculum will ensure that all young people leave school with an understanding of the mathematics skills needed for personal finance.
For the first time financial literacy will also be a compulsory part of citizenship for 11- to 16-year-olds from September 2014. Pupils will learn the importance of budgeting, sound management of money, credit and debt, as well as understanding of different financial services and products.
The new programmes of study for mathematics and citizenship make it clear what pupils should learn, including developing their use of formal mathematical knowledge to interpret and solve problems including financial mathematics.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which organisations have received how much funding from his Department aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education does not directly fund organisations to deliver short breaks and respite services for disadvantaged children, young people and their families; this is done at the local authority level.
In the case of disabled children and young people however, the Department for Education has made available to local authorities £800 million to invest in short breaks services between April 2011 and March 2015, through unringfenced grants. In 2011-12 and 2012-13, an additional £40 million of capital funding per annum was made available to local authorities to invest in short breaks equipment and infrastructure, also in unringfenced grants. It has been for local authorities to decide how to use this funding to provide the short breaks provision for disabled children that is needed locally and to support access to it.
While the Department does not directly fund providers of short breaks for disabled children, it has funded a number of organisations over the last five financial years to help increase access to such provision and to improve its quality.
A table setting out details of the fnding has been placed in the House Library.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the DSM-5 diagnosis method for autism.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education has made no assessment of the Diagnostic and Statistical 5 (DSM-5) diagnosis for autism. Diagnostic methods are matters for appropriately qualified professionals. Schools and local authorities have duties to identify, assess and make suitable provision for children with special educational needs whether they have a medical diagnosis or not.