Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that unaccompanied children arriving in the UK are (a) safeguarded by local authorities and (b) placed in appropriate fostering placements.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
An unaccompanied child will become looked after by the local authority after having been accommodated under section 20(1) of the Children Act 1989 for 24 hours. This will mean that they will be entitled to the same local authority provision as any other looked after child and their care will be subject to statutory guidance, including care planning guidance. In addition, the 2017 statutory guidance on the 'Care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery' sets out the steps local authorities should take to plan for the support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).
Upon the arrival of an unaccompanied child in the UK, the Home Office will refer them to a local authority children’s service at the earliest possible opportunity. All local authorities in the UK are expected to play their part in looking after UASC. These children are placed fairly across the UK’s local authorities through the National Transfer Scheme. This is considered to be in the best interest of these children and aims to ensure that UASC receive the support and accommodation they need.
Local authorities will assess the needs of unaccompanied children in the same way as any other looked-after child and ensure they are placed in the most suitable accommodation available to meet their needs. All unaccompanied children aged 16 or under are placed in foster care. We are aware that many local authorities struggle to find the right fostering placements for UASC.
To help support local authorities increase foster placement sufficiency, £36 million of investment (the largest ever investment in fostering) will deliver 10 local authority regional fostering recruitment and retention hubs covering 64% of local authorities in England.
As announced in the policy statement ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, we are investing an additional £15 million to expand this approach to make sure every local authority has access to this foster carer recruitment and support offer. This contains funding for a communication campaign, including targeted recruitment for carers for UASC.
Together with Fosterlink, we have worked with over 90% of all local authorities in England to improve their foster carer recruitment and we continue to build evidence for further investment in supported accommodation to meet the needs of UASC and care leavers.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support families that are seeking therapeutic support via the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund beyond financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.
ASGSF therapy applications are generally permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years.
All future funding decisions will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 making the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.
ASGSF therapy applications are generally permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years.
All future funding decisions will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for announcing funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund for financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.
ASGSF therapy applications are generally permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years.
All future funding decisions will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to legislate for (a) a ban on the physical chastisement of children and (b) penalties for people who do so.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government does not condone violence or abuse of children. There are laws in place to protect children against this.
Crown Prosecution Service guidance is clear that only the mildest form of physical punishment can be used to justify discipline. Where a defence is unsuccessful, the usual sentencing powers for charges of assault and/or battery would be available for courts to consider.
The department is looking closely at changes in Wales and Scotland but has no plans to legislate at this stage.
We recognise that parents have different views and approaches to disciplining their children and that we need to consider all those voices, including those that might be disproportionally affected by the removal of the defence, as well as the voice of the child and trusted stakeholders in making any decisions.
The government encourages the use of evidence-based parenting programmes. Many such programmes address the issue of managing children’s behaviour and promote positive parenting. This does not include the use of physical punishment. Family support might be available at Family Hubs to help parents with positive parenting and discipline and details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/find-family-hub-local-area.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of ringfenced crisis funding within the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund to enable families facing an urgent crisis to access therapeutic interventions more quickly.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.
The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.
These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.
One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of adequacy of the time it takes families to receive therapeutic support through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.
The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.
These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.
One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce delays in families accessing therapeutic support through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.
The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.
These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.
One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the therapeutic modalities available within the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.
The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.
These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.
One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of potential merits of the recommendation in the report entitled the Adoption Barometer, published by Adoption UK in May 2024, that the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund be made permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.
The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.
These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.
One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.