Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which the number of full-time equivalent children and family social workers leaving between October 2021 and September 2022 was the highest since the collection of figures began in 2017; and what steps she plans to take to increase the recruitment and retention of children and family social workers.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Social workers play a valuable role in supporting the most vulnerable in society and the department is committed to ensuring there is an excellent child and family social worker for everyone who needs one. We recognise the ongoing challenge facing local authorities across the country in recruiting and retaining child and family social workers, with reasons for social workers leaving the profession being varied and complex. However, the current number of full time-equivalent social workers is still higher than it was in 2017.
The department currently invests more than £50 million every year on recruiting, training and developing child and family social workers to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.
Through the fast track and development programmes, the department trains an average of 800 new social workers and provides professional development for around 4,000 others. This includes leadership training, which we know plays an important role in improving recruitment and retention.
On 2 February 2023, the department published its care reform strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out proposals to help stabilise the workforce. This includes supporting the recruitment of up to 500 social worker apprenticeships, a new Early Career Framework that will set out the development plans for a social worker’s first five years, and proposals to reduce the sector’s overreliance on agency social workers, which will all play an important role in helping to improve recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on establishing an Early Career Framework for social workers as recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department has committed to developing a new Early Career Framework (ECF) for child and family social workers, significantly extending the training and support social workers receive at the beginning of their career.
As set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, our children's social care implementation strategy, the initial induction period for all social workers will be extended to two years with an offer of further training and development up to five years. We will explore how we can make the ECF an entitlement for all child and family social workers from September 2026.
The programme will be underpinned by a new framework document, setting out the knowledge and skills social workers need to support and protect children and families. The department is in the process of recruiting an Expert Writing Group to write the framework document and will announce the membership of the group shortly. The group will engage widely with stakeholders throughout the process, and we will also consult formally on the content of the framework document.
The department is committed to designing the ECF programme with the sector and will shortly appoint a small number of Early Adopter local authorities to work with us. Initially, these will be local authorities that are already running an extended early career programme, beyond the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE), before we expand to a wider range of local authorities. In addition, the department is working with stakeholders from across the sector to develop and refine delivery plans, including Directors of Childrens Services, Social Work England, Principal Social Workers, the Chief Social Worker and Ofsted.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the final report of the Independent Commission on Assessment in Primary Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I refer the hon. Member for Rochdale to the answers given on 21 February 2023 to Questions 141618 and 141619.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to implement the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Assessment in Primary Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I refer the hon. Member for Rochdale to the answers given on 21 February 2023 to Questions 141618 and 141619.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools in Rochdale constituency had at least one construction element in (a) condition grade C and (b) condition grade D when that data was collated; and which of those schools (a) have already received funding from the School Rebuilding Programme and (b) are expected to receive funding from the School Rebuilding Programme in the next two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:
Parliamentary constituency | Schools selected for SRP |
Huddersfield | Greenhead College, announced February 2021 |
Rochdale | Kingsway Park High School, announced February 2021 Littleborough Community Primary School, announced February 2021 |
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of whether there will be an underspend in the Multiply programme budget for the 2022-23 financial year; and whether any underspend could be carried forward into the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has launched Multiply to boost funding for adult numeracy, helping people build their confidence in using numeracy at work or in everyday life and gain a maths qualification.
Up to £270 million is available to local authorities in England across the three years of the programme. Multiply is provided as a Section 31 ringfenced grant, given the programme’s primary objective is to improve functional adult numeracy.
The prospectus for Multiply has set out a menu of interventions for local areas to draw down from. Each local authority in England has submitted an investment plan, which outlines their annual predicted spend. Payments in Year 1, the 2022/23 financial year, have been made on that basis.
The department will monitor delivery against these investment plans, including facilitating peer support across local areas and sharing intelligence on what is successful. It is important that local interventions deliver value for money. As the Multiply prospectus sets out, any underspends will be recovered by the department. Further information on how underspends will be managed is set out in our technical guidance available to all local areas.
HM Treasury rules stipulate that the department cannot carry underspends between financial years. This also applies to the wider programme.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has formally responded to the letter on the implementation of the recommendations of the Augar Review signed by 203 College Principals.
Answered by Anne Milton
I can confirm that we have received the letter from my hon. Friend, the Member for Witney, Robert Courts, and 203 College Principals and I am responding to this letter. My hon. Friend, the Member for Witney, Robert Courts, and 203 College Principals shall receive their response shortly.