Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect on outcomes for vulnerable children of the variation in the level of access to children's services throughout England.

Local areas are best placed to assess the needs and priorities in their area, and thresholds for access to children’s services are set locally, allowing for the specific needs of local children and families. As part of inspection of children’s services, Ofsted assesses whether local thresholds are set appropriately for children and factors this assessment into judgements on the quality of local services. The department has not made its own assessment of the impact of thresholds for children in need, or for vulnerable children more generally.