Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason she has decided to introduce twelve pilots for the planned reforms to children's social care.

The department’s strategy sets out our vision for the future of the children’s social care system and how we will achieve transformational change. Over the next two years, the department plans to address urgent issues facing children and families, laying the foundations for whole system reform. Following this, we will scale up tested and developed approaches and aim to bring forward legislation.

Through Pathfinders, the department will work closely with local areas to test and learn how we deliver complex operational changes effectively, including a new integrated model of Family Help. The necessary reform needs to be balanced with the need to scale evidence-based interventions safely and effectively. The department’s approach addresses both needs.

The department has a clear ambition to improve all children’s services across England. Reforms over the next two years will impact all local authorities, including the national framework, providing support and training to kinship carers, and supporting social workers with training.

On the day of publication, the department wrote to all local authorities to outline our approach for reform and highlight actions to consider taking now in preparation for wider reform.