Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of (a) children in local authority care and (b) homeless people in Coventry.

In most cases, children are best looked after by their families and children are only removed as a last resort. The government has invested up to £200 million through the Innovation Programme to develop better practice in Children’s Social Care, including testing approaches to help vulnerable children to remain safely at home. Coventry City Council, for example, has been awarded funding to trail children in need in the area receiving targeted, multi-agency support that works with families to reduce the need for repeat referrals, escalation to child protection measures or entry to care.

The government believes that anyone without a home is one too many. It is for this reason that we have committed £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping and are producing a cross-government strategy, which will set out how we will halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027. This strategy is due to be published next month. The government has also implemented the Homelessness Reduction Act in April this year, which will help more people to get the help they need at an earlier stage.