Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is he taking to improve information sharing with the Department for Health and Social care to safeguard vulnerable children including young carers as part of the Carers Action Plan.
The Carers Action Plan referred to the Department for Education’s work to improve information sharing between child safeguarding agencies. The recent government consultation response ‘Reporting and acting on child abuse’, which was published in March 2018, set out our priorities in this area. The response can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reporting-and-acting-on-child-abuse-and-neglect.
The government is committed to supporting and helping young carers by changing the law to improve how young carers and their families are identified, assessed and supported by making young carers’ rights clearer. The government has also supported schools to identify and support young carers through guidance, toolkits and sharing best practice.