Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by Serenity Welfare entitled Lives transformed, potential fulfilled, published in April 2021, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the finding in that report that adequate provision of care and early interventions for vulnerable children and young people by local authorities could unlock £7 billion by 2030.

The department has received a copy of the report and will study the findings with interest.

The report highlights that local authorities can make savings through reducing the number of children in care. I am committed to enabling as many children as possible to stay at home, in safe and stable family environments, so that fewer children are taken into care. That is why the 'Strengthening Families, Protecting Children' programme is investing £84 million over five financial years, from 2019-20 to 2023-24, to support 17 local authorities with high or rising numbers of children in care. These local authorities will be supported to embed one of three models, developed by Leeds, Hertfordshire, and North Yorkshire, that have the most promising evidence from the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme of safely reducing the number of children being taken into care.

We are also investing a further £17 million through the 'Supporting Families: Investing in Practice' programme, enabling local authorities to help keep families safe by embedding Family Drug and Alcohol Courts, Family Group Conferencing, and the Mockingbird Family Model. We are working with the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to evaluate the impact of these programmes. The findings from these programmes, alongside the recommendations made by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care – which was launched on 15 January 2021 to take a fundamental look at the needs, experiences, and outcomes of the children it supports – will inform our future strategy for children’s social care.