Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the external research commissioned together with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and HM Treasury into the relative drivers of need in children’s social care will be published; and what the purpose is of that research.

As part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) led review of councils’ relative needs and resources, the Department for Education and MHCLG have jointly commissioned external research into the relative drivers of ‘need to spend’ on children’s services.

The aim of this work is twofold: to develop a statistically robust, up-to-date approach to funding distribution for children’s services at local government finance settlements; and to gather useful data to better understand demand pressures.

The current timescale is for a model ready to consult on later this year for use in the 2020-21 local government finance settlement.