Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking in advance of the Spending Review to ensure that children’s services departments are adequately funded.

The government will consider long-term children’s services funding as part of the Spending Review which my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced will take place this year. We are working closely with local authorities and the wider sector to build a robust evidence base on the levels of children’s services costs and pressures.