Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2016 to Question 27312, what proportion of children whose Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire score has suggested that there may be a problem have subsequently been assessed further.

The Department for Education and Department of Health strengthened the statutory guidance Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked after children[1] in March 2015 to include information on how Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQs) should be used. The Department wrote to local authorities in 2014 and 2015 to remind them about the purpose and importance of SDQs. Ahead of this year’s data collection (published in September 2016), the Department will also write to Virtual School Heads and Independent Reviewing Officers about the use of SDQs for looked-after children. In addition we are considering how to utilise best practice from local authorities that have had consistently good return rates for SDQ scores in their annual children looked after data returns to the Department.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-looked-after-children--2