Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support children's services in Lincolnshire.

For the 2025/25 financial year, the government is providing Lincolnshire with £7.5 million of funding specifically for children’s services, made up of £4.3 million through the Children and Families Grant, and £3.2 million though the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant.

More broadly, the government announced major reforms which will support all local authority children’s services in the department’s policy statement ’Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive‘, published in November. This sets out the government’s approach to creating a children’s social care system that prioritises the needs of children and families, with a focus on prevention, high standards of care, and tackling systemic issues like profiteering in the care market and workforce instability.

As part of the delivery of Children’s Social Care reforms the department has been working closely with Lincolnshire as a 'Families First Pathfinder', funding the local authority to test the delivery of new ways of working.