Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase investment in early intervention and prevention as part of children’s social care reform.

The government has invested billions in local services. This year alone, the total social care grant for local government is over £2 billion. In the ‘Stable Homes Built on Love’ Strategy, the department outlined its plans to build on the strengths of current early help and Child in Need services, through the creation of Family Help.

The department is investing £200 million in Children’s Social Care reforms, including £45 million for the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme, which will test how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children and families receive. The pathfinder will inform the next stage of the department’s reform programme which will look to deliver transformation more widely.

The department also announced over £1 billion of funding for programmes to improve early help services, including delivering Family Hubs.