Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the funding recommendations in The independent review of children’s social care: final report, published on 23 May; and what plans they have to invest in the care system in response to the report.

The department is now considering the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social care carefully with those with care experience and all interested stakeholders. We will publish an implementation strategy later this year, which will set out how the department will improve children’s social care. This will include establishing a National Implementation Board that includes people with their own experience of the care system.

In the meantime, the department is taking action, which includes:

• Support for families with a multi-million-pound package to improve access to support, advice, and services from birth through to adulthood. This includes a total of £695 million for Supporting Families over the next three years. As such, up to 300,000 of the most vulnerable families can be helped before they hit crisis point.
• Getting the right placements in the right places for children in care by investing £259 million to support provision and create additional places in children’s homes. This is the biggest package of investment in children’s social care placements since 2010. The department has also invested £142 million to introduce new national standards, Ofsted registration, and inspection for supported accommodation for young people. This provision that is currently unregulated.

As the department develops its implementation strategy, it will consider where legislation might be required.