Information between 15th March 2024 - 14th April 2024
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Select Committee Documents |
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Tuesday 26th March 2024
Oral Evidence - Association of Directors of Children’s Services, County Councils Network, and Hampshire County Council Children’s social care - Education Committee Found: We therefore need a national framework around foster care that gives our foster carers the right skills |
Written Answers |
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Foster Care: Lincolnshire
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings) Thursday 28th March 2024 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) South Holland district and (b) Lincolnshire. Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) Lincolnshire County Council is participating in the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder, which came out of the department’s children’s social care implementation strategy Stable Homes, Built on Love. The pathfinder aims to rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective early support.
As part of the pathfinder, the department is working with a select number of local areas to test significant changes to how local areas help children and young people. This includes increasing support at the earlier end of the system, with the aim of keeping children with birth parents or wider family where safe to do so. This will help to reduce the number of children looked after and therefore drive down demand for foster care or other placements.
There is support available from the department where children are unable to stay with their birth families and foster care placements are sought. Lincolnshire County Council are being supported by the Fosterlink support service. Fosterlink provides support for local authorities to improve the way they recruit foster carers by reviewing current processes to identify areas for service and practice improvements, as well as creating a national network in which to share best practice.
More broadly, the department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on this investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
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Foster Care: North West
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North) Wednesday 27th March 2024 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West. Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) The department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as aiding the retention of foster carers already in place. St Helens North is participating in this programme, working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster4’, which is led by Warrington. Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is increasing the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24. In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers. The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to advance the work of the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment. |
Foster Care: Lincolnshire
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings) Wednesday 27th March 2024 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire. Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) Lincolnshire County Council is participating in the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder, which came out of the department’s children’s social care implementation strategy Stable Homes, Built on Love. The pathfinder aims to rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective early support.
As part of the pathfinder, the department is working with a select number of local areas to test significant changes to how local areas help children and young people. This includes increasing support at the earlier end of the system, with the aim of keeping children with birth parents or wider family where safe to do so. This will help to reduce the number of children looked after and therefore drive down demand for foster care or other placements.
There is support available from the department where children are unable to stay with their birth families and foster care placements are sought. Lincolnshire County Council are being supported by the Fosterlink support service. Fosterlink provides support for local authorities to improve the way they recruit foster carers by reviewing current processes to identify areas for service and practice improvements, as well as creating a national network in which to share best practice.
More broadly, the department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on this investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
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Special Educational Needs: Care Homes
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central) Tuesday 26th March 2024 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the use of out of area residential accommodation for children with additional needs. Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) The needs of the child are paramount when deciding the right care placement. Though the department wants to reduce out of area placements, sometimes circumstances make it the right decision for a child to be placed elsewhere, for example when they are at risk from domestic abuse, sexual exploitation, trafficking or gang violence.
Moving a child away is not a decision to be taken lightly, and there are legislative safeguards around this. Directors of Children’s Services are required to sign off each such decision, and Ofsted can challenge where they believe poor decisions are being made. This is to encourage local authorities to place children locally wherever possible.
The department recognises, however, that there are issues in the placement market, which is why the department has announced over £400 million in capital funding to help local authorities create more beds in their local areas. This will help create 560 additional placements across England.
The department is also investing £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the carers already in place.
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Department Publications - Guidance |
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Friday 12th April 2024
Home Office Source Page: Immigration Rules archive: 10 April 2024 to 10 April 2024 Document: Immigration Rules archive: 10 April 2024 to 10 April 2024 (PDF) Found: “Private foster care arrangement” means an arrangement in which a child aged under 16, or aged under |
Friday 12th April 2024
Home Office Source Page: Immigration Rules archive: 4 April 2024 to 9 April 2024 Document: Immigration Rules archive: 4 April 2024 to 9 April 2024 (PDF) Found: “Private foster care arrangement” mean s an arrangement in which a child aged under 16, or aged under |
Tuesday 2nd April 2024
Department for Education Source Page: Early years entitlements expansion: system guidance Document: September 2024 early education and childcare entitlements expansion: local authority system guidance (PDF) Found: responsible local authority – and receive codes beginning ‘400’ as set out in the guidance for children in foster |
Scottish Select Committee Publications |
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Tuesday 19th March 2024
Correspondence - Written Submission from Who Cares? Scotland Who Cares? Scotland - Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill Social Justice and Social Security Committee Found: accessible to all young people with experience of formal care and informal kinship care without an order, foster |