Mentions:
1: Amanda Martin (Lab - Portsmouth North) Kinship care is vital. - Speech Link
2: Lucy Powell (LAB - Manchester Central) The role that kinship carers play in our society is often underestimated and undervalued. - Speech Link
3: Lucy Powell (LAB - Manchester Central) Social care is a devolved matter. As my hon. - Speech Link
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to make changes to how it calculates special guardianship allowances.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the valuable and important role that kinship carers, including special guardians, play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children. The department is committed to working with local government to support children in care, including through kinship arrangements.
Local authorities have the powers to provide a range of services, including financial support, to support children and families. As local authorities know their carers best, they have the power to decide what financial support should be provided to special guardianship carers and their children and any payments should be made in accordance with their model for assessing support needs. The government does not set a maximum or minimum allowance for local authorities to administer. While the government recognises the financial constraints on local authorities, guidance makes it clear that children and young people should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare.
Financial support is paid at the discretion of the local authority and in accordance with their model for assessing support needs. All local authorities should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services.
Correspondence Oct. 27 2023
Committee: Social Justice and Social Security CommitteeFound: Kinship Care - Scottish Kinship Care Alliance Response Response from the Scottish Kinship Care Alliance
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's Kinship Care Strategy published on 15 December 2023, what criteria is used to allocate children's social care services; and what steps her Department is taking to support kinship carers.
Answered by David Johnston
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative number of children being taken into care from families from different minoritised communities; and what plans they have to provide support to families and social services to enable children to remain with their families, particularly among communities where levels are high.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s intention is to deliver better life chances for all, including by improving services for the most vulnerable children and families. The 2023 data on children looked after showed that children from black and mixed ethnic groups are more likely to become looked after compared to the general 0-17 population (making up 7% and 10% of the looked after population respectively, compared to 6% and 7% of the general child population).
| Children Look After (2023) | 0-17 year old population (2021 census) |
Other Ethnic Group | 5% | 3% |
Black or Black British | 7% | 6% |
Asian or Asian British | 5% | 12% |
Mixed | 10% | 7% |
White | 71% | 73% |
Unknown | 1% |
The department knows that there is a strong evidence base for early intervention to support families before they reach crisis point. The department is currently testing the impact of multi-disciplinary targeted support provided at the earliest opportunity to help families overcome challenges sooner, so that they can stay together and thrive.
The department is also committed to supporting more children from all backgrounds to remain with family through kinship care and are considering how best to support both kinship carers and the children in their care.
The Family Network Pilot is currently testing the impact of providing flexible funding for extended family networks through Family Network Support Packages (FNSP). The pilot will look at how FNSPs can unlock barriers and enable family networks to play a more active role in providing loving, stable homes for children through financial and other practical means. The pilot aims to help keep families together and children out of care, where this is in the best interests of the child. The pilot launched in four local authority areas, Brighton and Hove, Gateshead, Sunderland and Telford and Wrekin, and recently launched in a further three areas, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hartlepool and Staffordshire. The pilot will end in March 2025.
Correspondence Oct. 25 2023
Committee: Social Justice and Social Security CommitteeFound: Kinship Care - The Kinship Care Advice Service Scotland (KCASS).
Oct. 11 2024
Source Page: Deciding what 'care experience' means: consultation - easy readFound: Deciding what 'care experience' means: consultation - easy read
Oct. 22 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance 2024 [update of previous guidance deposited April 2024, DEP2024-0442]. 207 docs. II. Letter dated 16/10/2024 from Stephen Timms MP to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex D. 8p.Found: otherwise be looked after by the local authority • a kinship care arrangement for a child who
Correspondence May. 24 2024
Committee: Education Committee (Department: Department for Education)Found: Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing on the Committee's inquiry into Children's social care
Asked by: Greene, Jamie (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - West Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to address the issues raised in the University of Stirling study, Permanently Progressing? Building secure futures for children in Scotland, which states that, among other findings, more than one in 10 children in care were still in temporary placements a decade after entering the care system.
Answered by None
The Scottish Government is dedicated to Keeping The Promise, by ensuring that all care experienced children and young people grow up safe, loved and respected.
We welcome the Permanently Progressing report and are committed to ensuring permanent homes are secured for children and young people in timescales that are right for them.
We are funding the Association of Fostering, Kinship and Adoption to produce a series of Good Practice in Permanence Guides. These guides will support the workforce to deliver change in the way children, young people and families experience their care journey. This will include promoting consistent and effective practice within children’s services to ensure that permanence is achieved quickly for children, where this is in their best interest.