Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy of funding for and (b) effectiveness in the disbursement of that funding for contact centres as a result of the withdrawal of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services from the disbursement process.
Answered by Gareth Johnson
The Government recognises the important services provided by child contact centres.
Until April this year, the Ministry of Justice provided small value grants, via Cafcass, to support the running of child contact centres. The Ministry of Justice is in the final stages of agreeing the funding arrangements for this year’s grants and information will be made publicly available once this process is complete.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure there are specialist staff with trauma training in job centres.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Training and guidance is provided for all staff working with different vulnerable groups. This includes developing the skills they need to support and communicate with a diverse range of customers to provide a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs.
Jobcentre staff have access to information on services and support available in their local area for vulnerable claimants and will signpost claimants to national and local organisations who provide specialist support. This has included Trauma Informed Approach training that many staff have now completed. Nationally DWP works with J9, a domestic abuse awareness national initiative.
Work Coaches will tailor conditionality, setting requirements based on what is reasonable for the individual’s circumstances. A claimant’s work search and availability requirements can be switched off for an agreed period of time, and other work-related requirements can be lifted where appropriate. This includes where the claimant has suffered domestic violence and abuse, or periods where a child in their care is suffering distress due to experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse.
To assist identification and claimant support, each Jobcentre Plus site has a complex needs toolkit in place. These are maintained and reviewed locally and contain a named single point of contact for areas such as Homelessness, Care leavers and Prison leavers. Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) are also on site to support when needed.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how the cost of contact is assessed when a contact centre is used as part of domestic violence cases.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Practice Direction 12J sets out that the family court will, on a case by case basis, make decisions on the details of contact where domestic abuse has happened - “Where any domestic abuse has occurred but the court, having considered any expert risk assessment and having applied the welfare checklist, nonetheless considers that direct contact is safe and beneficial for the child, the court should consider what, if any, directions or conditions are required to enable the order to be carried into effect”
The cost of child contact at a contact centre can vary significantly dependent on how the particular centre is funded, the range of services on offer and the expertise of the staff.
Many contact centres acknowledge that finance can be a barrier to children having contact and are able to provide support or signposting to other services that have the resource to be able to support parents.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance he has issued to children's centres on allowing physical contact for parents of children in temporary foster care during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
It is for local councils to decide how to organise and commission children’s centre services in their area. We are clear, however, that contact between children in care and their birth relatives is important, and we expect this contact to continue during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Contact arrangements, including for children in temporary foster care, should be assessed on a case by case basis taking into account a range of factors. This includes the government’s guidance on social distancing, guidance on meeting people outside your household, and the needs of the child. It may not always be possible, or appropriate, for contact to happen at this time, and keeping in touch may need to take place virtually in certain circumstances. However, we expect the spirit of any court-ordered contact in relation to children in care to be maintained. Where face-to-face contact is not possible, we encourage social workers and other professionals to reassure children and parents that this position is temporary and will be reviewed as soon as it is possible to do so.
Further information about contact arrangements for children in care is published in the COVID-19 guidance for children’s social care services, which is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Centre for Social Justice Testing Times: Supporting fathers during the perinatal period and early parenthood, published on 16 December; and in particular its findings that (1) inspection frameworks related to maternity services, Health Visitors, and Children’s Centres contain few direct references to “fathers”, (2) 69 per cent of new fathers thought that they “were made to feel like a ‘spare part’ during the pregnancy period”, and (3) 55 per cent of low income fathers said they were left to “pick it up themselves” compared to only 29 per cent of higher income fathers.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department is aware of the Centre for Social Justice’s recent report into supporting fathers during the perinatal period and early parenthood, published in December 2018. The Department recognises the vital role fathers can often play during pregnancy and early years, as well as the fact that every family is different.
We welcome the high levels of engagement fathers currently have with various aspects of the health service, as cited in the report, including the estimated 94% of new fathers that have attended one or more antenatal appointments, and almost all attending both ultrasound scans and the birth itself.
The Maternity Transformation Programme is working to make maternity care more personalised including responding to the needs of fathers as well as mothers. Postnatal and perinatal mental health care, maternity care and personalised care plans are recognised as important for the whole family, including fathers, and they should therefore be involved where appropriate.
Furthermore, the Healthy Child Programme states that the father’s contribution should be one of the key topics to be covered during a health and development review by a health visitor. It emphasises the importance of ensuring that contact with the family routinely involves and supports fathers, including non-resident fathers.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the proposed drop-in centres intended to offer support to victims of modern slavery after a positive conclusive grounds decision will be available to young people who entered the National Referral Mechanism as children but have since turned 18 years old.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
From January 2017 to January 2018, 12 children exited the Independent Child Trafficking Advocate (ICTA) service because they turned 18. The data collected by the Home Office is anonymised for evaluation purposes. It is therefore not possible to cross-reference this with decision-making data from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). More information on the ICTA service and children who exited support can be found in the Interim Report published by the Home Office in July, and the accompanying data tables on Gov.UK.
On turning 18, any young person who is awaiting an NRM decision, becomes eligible for support from The Salvation Army through the Victim Care Contract. This includes outreach and accommodation support where necessary. We are currently preparing to retender this contact which will be operational from 1 April 2020 and will include drop in services for up to 6 months post-conclusive grounds decision. It is part of the ICTA’s role to ensure they effectively transition children turning 18 into appropriate support upon leaving the ICTA service.