Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission customised workshops for researchers that have taken place as of 19 December 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2023, the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM) hosted an essential research skills workshop series specifically designed for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals, in line with National Health Service ambitions to deliver a research-active clinical workforce. Workshops covered research proposal writing, study design and design appraisal, PPI, statistical methodologies, and research dissemination. Participants also benefited from expert-led consultations to receive tailored support for individual research. These five workshops and consultations took place between October and December 2023.
The Mission is further collaborating with The Brain Tumour Charity and researchers to advise and support any allied health professional seeking assistance in designing a robust study and submitting a high-quality research proposal.
The TJBCM held its first Brain Tumour Research Novel Therapeutics Accelerator Meeting, where it brought together a panel of world class experts to review three early-stage therapeutics and applications for brain cancer. The application deadline for interested applicants will close in January 2024.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research continues to work with the TJBCM and the research community to develop new workshops to further foster and develop research capacity in the brain cancer community to support an increase in quality, quantity, and diversity in brain cancer research in the United Kingdom. The aim is to deliver new workshops in the second half of 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the Barnardo’s report Double Discrimination, which looks at the differential outcomes Black children face both in and leaving care.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises that children in care are more likely than their peers in the general population to have contact with the criminal justice system. The department has a joint national protocol with the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers and is taking action on risk factors that can lead to criminal behaviour, including through its work to improve school attendance.
Through the care leaver Ministerial Board, the department is working closely with the MoJ to improve support and outcomes of care-experienced people in the criminal justice system.
MoJ is currently updating its strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure that their time in the criminal justice system is used to support them to lead crime-free lives. The strategy will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience and will link to wider departmental efforts to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system. MoJ are aiming to publish this strategy in 2024.
The department will continue to work urgently across government and with local authorities to ensure that all vulnerable children, no matter their age, race, ethnicity, or circumstances, are kept safe and receive the support they need. The department will engage with foster carer representative bodies to see how it can further support black foster carers, including considering developing a Black Foster Care Network whilst ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ sets out the department’s plans to reform the children’s social care system, including improving the education, employment, and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to develop a black foster care network to improve the experiences of Black children in care.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government would like to see people from all backgrounds feel able to come forward to foster, whatever their ethnicity, sexuality, gender or relationship status. Children should be cared for in a way that recognises and respects their identity. Carers should be given the training and support they need to meet the child’s needs.
The department will engage with foster carer representative bodies to see how the department can further support black foster carers, including considering developing a black foster care network.
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 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 its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, which is an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the provision of safe and suitable housing for care leavers and thereby reduce the risk of care leavers becoming homeless.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Helping care leavers to make a successful transition from care to independence is a priority for this government. Care leavers face barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing and this is why we are committed to undertake actions within Mission 5 of the Care Review implementation plan to ensure an increase in the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and a reduction in care leaver homelessness by 2027. This includes bringing forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, for Staying Put to support young people up to age 23 and for Staying Close to be a national entitlement, recognising that young people in the general population are leaving home at older ages. The department will also bring forward legislation to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.
The department has previously provided £11.3 million in targeted funding to local authorities in England as part of the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. An additional £3 million is being provided this year to deliver extra support for care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.
To support care leavers in the current spending review period (2022/2025), the department is providing £99.8 million to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme. The department is also providing £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their publication on 16 November of data on 'Children looked after in England including adoptions', which showed that more than 21 per cent of children in care had been moved more than 20 miles away from home, what steps they are taking to ensure that the number does not continue to rise in future years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.
The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duties through £259 million capital funding over this Parliament. The funding for open residential placements, which is match-funded equally by the department and local authority investment, is expected to create 95 new children’s homes, providing 360 additional placements across England. Funding will also create 54 additional secure welfare placements and ten step-down placements through the delivery of two new build and one rebuild secure children’s home, which are scheduled to be completed in the next spending review period.
The department is investing over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This is in addition to the department establishing a kinship carer training offer and implementing family network support packages through the £45 million Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Networks pilot.
The department is also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the Regional Care Co-operatives will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.
While there are some circumstances that mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority to, for example, protect them from criminal or sexual exploitation, the department recognises that it is not ideal for children to be placed away from home and wants to reduce the number of out of area placements.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on children in care who are moved more than 20 miles from home.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.
The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duties through £259 million capital funding over this Parliament. The funding for open residential placements, which is match-funded equally by the department and local authority investment, is expected to create 95 new children’s homes, providing 360 additional placements across England. Funding will also create 54 additional secure welfare placements and ten step-down placements through the delivery of two new build and one rebuild secure children’s home, which are scheduled to be completed in the next spending review period.
The department is investing over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This is in addition to the department establishing a kinship carer training offer and implementing family network support packages through the £45 million Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Networks pilot.
The department is also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the Regional Care Co-operatives will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.
While there are some circumstances that mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority to, for example, protect them from criminal or sexual exploitation, the department recognises that it is not ideal for children to be placed away from home and wants to reduce the number of out of area placements.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to foster a learning culture and service improvement mindset across all career pathways in the NHS, in particular through education and training for existing staff.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role, and for investing in the future of their staff through providing continuing professional development (CPD) funding.
To supplement local employer investment for CPD, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out NHS England’s commitment to continue national CPD funding for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals. The operation of this scheme will be kept under review, to ensure subsequent funding is in line with workforce growth and inflation, well targeted and achieving the desired outcomes.
There are a variety of resources available on the NHS England E-learning for Health platform designed to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the managerial capacity of the NHS, particularly at chartered professional level, to lead the systems changes required to deliver their stated priorities.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that strong and effective leadership and management is critically important in the NHS and has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the NHS and workplace culture. The Government commissioned General Sir Gordon Messenger to review leadership capacity and capability across the system. His report, Leadership for a Collaborative and Inclusive Future, published in June 2022 in an online-only format, focusses on the best ways to strengthen leadership and management across health and with its key interfaces with adult social care in England. The review identified seven recommendations to foster and replicate the best examples of leadership through improved training, career development and talent management, and through embedding inclusive cultures and behaviours within health and care. These are being taken forward by NHS England, working in partnership with Skills for Care.
The NHS Leadership Academy provides opportunities for managers to develop themselves and to aid them in supporting the development of their staff through masterclasses, seminars, networking opportunities and more formal development programmes.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to ensure staff working within local government children's social care receive training to understand the potential altruistic motivation of potential (a) foster and (b) adoptive parents of faith.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are responsible for the continuous professional development of their workforces, including social workers.
Social workers are critical to the functioning of the wider children’s social care system. They must meet the professional standards set by Social Work England to practise as a social worker. In relation to the altruism of those seeking to foster and adopt, the standards recognise the importance of family and community networks, requiring social workers to work in partnership with these.
To support child and family social workers to continuously improve their practice, the department funds professional development for around 4,000 social workers each year. The new Early Career Framework for child and family social workers will significantly extend the training and support they receive in the early stages of their career, helping to equip them with the knowledge skills they need to support children and families.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that staff working within children's social care receive training to understand the potential altruistic motivation of potential (a) foster and (b) adoptive parents of faith.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are responsible for the continuous professional development of their workforces, including social workers.
Social workers are critical to the functioning of the wider children’s social care system. They must meet the professional standards set by Social Work England to practise as a social worker. In relation to the altruism of those seeking to foster and adopt, the standards recognise the importance of family and community networks, requiring social workers to work in partnership with these.
To support child and family social workers to continuously improve their practice, the department funds professional development for around 4,000 social workers each year. The new Early Career Framework for child and family social workers will significantly extend the training and support they receive in the early stages of their career, helping to equip them with the knowledge skills they need to support children and families.