Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms are in place to ensure that local authorities carry out their duties as set out in the Children Act 1989.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Where a child cannot live at home, it is one of the state’s most important responsibilities to ensure that the child is kept safe and able to flourish. All looked-after children should have a secure, stable and loving family environment to support them through childhood and beyond and to give them a sense of security, continuity, identity and belonging. The Children and Social Work Act (2017) sets out ‘corporate parenting principles’ to which local authorities should have regard as they take on the role of parent to looked-after children and care leavers.
The assumption that children in public care should ever be treated as a financial asset is a false premise. Local authorities have a legal duty to make decisions on care placements based on where their individual needs can be met. While children should be placed close to home where this is possible and appropriate, it can often be the right option for a placement further away from home. This might be, for example, when a child requires specialist care that is not always available locally or is at risk of exploitation.
Where children are placed out of area, this must be agreed to by the local authority’s Director of Children’s Services, and the placing authority must inform the host local authority. We are providing funding through our £200 million Innovation Programme to increase local authorities’ capacity so fewer children are placed far away from home.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and statutory guidance is clear in recognising the importance of stability in education. When arranging a suitable care placement, a child’s social worker, supported by local authority management and resources, should do everything possible to minimise disruption to the child’s education. Where a child is in key stage 4, children should only be moved in exceptional circumstances.
Ofsted inspect how well local authorities are meeting their duties for looked-after children under the Children Act (1989). Under their current inspection framework, they focus on the effectiveness of local authority services and arrangements in order to help and protect children.
The inspection framework also addresses the experiences and progress of children in care wherever they live, including those children who return home, as well as arrangements for permanence for looked-after children and the experiences and progress of care leavers. In addition, they evaluate the effectiveness of leaders and managers and the impact they have on the lives of children and young people, and the quality of professional practice.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in the care of local authorities in England are in foster homes provided by private companies.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
As of 31 March 2018, there were 16,200 looked after children in England in foster placements under private provision. Further information can be found in table A5 in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children, broken down by age, were excluded from school in the last complete academic year.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Table 1, attached, taken from the National Tables of the National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2016 to 2017,’ includes information on permanent and fixed period exclusions by age. Table 2, attached, shows the numbers of permanent and fixed period exclusions, broken down by age, for the academic years 2011/12 to 2016/17.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the age of the youngest child to be excluded from school in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Good behaviour in schools is essential to ensure that all pupils can benefit from the opportunities provided by education. We trust headteachers to set and enforce good standards of behaviour in schools. No headteacher takes excluding a child lightly, and any exclusion is based on evidence of that child’s behaviour.
The youngest children with permanent exclusions from state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools in England were aged 4 in 2016/17.
As part of their approach, all schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. The policy should set out the behaviour expected of pupils; the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour; and rewards for good behaviour. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents. There are no rules about the age at which pupils can be excluded. The department supports a headteacher’s use of exclusion where it is warranted, regardless of the age of the pupil.
Data used to derive published exclusion statistics are collected via the school census and covers those settings in scope of the statutory guidance on exclusions. Data does not cover independent schools, sixth form colleges or further education colleges, all of which have separate exclusion procedures.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce the number of children being excluded from schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department supports head teachers in using exclusion where it is warranted.
In March 2018, the government launched an externally led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review is exploring how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It is also considering the differences in exclusion rates across primary and secondary schools in England.
The review will report in early 2019. The full terms of reference for the review can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusions-review-terms-of-reference.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that children who are excluded from schools continue to receive a focused and thorough education.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
It is the duty of the schools to arrange for the provision of suitable full time education from the sixth day of a fixed period exclusion. Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full time education for permanently excluded pupils, which must begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion.
Alternative Provision (AP) is the system in place to educate pupils of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive a suitable education. The government is taking forward a programme of reform to AP. This includes a £4 million Alternative Provision Innovation Fund with 9 projects underway to improve outcomes for children in AP.
Edward Timpson CBE is leading a review of exclusions, which will consider how schools use exclusion and in particular why some groups of children are more likely to be excluded from school. The review will report in due course. The full terms of reference for the review can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusions-review-terms-of-reference.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 27 November (HL11468 and HL11469), what action they are taking to require local authorities to provide high quality provision in their own areas for the children and young people for whom they have parental responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure there is sufficient accommodation for looked-after children in their area. Although there is no requirement for local authorities to provide accommodation in their own area, they may place children in provision offered by the private and voluntary sectors, and placement location is one of the factors that they must take into account when identifying a suitable placement for a child.
The department is supporting a number of projects to increase capacity locally. Through our £200 million Children’s Social Care Innovation programme, we are funding projects that will increase the number of residential care placements available in London, where demand for placements outstrips supply.
We are providing seed funding to three local authorities to set up new secure provision, where out of area placements are particularly common. In 2019, we will also be providing seed funding to fostering partnerships to increase their local sufficiency of foster parents.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 27 November (HL11468) that 41 per cent of children in care are being placed outside the area of the local authority responsible for their care and safety, what action they are taking to ensure that children placed in care retain contact with their wider family and are able to attend the school with which they are familiar.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Local authorities have a duty to promote contact not only between looked-after children and their parents, but also with relatives, friends, and others connected to the child, provided that this contact is in the child’s best interests.
Children in care must have access to high quality education provision, wherever they are placed. The responsible local authority must do everything possible to arrange a care placement that allows the child to continue in their existing educational provision, even if they can no longer live in the immediate area. However, it is sometimes necessary to place a child away from their local area and school, for example to disrupt sexual exploitation or gang violence.
Work is already under way to improve commissioning of placements. This includes providing funding through part of our £200 million Children’s Social Care Innovation programme to projects in London to increase councils’ capacity, so that fewer children are placed far away from home.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in public care are placed more than (1) 50, and (2) 100 miles beyond the boundary of the local authority with responsibility for their safety and wellbeing.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The latest figures show that the number of children who were placed outside the boundary of the local authority responsible for their safety and wellbeing at the 31 March 2018 was 30,670, or 41% of all looked-after children. These figures were published in table A5 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
The department does not collect information on the distance in miles between the placement of a child and the boundary edge of the local authority. The department does collect, however, two separate pieces of information in relation to placement location; the distance the child is placed away from their home postcode and whether the placement is located inside or outside their responsible local authority. The number of looked-after children placed outside their local authority boundary and more than 50 miles from their home was 5,380 (or 7% of all looked-after children) at 31 March 2018. There were 2,080 children (or 3% of all looked-after children) placed more than 100 miles from their home and outside their local authority boundary. These figures exclude children where the distance of the placement is unknown.
We want to reduce out of area placements, but they will always be part of the care landscape. Sometimes local authorities have to identify a placement outside of the child’s local area to disrupt gang violence, trafficking or sexual exploitation or where specialist provision is needed.
In recent years government has also increasingly asked local authorities to consider boarding as an option for looked-after children if it may be suitable for them and in some instances this may mean children are placed outside of their local authority area.
Asked by: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in public care are placed outside the boundary of the local authority with responsibility for their safety and wellbeing.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The latest figures show that the number of children who were placed outside the boundary of the local authority responsible for their safety and wellbeing at the 31 March 2018 was 30,670, or 41% of all looked-after children. These figures were published in table A5 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
The department does not collect information on the distance in miles between the placement of a child and the boundary edge of the local authority. The department does collect, however, two separate pieces of information in relation to placement location; the distance the child is placed away from their home postcode and whether the placement is located inside or outside their responsible local authority. The number of looked-after children placed outside their local authority boundary and more than 50 miles from their home was 5,380 (or 7% of all looked-after children) at 31 March 2018. There were 2,080 children (or 3% of all looked-after children) placed more than 100 miles from their home and outside their local authority boundary. These figures exclude children where the distance of the placement is unknown.
We want to reduce out of area placements, but they will always be part of the care landscape. Sometimes local authorities have to identify a placement outside of the child’s local area to disrupt gang violence, trafficking or sexual exploitation or where specialist provision is needed.
In recent years government has also increasingly asked local authorities to consider boarding as an option for looked-after children if it may be suitable for them and in some instances this may mean children are placed outside of their local authority area.