Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the £434 million funding gap for disabled children's social care identified in the research published by the Disabled Children's Partnership; and what plans they have to establish a disabled children's fund to improve early intervention services such as short breaks for disabled children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
All children should have access to the support they need to keep them safe, provide them with a stable and nurturing home, and overcome challenges to achieve their potential. We do not recognise the figures provided in the Disabled Children’s Partnership report, however, in the Spending Round 2019, the government confirmed an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care in 2020-21. This is in addition to the continuation of all existing social care grants.
Local authorities’ core spending power is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21. This is an estimated 4.3% increase in real terms.
Local authorities have the flexibility to make decisions based around their local needs. The statutory guidance, 'Working Together to Safeguard Children', sets out how local authorities should provide effective, evidence-based services to protect and promote the welfare of children, including disabled children. The guidance was updated on 4 July 2018 and states that it is better to provide services addressing needs early, rather than reacting later. The statutory duty to provide short breaks, introduced in 2011, falls on local authorities. The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2, and is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms they have in place to ensure that local authorities meet their statutory duty to provide short breaks for the carers of disabled children.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services. This requires them to consult upon and publish a short breaks duty statement. This should set out what is available locally, how to access these services, and any eligibility criteria.
To support this, the department made £800 million available in grants between April 2011 and March 2015, plus £80 million of capital funding to support new projects. The department offers support and challenge to help ensure local authorities meet their statutory requirements on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The department has funded innovative grants that promote best practice for delivering services; and continues to consider how we can best support local authorities who are working to deliver sustainable short breaks provision.
The government is able to oversee how much local authorities have planned to spend on short breaks provision through authorities’ annual section 251 returns. This information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2016-to-2017 (see attached).
Departmental surveys such as the Children’s Services Omnibus gather information on SEND services provided by local authorities, including short breaks.
There are also opportunities through the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission SEND inspection frameworks for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND. This includes their need for short breaks services. A thematic ‘one year on’ report published by the two inspectorates in October 2017 found that ‘children and young people who have SEND and their families typically had good access to high-quality short breaks’ (attached).
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to introduce mandatory reporting on the number of disabled people employed by (1) public bodies, and (2) private companies.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
As announced in Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability, we want to see increased reporting on mental health, wellbeing and disability employment by large employers in both the public and private sector, agreeing in principle with the recommendation in the independent review “Thriving at Work”.
Government is working with partners to establish a framework approach for voluntary reporting on mental health and disability for large employers. This is focussed on what type of reporting will support improved employment outcomes amongst disabled people, and businesses’ engagement in health and wellbeing.
The Office for National statistics publishes data on Civil Service employment by disability status and employment grade.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the terms of reference for their review of the commissioning and funding of domestic abuse services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My Department has made a public commitment to undertake a thorough review of funding for domestic abuse services, including refuge, so that we have the best possible evidence on which to make decisions about future, sustainable funding for these vital services.
To inform our review we have commissioned an independent, external audit of local authority commissioned domestic abuse services, which will shape the final terms of reference for the review.
The review will explore all options for future delivery of domestic abuse services in England, and we are committed to working closely with sector partners, drawing on their data, expertise and knowledge, as we undertake our review.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the first Secretary of State on 16 November 2017 (HCWS25), what progress they have made on the parallel programme of work for the care of younger adults, in particular those with learning disabilities.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The programme of work on adults of working age with care needs, which is led jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has begun initial engagement with stakeholders. Later this month, the Minister of State for Care (Caroline Dinenage) and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government (Rishi Sunak) will jointly host a roundtable discussion to bring together views from across the sector on the issues facing adults of working age with care needs.
It is important that this work is informed by a range of perspectives and there will be further opportunities for interested stakeholders to feed in their views in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 2011 report by Together for Disabled Children on the impact of short break programmes for disabled children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The 2011 report by ‘Together for Disabled Children’ was published under the previous coalition government. The findings from the report, and response at the time, are publicly available and attached.
In 2011, the findings of the report supported the introduction of a local authority duty to provide a range of short break services. Between April 2011 and March 2015, £800 million was made available via grants to support local authorities in meeting these new duties. In addition, £80 million of capital funding to support new projects.
The government maintains that short breaks provide opportunities for disabled children and young people to have an enjoyable experience, which help them become more independent and form friendships outside their family. They give parents and carers time to do normal activities that other families take for granted, like doing the shopping or going for a run.
Since 2011, under the statutory duty, local authorities are required to provide a range of short breaks services. This shows the available services and how they can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities must also demonstrate how they are responding to the needs of local carers.
Local authorities must consider the needs of local parents and carers when preparing their statements, reviewing them on a regular basis, as well as monitoring the impact of funding decisions from year to year.
While responsibility for funding short breaks rests with local authorities, the department has offered support to help ensure statutory requirements are met. We have funded innovative grants that promote best practice for delivering services and continue to consider how we can best support local authorities who are working to deliver sustainable short breaks provision.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the estimate by the Local Government Association that there will be a £2 billion funding gap in children’s social care by 2019–20.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Local authorities increased spending on children and young people’s services to £9.2 billion in 2016-17. The government provides funding annually for children’s services through the general, ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ approved by Parliament. Children’s services funding is not ring-fenced within the wider settlement.
The Local Government Association’s analysis is based on changes to elements of local government funding that can be spent on children’s services (including core council tax, locally retained business rates, the Revenue Support Grant and the Education Services Grant). It also includes a potential increase in demand for services arising from population trends and inflation.
The government recognises the role that councils play in providing services such as children’s social care. Local authorities in England will have access to more than £200 billion to deliver these services between 2015-16 and 2019-20. This year’s finance settlement for local government will see a real term increase in resources available to councils, from £44.3 billion in 2017-18 to £45.6 billion in 2019-20. Local authorities will have two years of real term increases in resources.
To help the children’s social care sector innovate and re-design service delivery to achieve higher quality and better value for money, the department has invested £200 million since 2014 in our ‘Innovation Programme’ and ‘Partners in Practice Programme’. As part of this, the department has committed £20 million to provide additional support to local authorities where the risk of service failure is highest.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 2014 report published by the British Healthcare Trades Association on the economic benefits of improved provision of equipment for disabled and terminally ill children.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The report by the British Healthcare Trades Association concluded that the costs of medical care would be significantly reduced through more effective provision of equipment, and the National Health Service is continually seeking to improve equipment provision and use. NHS England is leading work to improve wheelchair commissioning and posture services through the development and dissemination of its wheelchair service specification and by working with commissioners to eliminate 18 week waits for wheelchairs by the end of 2018/19. Since 2016, the Department has funded sports activity prostheses for children who have suffered limb loss or congenital limb deficiency.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities are transparent when setting and implementing eligibility criteria for providing short breaks for families with disabled children.
Answered by Lord Nash
Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available, how they are responding to the needs of local parents and carers, and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are required to consult with local parents and carers while producing this statement. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.
60% of local authorities who responded to a survey on the implementation of the SEND reforms in May 2016 said they planned to spend the same on short breaks provision in 2016-17 as they did in 2015-16, with 11% planning on spending more. 73% said they had consulted families on any planned changes to short breaks services. The Government is able to oversee how much local authorities have spent on short breaks provision through authorities’ annual section 251 returns. This information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2016-to-2017
The Department offers support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements on SEND, and that quality of provision continues to improve. There are also opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services.
Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the obligations set out in the Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011 are currently being met by local authorities; and if not, what action they plan to take.
Answered by Lord Nash
Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available, how they are responding to the needs of local parents and carers, and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are required to consult with local parents and carers while producing this statement. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.
60% of local authorities who responded to a survey on the implementation of the SEND reforms in May 2016 said they planned to spend the same on short breaks provision in 2016-17 as they did in 2015-16, with 11% planning on spending more. 73% said they had consulted families on any planned changes to short breaks services. The Government is able to oversee how much local authorities have spent on short breaks provision through authorities’ annual section 251 returns. This information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2016-to-2017
The Department offers support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements on SEND, and that quality of provision continues to improve. There are also opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services.
Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children.