Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with charities supporting disabled people about the operation of the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP regularly attends Access to Work national stakeholder forums with charities and disabled people’s organisations from across England, Scotland and Wales to discuss Access to Work.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many disabled people have secured jobs through the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested about the number of disabled people who have secured jobs through Access to Work is not available. Access to Work does not provide support to find jobs. It is a grant that provides individuals with funding for support and adaptations beyond reasonable adjustments to retain employment. To receive Access to Work support, applicants must be employed, self-employed, about to start work, participating in a supported internship/traineeship, taking part in work experience/work trial, or require communication support at interview.
Information on how many individuals receive Access to Work support is in table 6 of the Access to Work Official Statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here:
Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many disabled people who have found work through the Access to Work scheme are in (1) full-time, and (2) part-time, employment.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on the number of people who have found work through the Access to Work scheme is not available. Access to Work does not provide support to find jobs. It is a grant that provides individuals with funding for support and adaptations beyond reasonable adjustments to retain employment. To receive Access to Work support, applicants must be employed, self-employed, about to start work, participating in a supported internship/traineeship, taking part in work experience/work trial, or require communication support at interview.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children placed in hotels have gone missing in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office takes the wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care extremely seriously. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.
As of 28.02.23 there were 410 missing episodes and on 224 of these occasions the young person was subsequently located.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to review their support for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The United Kingdom remains fully committed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and is dedicated to protecting and promoting children’s rights in all aspects of society.
The department is fully engaged with the UNCRC reporting process. We submitted our UK State Party report in June 2022 and are preparing for the Constructive Dialogue with the UN Committee in May 2023.
Through the use of Children’s Rights Impact Assessments, the government has sought to embed the consideration of children’s rights and compatibility with the Convention at the heart of policy making.
Strengthening children’s rights is a continuous process and we look forward to receiving the Concluding Observations from the UN Committee in June 2023, so we can continue to look for new and better ways of promoting the best interests of children.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to amend the Children Act 1989 to remove the legal duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
His Majesty’s Government do not have any plans to amend the Children Act 1989 to remove the legal duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what system of monitoring they use to ensure that hotels accommodating unaccompanied migrant children meet the standards necessary for that purpose.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Any legal advice received by the Home Office is subject to legal professional privilege and, as such, we do not comment on legal advice that may or may not have been sought or received.
When considering whether to accommodate Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Home Office operated hotels, advice and guidance was sought from organisations with expertise and experience with young people. These included the Department for Education, the Home Office Safeguarding Advice and Children’s Champion and local authorities.
This information was used to develop the processes and procedures to ensure the safety of the young people accommodated in the hotels.
Safeguarding is a key consideration when identifying potential hotels for temporary use. The Home Office undertake hotel specific risk assessments before contracting any site.
The Home Office takes the wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care extremely seriously. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.
We continue to consult multi-agency partners and subject matter experts to ensure our processes and procedures are robust and evolve as new trends or risks emerge.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they use to decide whether a hotel used to accommodate unaccompanied migrant children is suitable for that use.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Any legal advice received by the Home Office is subject to legal professional privilege and, as such, we do not comment on legal advice that may or may not have been sought or received.
When considering whether to accommodate Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Home Office operated hotels, advice and guidance was sought from organisations with expertise and experience with young people. These included the Department for Education, the Home Office Safeguarding Advice and Children’s Champion and local authorities.
This information was used to develop the processes and procedures to ensure the safety of the young people accommodated in the hotels.
Safeguarding is a key consideration when identifying potential hotels for temporary use. The Home Office undertake hotel specific risk assessments before contracting any site.
The Home Office takes the wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care extremely seriously. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.
We continue to consult multi-agency partners and subject matter experts to ensure our processes and procedures are robust and evolve as new trends or risks emerge.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have sought legal advice on the powers of the Home Office to place unaccompanied migrant children in hotels.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Any legal advice received by the Home Office is subject to legal professional privilege and, as such, we do not comment on legal advice that may or may not have been sought or received.
When considering whether to accommodate Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Home Office operated hotels, advice and guidance was sought from organisations with expertise and experience with young people. These included the Department for Education, the Home Office Safeguarding Advice and Children’s Champion and local authorities.
This information was used to develop the processes and procedures to ensure the safety of the young people accommodated in the hotels.
Safeguarding is a key consideration when identifying potential hotels for temporary use. The Home Office undertake hotel specific risk assessments before contracting any site.
The Home Office takes the wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care extremely seriously. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.
We continue to consult multi-agency partners and subject matter experts to ensure our processes and procedures are robust and evolve as new trends or risks emerge.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Markham on 11 January (HL Deb col 1415), how Integrated Care Systems will work with schools to ensure that support is available for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care systems are designed to join-up the commissioning of health, social care services and other system partners to meet the population health needs. These needs are assessed in the data-driven joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs), prepared by Health and Wellbeing Boards. Government guidance on the preparation of JSNAs states that they should include the needs of children with disabilities and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) within these assessments.
Integrated care partnerships (ICPs) must set out how local authorities and integrated care board (ICBs) can meet these assessed needs in integrated care strategies. Statutory guidance states that these strategies should consider the health and wellbeing outcomes of babies, children, young people and families and they should include a statement on how the arrangement of health and social care services can be closely arranged with health-related services such as education providers.
Furthermore, to ensure SEND duties receive sufficient focus in the ICB, NHS England statutory guidance will contain provision for the delegation of responsibility for these duties to ICB executive leads.