Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Burghart Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2018 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)]

1. If he will take steps to improve outcomes for children in need.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

We must help children in need to achieve their full potential. That is why we are already implementing vital social care reforms to improve children’s safety and stability. On Friday, we launched the children in need review. That will develop the evidence so that we can understand what makes a difference to those children’s educational outcomes and what works to improve those outcomes in practice.

[Alex Burghart]

I strongly welcome the review that was announced last week. Many of us have been pushing for that for a long time, and I am sure that it will make a difference to the nearly 400,000 children in need in our country. As the Minister goes about the review, will he commit to using the considerable data at his disposal to highlight those areas and children that buck the trend, so that we can learn from their example?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

My hon. Friend has been a champion of children in need. The review is absolutely intended to establish best practice. It builds on work that we already do with our partners in practice local authorities, the expansion of which I announced last week.