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Written Question
Children in Care and Foster Care
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who were looked-after in a (a) relative and (b) friend foster placement in each local authority in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Children in Care and Foster Care
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the looked-after children who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement on 31 March 2023 had also been in (a) an unrelated foster placement, (b) another relative or friend placement, (c) a children's home and (d) other provision for looked-after children.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Children in Care and Foster Care
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) ethnicity who were looked-after in a (i) relative and (ii) friend foster placement in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements, therefore the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Full information on the former placement arrangements of children looked after who are in a relative or friend foster placement is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Academies: Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council’s PFI academisation process.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department can confirm that officials are already engaged with the local authority and are providing assistance with the issues affecting the academisation process in the borough.


Written Question
Academies: Private Finance Initiative
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that private finance initiative contracts are not used to prevent the statutory academisation of schools following relevant inspection findings.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department routinely works with local authorities to address issues which arise in the context of the academisation of private finance schools.

Officials are happy to work with the hon. Member to address any specific cases you may wish to discuss.


Written Question
Denton Community College
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's estimated timescale is for the completion of the academisation of Denton Community College.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

An academy order was issued to the governing body of Denton Community College and Tameside local authority on 22 March 2023. The Regional Director for the North West then agreed for the Northern Education Trust to be the academy trust match for the school in July 2023.

Project planning meetings between the school, trust and local authority take place regularly and these meetings form the basis for discussions on timescales. The current agreeable date for conversion is estimated to be June 2024. This is reliant on Tameside Council’s Cabinet Board approving the school’s Private Finance Initiative agreement.

The Regional Director’s office have been asked to contact the honourable Member for Denton and Reddish to keep him updated on progress.


Written Question
Social Services: Tameside
Thursday 23rd November 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the financial capability of Tameside Council to effectively provide and manage her Department's improvement process for Children’s Services.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is not responsible for the overall financial health of local authorities. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities provide authorities with an overall funding agreement which local authorities are then responsible for dispersing within their services, of which children’s services is a part of. It is therefore for the local authority to decide how funding is allocated to improve its children’s services.

The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion, or 9.4% in cash terms, in 2022/23. The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced, in recognition of local authorities being best place to understand local priorities.

A breakdown of the key element of annual funding for each local authority in England, including Tameside Council, since 2016/17, as announced at that year’s settlement, are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-information-for-local-authorities-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2023-to-2024.


Written Question
Schools: Finance
Thursday 23rd November 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will allocate additional funding for high needs provision in schools.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The majority of high needs funding from the department is allocated to local authorities, as they are responsible for allocating that funding to schools to support pupils with complex needs. The department has substantially increased high needs funding in recent years and has announced a further increase of £440 million for the 2024/25 financial year, which will bring the total high needs budget to over £10.5 billion, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.


Written Question
Social Services: Tameside
Thursday 23rd November 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has received the data from the Tameside Children’s Services diagnostic exercise conducted before summer 2023.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The exercise referenced did not conclude as the Council re-directed the resource to concentrate on improvements. As a result, a formal report was not provided. However, the department has discussed the findings with the Council and are assured that the areas identified are embedded within the Council-owned Improvement Plan.


Written Question
Social Services: Tameside
Wednesday 22nd November 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with Tameside Children's Services on a target date for obtaining a Good or Outstanding Ofsted rating.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The adequacy of a local authorities children’s social care is officially assessed by Ofsted’s inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework. Children’s social care services in Tameside were judged as Requires Improvement in the 2019 ILACS inspection, which was an improvement from the inspection in 2016 where services were found to be Inadequate. Focused Visits were carried out by Ofsted in May 2021 and April 2022 to monitor services, as per Ofsted’s inspection framework. The Focused Visit in April 2022 identified two Areas of Priority Action (APAs).

Following this, in line with the department’s early intervention policy, the department placed Tameside into intervention and issued an Improvement Notice. The department has continued to work closely with Tameside, carrying out formal 6 monthly reviews and tailoring effective support to target the APAs. An Improvement Adviser is in place to provide ongoing support and challenge to the service including early support to the Council in establishing an Improvement Board to provide the mechanism for corporate and political leadership to scrutinise and challenge the improvement journey.

In addition, the department has provided Tameside with targeted improvement funding and brokered support from Sector Led Improvement Partners as well as co-ordinating the Local Government Association to provide a package of leadership support for the senior leadership team and wider Council, including politicians.

The priority for the department’s intervention has been to oversee progress of the two APAs identified in Ofsted’s 2022 Focused Visit. Progress of improvement has relied on stability of senior leadership and capacity within the Council. The imminent Ofsted ILACS inspection will result in a graded judgement for Tameside’s children’s services and will clearly set out what is working well and where further improvements can be made, including what further steps are needed to achieve Good or Outstanding, if appropriate. The inspection will also determine the effectiveness of the Council’s response to the department’s intervention and support.

The department continues to monitor progress and provide support via the intervention policy and regular interactions with the Council. Should assessments indicate the Council is making insufficient progress, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, may choose to invoke her statutory powers of intervention (under s497A of the Education Act 1996) by issuing a Statutory Direction.