Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding will be available to local authorities to extend virtual school head support to previously looked after children, as outlined in sections 4 to 7 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We initially assessed that the new burden associated with the new duty in section 3 would be £8 million per year nationally, once the new duty is fully implemented. We have since refined that initial assessment in light of consultations held with local council leaving care managers and new data published in September 2017, and are currently consulting the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services before agreeing it with the Department for Communities and Local Government’s new burdens team. We plan to publish the final new burdens assessment and confirm each local council’s funding allocation in the New Year.
The new burden associated with the support provided in sections 4 to 7 was estimated at between £30,000 and £50,000 per local council. The new burdens assessment explains that savings from reforms to adoption, including regionalisation of adoption, will offset this new burden. Average timeliness in adoption has improved by around six months since 2012-13, offering savings to local councils from the decreased cost of care. These can be reinvested to extend Virtual School Head support to previously looked after children. To date, we have launched six Regional Adoption Agencies.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding will be available to local authorities to extend personal adviser support to care leavers aged 21 to 25, as provided for in section 3 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We initially assessed that the new burden associated with the new duty in section 3 would be £8 million per year nationally, once the new duty is fully implemented. We have since refined that initial assessment in light of consultations held with local council leaving care managers and new data published in September 2017, and are currently consulting the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services before agreeing it with the Department for Communities and Local Government’s new burdens team. We plan to publish the final new burdens assessment and confirm each local council’s funding allocation in the New Year.
The new burden associated with the support provided in sections 4 to 7 was estimated at between £30,000 and £50,000 per local council. The new burdens assessment explains that savings from reforms to adoption, including regionalisation of adoption, will offset this new burden. Average timeliness in adoption has improved by around six months since 2012-13, offering savings to local councils from the decreased cost of care. These can be reinvested to extend Virtual School Head support to previously looked after children. To date, we have launched six Regional Adoption Agencies.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the proposed closure of Durham Free School, how they ensure that Ofsted complies strictly with all the provisions of the new Independent School Standards designed to combat extremism and in respect of the application of its equality and diversity provisions to the assessment of Christian and Jewish schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
Ofsted is an independent body, accountable directly to Parliament. It reports twice a year to the Education Select Committee. It is for Ofsted to decide on how inspections are conducted. The framework for inspection is published by Ofsted reflecting Government policy and statutory requirements and sets out how inspections are to be conducted and what will be inspected. Academies and maintained schools are all inspected against the same framework. Independent schools which do not receive public funding are inspected against a different framework which reflects the different statutory requirement placed upon those schools in the independent school standards.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what impact assessment they have made of the risk of Islamic extremism occurring in Christian schools which teach traditional Christian views about marriage.
Answered by Lord Nash
All schools have an important part to play in increasing their pupils’ resilience to extremism and radicalisation and preparing them for life in modern Britain by promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The Department for Education has not carried out a formal assessment of the risk of Islamic extremism occurring in the types of schools to which my noble Friend refers.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the implementation of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) (Amendment) 2014, requiring the active promotion of protected characteristics as set down in the Equality Act 2010, what provision will be made to enable Christian schools to teach traditional Christian values and views about marriage; and what measures they have taken to ensure that any such provisions are not overridden.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 do not require the active promotion of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act.
The Regulations require that schools actively promote principles which encourage respect for other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics. This is a crucial distinction. It is right to respect other people, even if one does not agree with them or their way of life. This is a fundamental part of preparation for life in modern Britain.
The Government is absolutely clear that the changes make no difference to the existing legal obligations that schools have under the Equality Act 2010. All schools are already required to abide by the Act and their obligations are not altered by the changes to the standards. The changes do not fetter the views of individual teachers or censor the discussion of relevant matters. A teacher who, for instance, disagrees with same-sex marriage because of their Christian faith will not be prevented from expressing that view by these changes. Since the changes make no difference to schools’ existing legal obligations under the Equality Act there is no question of the ability of schools to teach traditional Christian values being overridden.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to help young care leavers who are not able to stay in foster care to make a successful transition to independence.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Care Leaver Strategy, published in October 2013, recognises that care leavers require support on a wide range of issues that affect their lives. It sets out the support that will be provided to all care leavers in relation to staying in education, finding accommodation, accessing benefits, experiencing good physical and mental health and finding work. [1]
The Department for Education will publish shortly a report on the progress we have made against the commitments set out in the strategy. This builds on a significant programme of work to improve support for care leavers, which has resulted in important changes such as the development of the Care Leaver Charter and the introduction of Junior ISAs for all children in care.
As part of our continuing work to improve care leavers’ outcomes, the Department introduced a new duty on local authorities to support ‘staying put’ arrangements and have provided funding for local authorities to support this. For the first time, this will provide for children in foster placements to receive support to remain with their foster family until age 21, where this is what both parties want.
Similar arrangements do not currently apply to children in residential care. Further work is needed before introducing a legal duty on local authorities that would require them to extend staying put arrangements to all young people leaving residential care. We are consequently working with the sector to better understand what would be involved and have supported work through the Department’s Children’s Services Innovation Programme to identify how staying put arrangements might work for children in residential care.
We will continue to drive innovation in provision for care leavers, for example through funding projects like ‘New Belongings’, which has enabled 9 local authorities to develop a range of new and innovative approaches to supporting care leavers.
[1] www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266484/Care_Leaver_Strategy.pdf