Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities have sufficient resources to deliver services to children and families.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Funding for local government services, including children’s services, is set initially in the Spending Review. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced that the next Spending Review will be in 2019 and that decisions about the future funding of children’s services will be taken in the round.
We are working with the sector both to develop a thorough understanding of children’s services costs and pressures and to help local authorities to innovate and reform services to achieve better quality and efficiency.
The government has listened to the sector, which requested additional funding for social care. That is why we have provided flexibility for £410 million in grant funding for social care in the period of 2019 to 2020 to be directed according to what local authorities consider to be their top social care priorities, including children’s social care.
In preparation for the Spending Review, and as part of the government’s review of relative needs and resources, new up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure that funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence. The department and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have commissioned an ambitious data research project from independent contractors to inform this work.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding local government receives to deliver children’s services.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Funding for local government services, including children’s services, is set initially in the Spending Review. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced that the next Spending Review will be in 2019 and that decisions about the future funding of children’s services will be taken in the round.
We are working with the sector both to develop a thorough understanding of children’s services costs and pressures and to help local authorities to innovate and reform services to achieve better quality and efficiency.
The government has listened to the sector, which requested additional funding for social care. That is why we have provided flexibility for £410 million in grant funding for social care in the period of 2019 to 2020 to be directed according to what local authorities consider to be their top social care priorities, including children’s social care.
In preparation for the Spending Review, and as part of the government’s review of relative needs and resources, new up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure that funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence. The department and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have commissioned an ambitious data research project from independent contractors to inform this work.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the link between deprivation and demand for children’s services.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Demand for children’s services is associated with a number of factors including deprivation. The most deprived local authorities (LAs) have more looked-after children (per 10,000 0-17 year olds), and these rates have grown faster than the least deprived LAs.
In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.
We are also working with Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government as part of the Government’s Fair Funding Review of relative needs and resources, where new, up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence.
We welcome the contributions from the sector in this area, including Newton Europe’s Making Sense (2018) report and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services continuing research reports, Safeguarding Pressures (2018).
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with directors of children’s services on their ability to deliver their statutory duties to children and families.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Ministers and officials regularly meet key stakeholders, including Directors of Children’s Services (DCSs), to discuss policy issues relating to the department’s agenda. For example, I recently met with DCSs and Local Authority Chief Executives at the National Children and Adult Services Conference, held recent roundtables in the department with groups of both DCSs and Chief Executives, and have attended induction events for new DCSs, the last one being in October 2019. In addition, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of the State and I have very recently met with a number of children in care to hear their views and experiences. The department recognises how important it is to speak directly with those who are on the front line, delivering services for children and families.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 1.89 of Budget 2016, when her Department plans to publish Professor Sir Adrian Smith's review of mathematics teaching for 16 to 18-year-olds.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Sir Adrian Smith’s review of post 16 mathematics will be published in due course. Some of the initial findings of the review are set out in the Building our Industrial Strategy Green Paper, which can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/building-our-industrial-strategy.
The terms of reference were published in July 2016, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/south-asian-method-of-teaching-maths-to-be-rolled-out-in-schools.