Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 5.140 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, when plans to publish details of funding for Newton-Le-Willows.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Prime Minister’s Long Term Plan for Towns will see up to £20 million of funding and support from the Government for Newton-Le-Willows over the next decade. I wrote to the Member for St Helen’s North and the Leader and Chief Executive of St Helen’s Borough Council on 19 March 2024 setting out next steps for developing the Long Term Plan for their town. This included details of the funding that will be provided for Newton-Le-Willows.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as aiding the retention of foster carers already in place.
St Helens North is participating in this programme, working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster4’, which is led by Warrington.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is increasing the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to advance the work of the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department has provided to research projects based in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the 12 months leading to the start of January 2024, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) awarded:
These figures include a range of investments made via UKRI’s Research Councils and Innovate UK, but the figure excludes formula-based block grants deployed through universities which will also have gone to research projects in this region.