Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Allan (Telford) (Con)]

16. Which provisions in the Education and Adoption Bill will ensure that more children in care are placed in loving and stable homes.

[The Minister for Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

Every child deserves a happy and fulfilling childhood, including those who cannot be brought up by their birth parents. To ensure that for the many thousands of children every year waiting to be adopted, the Education and Adoption Bill will increase the scale at which adoption services are delivered by introducing regional adoption agencies to work across council boundaries. That will help to provide a greater pool of approved adopters with whom to match vulnerable children successfully into loving and stable families.

[Fiona Bruce]

What steps are being taken to ensure that advice about adoption is more widely available in local communities, including as an option for consideration by women with unplanned pregnancies?

[Edward Timpson]

I welcome my hon. Friend and neighbour’s interest in this important issue. In 2013, we set up the first ever national adoption advice and guidance service, First4Adoption, which to date has had more than 416,000 of what I am told are called “unique users”. The NHS website also has information on all the options to consider in the circumstances my hon. Friend describes, and makes specific reference to adoption. This is a very sensitive issue and we need to tread carefully. I am happy to discuss it further with my hon. Friend to make sure we get the balance right.

[Lucy Allan]

I thank the Minister for visiting Holmer Lake primary school in Telford earlier in the year to hear about the excellent child safeguarding work being done for year 6. With increasing numbers of children entering the care system, and with rates in my constituency significantly above the national average, what will the Minister do to ensure that all alternatives to adoption are fully explored before children are put up for adoption, resulting in permanent family break-up?

[Edward Timpson]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her election; I am pleased to hear that my visit was not only helpful but did not prevent her from getting over the finishing line.

A key principle of the Children Act 1989 is that children are generally best looked after within their families, save where that is not consistent with their welfare. That was reiterated in the Children and Families Act 2014. Of course, where concerns arise it is right that the local authority takes the appropriate action, but the point of having an independent court system is to ensure that that is proportionate and that in children’s upbringing their welfare and their best interests are the paramount consideration. That should remain at the heart of all the work we do with vulnerable children and I am happy to work with my hon. Friend to achieve that.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

Despite what the Minister says, local authority cuts have had disastrous consequences for children’s social care services. Ofsted is now reporting that independent reviewing officers are so stretched that poor planning and delays for the most vulnerable children are going unchallenged. What will the Minister do to defend the service from further cuts?

[Edward Timpson]

It is wonderful to see the hon. Lady back. She was extremely vocal on these issues in the previous Parliament, and very effective in raising them to the profile they deserve. They are often missed at local, as well as national, level. The truth about children’s social care is that, at a time when it has been difficult for local councils, good decisions have been made to protect spending on children’s safeguarding. That is something I hope they will continue, while considering how they can be more effective and efficient in delivering those services. That is one of the reasons why the adoption Bill, which the House will soon be discussing, considers how they can work more closely together to achieve better services for children wherever they are from in the country, so that we have greater consistency everywhere.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Education and Adoption Bill will presumably mention adoption, but will it contain provision for improving the quality of fostering, residential children’s homes and kinship care, which in the past the Minister has agreed are incredibly important opportunities for children? This is about finding the right way forward for children, not necessarily adoption for all.

[Edward Timpson]

The hon. Gentleman is right that, whatever the route to permanency a child has, we must ensure they have the right support and that the best decisions are made in their interests. The Bill, which we will be discussing in the next few weeks, will deal with the post-decision issue and ensure that we can access a wider pool of adopters to get children matched more quickly. At the moment, we have over 3,000 children in care waiting to be adopted, half of whom have been waiting for more than 18 months. We need to address that, but I agree that we need to do better to ensure that foster children and those with residential or kinship care arrangements get better deals.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

I remind the House of my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Will the Minister comment on the Government’s intention to expand the outsourcing of children’s social care services to third-party providers involved with children in the care system and adoption? He has just announced that they will no longer be regulated and inspected by Ofsted. How will he ensure quality of care for these particularly vulnerable young people?

[Edward Timpson]

I pay tribute to the role that my hon. Friend has played in keeping these matters fairly and squarely at the top of the national agenda, but we have not just announced that. These services will still be inspected. In the past, I have alluded to the social work practice in Staffordshire that was outsourced by the county council and which was inspected by Ofsted and received a “good” rating.

We want to ensure the best possible services on offer to children across the country, and we should not get too tied up in thinking about delivery and who will be ensuring the services are the best they can be. Let us get quality at the heart of everything we do and make sure that that is what we inspect.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister back to his post. I had entertained the idea that we would swap places—but what will be will be. I am pleased he has retained this portfolio and I genuinely wish him well for the future.

Will the Minister give an assurance that nothing in his adoption proposals will have an adverse impact on smaller voluntary adoption agencies, which often specialise in finding families for harder-to-place children—a group the Government say the proposals are designed to help?

[Edward Timpson]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman back to his post. He and I have an interesting electoral history, but I see he managed to increase his majority at the last election, so he is doing better in his own constituency than he managed in Crewe and Nantwich in 2008.

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. We have an array of extremely competent, professional and dedicated voluntary adoption agencies across England and the wider United Kingdom, and we need to ensure that they are fully part of the new adoption landscape that we are creating. I made that point when I spoke at the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies conference only last week. We will make sure that they are central to the vision going forward.

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

8. What steps her Department is taking to raise educational standards in failing schools.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

T8. Will the Minister welcome the new apprentice teaching sports assistants coach programme put on by Gillingham football club in my constituency, which is working with primary schools to get more sports coaches into primary schools?

[The Minister for Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

I can do that. It is always encouraging to hear of programmes such as that being run by Gillingham football club, which bring the expertise of community sports clubs into schools. The quality of expertise that coaches provide in schools is of paramount importance, and it will be supported by our physical education and sport premium—£150 million that goes direct to primary schools every year to make sure that every child gets the best possible PE and sport on offer.

[Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) (Lab)]

T5. I have worked with lots of children who have suffered domestic violence, rape, grooming and exploitation, and I have seen the damage it does to their lives. When will the Government respond to the Education Committee’s fifth report from the last Session and the recommendation that the Department for Education should “develop a workplan for introducing age-appropriate…SRE—sex and relationships education—as statutory subjects in primary and secondary schools”?

Child Sexual Abuse

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) on securing this very important debate. Having known him for many years, it comes as no surprise to me that he sought to bring to the Floor of the House the serious issue of child sexual abuse at the earliest opportunity in this Parliament.

I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that tackling all forms of abuse and exploitation of children is a priority for this Government, as it was for the last Government, and it remains essential that how we tackle abuse—as a Government, as professionals and as a society—is underpinned by robust evidence of what works and what will deliver the best outcomes for children and young people. However, the fact remains that we need to know much more about the approaches that are most effective; we need to know not only what services work best for young people who have suffered abuse but how to prevent abuse from happening in the first place.

[Jim Shannon]

Will the Minister give way?

[Edward Timpson]

I will give way very quickly, because I want to ensure that the hon. Member for Nottingham North receives a full answer.

[Jim Shannon]

One thing that concerns me is the issue of gathering evidence, for instance building the evidential base in the case of Kincora and what happened in Northern Ireland. That evidence should be used to improve the expertise that is necessary to deliver for children and to give them the protection that they need.

[Edward Timpson]

I will reiterate this point later, but there is no doubt that there is evidence not only in the United Kingdom, within which Northern Ireland plays a key role, but internationally. We need to ensure that we use the best evidence we can gather to inform practice on the ground. We should seek it wherever it exists and not suggest that we have all the solutions here at home. I am sure that anything that could contribute to that process would be welcome.

Social workers, police, doctors, nurses, youth workers, schools and judges all have a crucial role to play in tackling child sexual abuse, and indeed other forms of abuse and neglect, and yet we have not done enough to help to equip those professionals with the evidence of what works. That is why I am pleased to use this debate to reinforce the Government’s commitment to establishing a new centre of expertise on tackling child sexual abuse. Its primary purpose will be to improve our understanding of what works to prevent sexual abuse and sexual exploitation, of how best to help people who have suffered from this horrendous crime, and of how to work with the perpetrators to prevent them from reoffending in the future.

Why is that so important? Well, we cannot escape the reality that many victims have been failed by the system. They have been failed by a lack of sensitivity, by a lack of understanding, by a lack of willingness of professionals to listen to and believe them, and by a system that has been too quick to jump to conclusions and to blame.

“Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation”, the report that was issued in March, set out how we are responding to the failures identified by Professor Alexis Jay and Louise Casey, to whom I again pay tribute for their insightful and hard-hitting contributions. The inquiry led by Lowell Goddard is investigating the shocking claims of child sexual abuse by those in positions of power. We are also seeing police forces up and down the country showing real and renewed determination to tackle child sexual exploitation wherever it occurs, but they need the tools to do that.

Local areas say that they are frequently told what “failure” looks like but no one has articulated what “good” looks like. So we need to learn not only from areas where things have gone wrong but from areas where things have gone well. We need to garner that knowledge from parts of the country where all professionals are striving to do their best for children and young people; where agencies work closely, and share data and intelligence; where action is taken swiftly; and where services are provided to help victims and to bring perpetrators to justice. Practitioners working in this way are doing so because of their commitment, their experience and their professional judgement, but too often they are hampered by process and by lack of evidence. As the hon. Member for Nottingham North reminded us, he first proposed, as far back as 1990, a national institute to tackle child sexual abuse and, as he put it, the root causes of child sexual abuse. He was right to propose it then, and he is right to raise it again now, and I can assure him that we are fully committed to achieving this shared vision.

That is not to say that our collective understanding has been at a complete standstill since the 1990s, but there is still much we do not know and there are gaps across the full range of work with children and young people, families and perpetrators. That is why establishing a new centre of expertise is a real opportunity to build a shared understanding of how best to address and tackle child sexual abuse, not just to help us to make decisions in government, but to support and improve practice by social workers, the police, the NHS, youth workers, schools, early years settings and many others, all of which the centre will need to work with.

What will the centre do? It will look at the full spectrum of child sexual abuse. As an active advocate of the importance of early intervention, the hon. Gentleman will recognise the need for the centre to look at how to reduce the vulnerability of young people to abuse and exploitation. We need to know what early interventions can help—for example, what role schools can play and what families and carers can do—and what we can do to promote resilience. We also need to understand how to identify risk and prevent situations from escalating. We need to know how agencies work best together, how to assess risk swiftly and effectively, and how to safeguard vulnerable groups such as children in residential care.

We have already established a £7 million fund to support victims of child sexual abuse. I have seen from my own experiences growing up with foster brothers and sisters the impact that abuse and neglect can have. To improve our response to such trauma, we need to know what therapeutic and other support is most effective, and what young people themselves feel they need and for how long. Just as vitally, we need to understand more about the behaviours of offenders. How can we prevent them from offending and reoffending? What leads to the successful disruption of perpetrators? What factors help to achieve a successful prosecution?

[Martin John Docherty (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

I am concerned about how we can join up across the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, particularly given the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in Edinburgh recently about the public inquiry into historical child sex abuse in Scotland. How will that be reflected across these islands and jurisdictions, and how will it inform this debate?

[Edward Timpson]

We have heard now from two important regions of the UK. We have a shared purpose in ensuring that the knowledge we impart to all professionals, wherever they are practising in our country, is based on the best possible evidence. As part of that process, I would welcome any contributions from other parties and parts of the UK that want to learn from the work we are doing to ensure that we are not all trying to reinvent the same wheel.

[Nia Griffith]

Does the Minister agree that the institute might look at disclosure and barring service checks—how they work, who should be involved, to whom they should be extended—because in the past so often the failure has been from contact with people who have never been DBS checked?

[Edward Timpson]

I am not going to make that commitment on the Floor of the House now. I am not sure it is the purpose and remit of the centre, but it is an area the Government keep under review and I note the hon. Lady’s interest in the DBS system. I am sure it is something we will return to later in this Parliament.

The future funding of the centre will be determined at the spending review. The hon. Member for Nottingham North has argued passionately that investing in the evidence base will save money in the long term. Irrespective of the spending review—always dangerous words to put in the same sentence—my fellow Ministers across Government are determined that the centre will be not a short-term initiative but a long-term driver of practice improvement.

We are working across Government to explore what form the centre should take. We want to learn from the success of other organisations that have driven evidence-based practice, including “what works” centres, such as the Education Endowment Foundation, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Allen-inspired Early Intervention Foundation. We want to understand what has worked in terms of governance, funding and working with local areas, so that we can make the most of this endeavour and do it in such a way that everybody feels they are part of it and have invested in it as a long-term solution.

The centre will identify gaps in evidence, commission research pilots and evaluate local practice. It will, of course, need to learn from international practice, as I mentioned a few moments ago, as well as from what works across England and the rest of the United Kingdom. In all this, however, the centre will not succeed if it operates in isolation. It will need to draw on the expertise of academics, the voluntary sector, practitioners and local leaders. The centre will prove its worth only if it translates evidence into practice. Moreover, it needs to be fleet of foot and to be able to respond quickly to new and emerging risks to children, particularly as social media and technology evolve.

Across Government, we are already supporting projects that will help to build our knowledge in these areas. The £100 million Department for Education innovation programme, for example, is funding four areas to develop and test effective ways of supporting children and young people, including a secure children’s home in County Durham, which will test a model of support for young people who have been sexually exploited. Across South Yorkshire, we are testing the use of specialist foster carers to provide safe placements for young people at risk of child sexual exploitation. The outcomes of these projects will provide a good starting point for the centre of expertise.

Establishing a centre of expertise for tackling child sexual abuse is an ambitious and long-term plan. We know that addressing the gaps in our knowledge will not be achieved overnight. There is so much more we need to know before we can feel confident that every practitioner has the necessary tools at their disposal.

We need to prevent future abuse and to help those who have suffered so terribly, and it is for that reason that I am enormously grateful for the powerful voice that the hon. Gentleman raised on this issue this evening. I am grateful for the contributions from other Members, too. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his offer of advice, and I have no doubt that it will be followed up by a chance meeting at the back of the Speaker’s Chair in due course. As he has so eloquently argued, it is essential that we make the investment needed in this research now, so that in 25 years’ time we do not need to have the same debate again.

Most importantly, the centre is needed to help to protect vulnerable children and young people. We all know, both in the House and outside it, that the human cost of failing to do so makes this a moral imperative. I therefore hope that the House will unite behind this endeavour. It is going to be a long and committed piece of work that will put us in a much stronger position come the next election. By then, many more people should be working with children and feel that they are able not only to tackle child sexual abuse, but to prevent it from happening in the first place. That is the least we should do for the many vulnerable children who have not had that ready and available for them in their own lives. It is something that we need to tackle, and we are determined to do so.

Question put and agreed to.

Survivors of Child Abuse

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

I thank the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) for leading such an important and timely debate about the support available for those who have suffered child sexual abuse. The first thing that any victim wants is honesty. People in authority must take reports seriously and confront abuse wherever it occurs. As the hon. Gentleman said, victims have not only a right to be believed, but a right not to be treated as the problem. That is why we have been determined to tackle the issues of both historical and current child sex abuse.

For too long, people in positions of power have swept concerns about child abuse under the carpet, failing to act even in the face of clear evidence. That cannot be allowed to carry on; we have to act. The Home Secretary has said that what we have seen so far is likely to be the tip of the iceberg. The hon. Gentleman’s speech has reaffirmed the fact that there is still much for us to understand and learn. We must consider how we can ensure that victims of abuse are given the support that they rightly deserve. That is why the Home Office set up an inquiry under the leadership of Justice Lowell Goddard to investigate the shocking claims that we have heard and are still hearing about child sexual abuse by those in positions of power in the past. We are now finally seeing police forces throughout the country showing the will and determination to tackle child sexual exploitation wherever it occurs, be it in Oxfordshire, Rotherham, Derby, Rochdale, or elsewhere, as the hon. Gentleman said.

We have already announced that we will consult on a new criminal offence of wilful neglect for teachers, councillors and social workers who fail to act on evidence of child abuse, and the Prime Minister has upgraded child sexual exploitation to a national threat, creating a duty on police forces to co-operate across force boundaries.

[John Mann]

Does the Minister agree that it would be helpful to establish a central database of children in care who have gone missing?

[Mr Timpson]

We have already improved the data, not only on children in care who are missing, but on absence. Rather than being only on those who have disappeared for more than 24 hours, the data—whether from the local authority or the police—now cover every single case of a child who has gone missing from care, irrespective of the type of placement. That is important because we know that those children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, especially those in residential care, which is why we have undertaken such wide-ranging reforms to improve risk assessments for children’s homes, to improve the quality of care in those homes, and to ensure that the decision makers—particularly those who place children out of area—are much more robustly accountable for their decisions than they have been in the past.

The hon. Gentleman is correct to say that listening to survivors of child sexual abuse is not enough on its own. They need support, often well into adult life. The psychological effects of childhood abuse can be absolutely devastating—from depression and anxiety to eating disorders, self-harm, alcohol and drug addiction, and severely disrupted learning that can hamper them for life. On the latter, the hon. Gentleman gave the example of a constituent who came to him for help and wanted one-to-one literacy lessons. That is a good example of the wide-ranging consequences of something that has been left untouched and not properly considered as part of his constituent’s rehabilitation.

[John Mann]

So where will my constituent get that support?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Timpson]

I will come on to the various strands of support that are either in existence but need to improve, or that the Government have announced to try to ensure that we better support people who find themselves in that situation. The truth is that long-term specialist intervention may be required to rebuild self-esteem and resilience, as well as to tackle serious psychological ill health.

The hon. Gentleman will not want me to quote a succession of numbers at him relating to the money that has been made available to support victims of child sexual abuse, but it is right to recognise that a fund has been established for 2014-15 and 2015-16. We are working with the support of organisations that are reporting an increase in referrals prompted by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

I have also listened with interest to the hon. Gentleman’s call today for a national institute for survivors of child abuse. I undertake to take up the proposal with all other relevant Ministers, including the Home Secretary, because despite the fact that the independent inquiry is up and running, it is important that we still take time to consider what other support we might be able to offer to give us confidence that we are addressing the issues that many survivors are raising. We have already announced the establishment of a new centre of expertise, which will help to develop and deliver better approaches to tackling child sexual abuse, spreading the best practice that the hon. Gentleman spoke about from as far afield as New Zealand and Scandinavia. We can also learn from the many professionals who are out there but need the capacity to deliver services more widely. Part of that has to be how victim support is built into that body of expertise.

Survivors have rightly been instrumental in the setting up of the statutory independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. Both Justice Goddard and the Home Secretary are clear that they must also have a strong voice in the work of the inquiry. Justice Goddard will write to survivors and their representatives shortly to set out her intention to create a survivors and victims consultative panel, and to seek their views on how that will work and who should be on it. The panel will have a specific role and function within the inquiry. The inquiry’s terms of reference state that it must:

“Consider the experience of survivors of child sexual abuse; providing opportunities for them to bear witness to the Inquiry, having regard to the need to provide appropriate support in doing so”.

Rightly, it is for the inquiry to consider the most appropriate way to take things forward, but survivors have to be a key part of its remit.

What cannot be disputed is that now and at any point in history safeguarding children—the action that we take to promote the welfare of children and to protect them from harm—is everyone’s business. Everyone whose work brings them into contact with children and families, from the school receptionist, the police and health practitioners to the social workers, will have an important role to play in spotting and rooting out abuse and then supporting those young people, and sometimes adults, to come to terms to with what has happened to them and in how to deal with their future.

[John Mann]

I thank the Minister for his positive remarks. Whoever is elected at the next election, does he agree that it would be highly sensible for the 650 individual MPs to be given proper training in how to handle people who might come to see them in the near future? That training need is clearly not being met at the moment and all of us could benefit from it. It could be hugely significant to individual lives.

[Mr Timpson]

I hesitate slightly because I come from a legal background in the family courts, but I can see the benefit to me of having had the opportunity to familiarise myself with many of the challenges and consequences for not only the victims of child sexual abuse, but the wider family. I have found that experience invaluable in trying to understand the wider needs for addressing the problems that society is now facing up to. I will not write the book of MPs’ training, but from my perspective as a constituency MP—like many colleagues—the background and experience that I have been able to draw from has been important in empathising with and understanding the significance of the many whom I have encountered in my surgeries and casework. It would be helpful for many other colleagues to have the opportunity to understand better the types of issues that they will undoubtedly come across in future.

Effective safeguarding of children can be achieved only by putting children at the centre of the system and by every individual and agency playing their full part. Failure to do that has been shown starkly in the reports from Rotherham and Oxfordshire, which have revealed a need for a co-ordinated response to protect children from child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. That requires a system in which professionals work together to identify emerging problems and goes right through to supporting children who are in need or on a child protection plan.

No single professional can ever have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances. If children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action. Where that happens, children are better protected. We will therefore shortly publish a revised version of the “What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused” advice, which has a stronger focus on ensuring that professionals are aware of the signs of abuse and neglect and what action they need to take in response. We will also publish revised guidance on information sharing to set out the key principles for how to do that effectively.

Once a child’s need has been identified, getting help quickly is important to stop needs escalating. However, the quality of the intervention will determine how children can be helped to overcome their abuse. Targeted help is required to meet individual needs—as highlighted by Alexis Jay’s report into the failings in Rotherham, a child who has experienced sexual abuse will almost inevitably require long-term specialist intervention. Help will range from basic support to rebuild self-esteem and resilience, to interventions that tackle serious psychological and mental ill health.

Effective and timely support for victims of child sexual abuse is a matter of national importance. That is why the Government are doing more than ever to help victims of rape and sexual violence through the female rape support fund, which has funded 86 rape support centres to provide independent, specialist support to victims of recent and historical rape and sexual violence. In December last year we announced an immediate uplift of £7 million in non-statutory sector support to victims and survivors through the existing female rape support centres and two funds available to organisations supporting victims in areas where there is high prevalence of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Importantly, we have set up the first fund dedicated to help male victims of rape and sexual abuse.

We are also working with professional health organisations such as NHS England on where efforts should be focused to train staff on trauma-informed approaches to care in mental health services. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Government report on the work of the children and young people’s mental health taskforce was published earlier today. It sets out a clear national ambition to support and inform the delivery of a local offer of services to all children and young people.

We also announced £80 million to help to cut waiting times in adult mental health services. The hon. Gentleman made the important point that it is not until they are adults that the child sexual abuse of many of the victims or survivors comes to the notice of the authorities. That is far too late, but it does not mean that we give up. We continue to strain every sinew to ensure that those survivors get the help that they need, whether through the health service, social care or other agencies.

We need to be better—this is what the taskforce is trying to ensure—at ensuring that all those who should have an interest do have an interest in working closely together to provide the package of support that we know when done effectively can have transformative results. Clearly, child sexual abuse is something that never leaves people who are victims of it. I have worked with many children and, in particular if abuse takes place in a family environment, it has been hard for them ever to come to terms with it.

As the hon. Gentleman said, not only as a Government, but as a society we need to recognise that child sexual abuse is something that we all must take seriously. We must all play our part to ensure that it is not simply swept under the carpet, as has happened in the past. It must be put centre stage, thus addressing a national issue that we must never hide. We should be clear about tackling it head on. If we do not do so, we are only storing up more problems for the future, and more strain and pressures on services that are working hard to support the victims of child sexual abuse. For whoever is in government after 8 May, it will no doubt be a high priority to demonstrate that everyone in society should set out our stall in support of those—in particular the most vulnerable—who have, through no fault of their own, been victims of child sexual abuse.

Another important element is to give professionals not only the tools and skills, but the confidence to know that they can spot child sexual abuse and go to their senior management and others in authority knowing that they will be supported. In Rotherham and other cases, that has not happened, which has meant that too many children were let down and too many adults are living with their horrific past. It is incumbent on all of us to turn that situation around. I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s contribution to the debate.

Co-operative Schools

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Wednesday 11th March 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. In the usual way, I congratulate the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Meg Munn) on securing another important debate on co-operative schools. I well remember the debate we had in October 2013, which I have taken the time to re-read. Other Members who are present today also spoke at that debate. What struck me was that through it shone a real shared purpose on the need to raise standards right across the education system. There was also a recognition that co-operatives are a part of the solution. I will remind Members of some my comments, which support my contention that the Government support the work that many co-operative schools across the country are doing. I said:

“We should, and do, cherish the values of co-operative trust schools”.

I also expressed the hope that I had given—I hope I will do so again today—

“a forceful indication that this Government hugely value the co-operative movement’s work in our schools.”—[Official Report, 23 October 2013; Vol. 569, c. 127WH, 132WH.]

I want to make it clear that those values, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) said in his intervention, are shared by all parties, which is demonstrated by the fact that there has been no attempt to prevent in an ideological way the growth of co-operative schools. In fact, they have seen their biggest growth in quite some time. We have more than 700 of them, and we will be close to 1,000 by the end of next year. That is a huge increase for the co-operative movement in education.

The hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) slightly stole my thunder in recognising that, in her time as an MP, the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley has, there is no doubt, been a huge force for good in ensuring that children of all backgrounds, but particularly the most disadvantaged, have their voices heard. It is a great loss to us all that she has decided to go on to bigger and better things in her future career. The service she has given and her commitment to the area is noted and should be applauded. In doing that, I hope that she recognises that we share the same endeavour. I reassure her and other Members that the Government continue to support wholeheartedly the role that school collaboration and partnerships play in achieving our goal of a high-performing, self-improving education system, which includes the role of co-operatives.

[Mr Sheerman]

The Minister is the acceptable face of the Conservative party, as is the hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker), but they are atypical. The fact of the matter is that we need a real commitment to change the law. That is what we want. We do not want to muck around. We have got 837 schools. We want a change in the law, for a faster expansion—

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order. Interventions should be brief and in the form of a question.

[Mr Timpson]

I like to think that I am typical of the Conservative party, and I am sure that the hon. Gentleman feels the same about himself and his party. It is clear that there is a determination to drive up standards across our education system. He will appreciate that we are in the last few weeks of this Parliament, so there will be no time to change legislation. Nevertheless, we must increase and better understand the evidence base, so that co-operative schools can show the impact they are having and we can possibly widen their remit and potential in future.

The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley has met Lord Nash, and as part of her exchange with the Secretary of State for Education, she was invited to provide evidence on why we should accede to some of her suggestions, both legislative and otherwise. I look forward to receiving that evidence in due course.

[Meg Munn]

Significant evidence has already been provided. With all due respect to the Minister, for whom I have a lot of time, the problem is that the evidence is there and the opportunity was there with the Deregulation Bill, but this has simply been blocked.

[Mr Timpson]

The hon. Lady received a letter from the Secretary of State on 11 February that set out the Government’s position on the legislation and the amendments that were tabled in both this House and the other place. She will appreciate that the position articulated by the Secretary of State in that letter makes it clear that additional evidence or arguments in support of the educational benefits are still required to reassure the Secretary of State that the changes would be worth while. The hon. Lady will appreciate that that issue falls outside my portfolio. The best I can offer is to take back her clear sense of the direction that we need to follow. If she wishes to provide any further and better particulars to support her argument, I will endeavour to ensure that they are shared as soon as possible.

We are seeking to ensure that we are able to deliver better results, year on year and right across the education system. Inspection data show that more schools are now rated as good or outstanding than at any time since Ofsted was created in 1992. Based on the most recent inspections, 81% of all schools are outstanding or good. Since 2009-10, the proportion of schools rated less than good has decreased from 33% to 19%. As part of that process, the values of co-operative trust schools are ones that the Government share. They are good values. They were given a strong airing in our previous debate, and I would reiterate them all today, particularly the importance of shared responsibility for problems and designing solutions and of the people involved in a child’s learning having a real stake in that learning.

I am pleased to note the role of the co-operative movement as a sponsor of schools that require extra support and the increasing number of co-operative schools that are choosing academy status, thereby becoming co-operative academies. Collaboration is a defining feature of the academies programme as well. The formal partnership arrangements for academies and maintained schools provide a framework for joint working in which the lines of accountability remain clear. The co-operative trust model is one of many that facilitate effective partnership working. It is true that the education system is increasingly diverse, and we are seeing many models emerge, such as multi-academy trusts and teaching schools. That is helping to increase the choice for parents and the support for schools. Parents are clearly aware of the co-operative movement in the education system because more of their children are being taught within it. There is clearly value for communities across the country, including my own constituency, in having that model available for education provision.

The hon. Lady asked about amending the legislation on maintained nursery schools—an issue that goes back to the previous Government and the Education and Inspections Act 2006—and I know that she has some regret that the opportunity to resolve the matter was not taken up at that stage. I am sure that, beyond 7 May, she will continue to fight to allow a co-operative trust to support a maintained nursery school in much the same way as it can a maintained school. The Government have supported collaboration in such institutions, with the sector already benefiting from the freedom to create partnerships, should that be the choice. Maintained nursery schools can already work with other local partners and the wider community, and they can federate with other schools and early years providers. A wide range of providers facilitate the parental choice that we all hold dear. That comes with a high degree of autonomy. Similar to our position on schools, the Government require more evidence of educational gain if we are to expand provision into the nursery arena, and we must look more closely at the fact that only a small percentage of overall providers could do that.

[Meg Munn]

One thing that I struggle with is that the evidence base for free schools is nowhere near as robust as the evidence base for co-operative schools. For example, the excellence that has been achieved in a multi-school trust in Birmingham is there for all to see. Why is the Department so resistant to supporting co-operative schools as an alternative model?

[Mr Timpson]

We have, of course, seen co-operative free schools emerge as well. The free schools policy is benefiting the co-operative movement and helping to increase the diversity of choice for parents. There is no reluctance, and there is no attempt either to suppress or deny the expansion of any type of school. The issue is one of empowering parents to make the decision to expand provision if they feel that there are not enough good school places in their area. On Monday, I visited Cheadle Hulme primary school, a new free school that will be opening soon to meet the need in an area with mixed advantage but a particular lack of places. That is a good example of how the flexibility that we have provided to the education system is allowing parents, outstanding head teachers, charities, and others with an interest in boosting education throughout the country, the opportunity to do just that.

[Steve Baker]

The hon. Lady opened her speech with a clear summary of what the Prime Minister has said. As Conservatives, surely we should believe in a dynamic process of discovery. Although I admire my hon. Friend the Minister’s noble defence of the Government’s position, is it not time that we allowed some of these schools to expand at nursery level to discover whether they will succeed?

[Mr Timpson]

I applaud the passion displayed by my hon. Friend not only today but on many other occasions when he has advocated the co-operative movement, both at Cressex school in his constituency and elsewhere. He will appreciate that I am not the man with the manifesto in his hands, so I cannot give him any reliable information about what reassurance we might be able to provide in that document. Nevertheless, I hope that I am able to put across the fact that, in the expansion of co-operative schools that we are seeing—they are set to get into four figures by the end of next year—there has been no holding back of those who want to take that step. Ultimately, it should be for the individual school or community to make the choice that they feel best fits with the need in their local area. That is the right approach. Through the expansion of the academies programme, with more than 60% of secondary schools and 17%—and rising—of primary schools now having academy status, we have seen a real movement that helps to support and complement the co-operative movement in driving forward quality and higher standards in the education system.

[Meg Munn]

We could get to 5,000 co-operative schools in the next five years if we changed the law and made it easier. Why will the Government not sign up to give so many schools that opportunity?

[Mr Timpson]

No limit has been put on the expansion of co-operative schools under this Government; indeed, we have seen a huge rise. There is no cap and there has been no attempt to try to dilute that opportunity. With the hon. Lady’s huge influence in her party, I am sure that when she has some control over the manifesto that is being written, she will make co-operative schools a centrepiece of Labour’s offer. In saying that, I re-emphasise that the Government do hugely value the role of co-operative schools, but more importantly the people who work in them. They work extremely hard to ensure that children in their area get the best possible start in life. That should be the driving force for any of our efforts to support children into adulthood. I hope that we can do that in future.

Reserves held by Academies and Free Schools

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

There has been some recent interest in the level of cash reserves held by academies and free schools. The Government regard academies’ cash holdings as reasonable. Academies cannot borrow and need to hold enough cash to manage their solvency prudently.

In January 2015 I answered two parliamentary questions (219279 and 219280) relating to the cash reserves held by academies and free schools. I would like to use this opportunity to provide additional information for individual academies and free schools and to provide corrected figures for reserves held by academy and free school trusts.

Reserves held by academies

In answering parliamentary question 219279, I provided details of academy trusts’ cash holdings for the financial years 2010-11 to 2013-14. Academy trusts can of course include more than one academy, and on reflection it is more useful and relevant to provide figures covering all individual academies as follows:

Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

8. What assessment she has made of the potential benefits to pupils of the expansion of the Troops to Teachers programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

Service leavers have a wealth of skills and experiences that are transferable to classrooms, including teamwork, leadership—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is very discordant noise in the Chamber. A very respected Minister, Mr Timpson, is endeavouring to answer a question and I think pupils in the average classroom around the country would behave rather better. I remind the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), in all gentleness and charity, that he is something of an elder statesman in this House and we look to him to set an example to other colleagues.

[Mr Timpson]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Anyone would imagine that there is an election on the horizon.

There are 84 trainees on the Troops to Teachers scheme and the expansion of the programme allows even more talented service leavers to make an important contribution to our children’s education.

[Caroline Dinenage]

My Gosport constituency has very strong links to the armed forces, particularly in Navy engineering. Does my hon. Friend agree that schemes such as Troops for Training can only help to spread expertise to students in my area?

[Mr Timpson]

I absolutely agree. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently visited Bristol to see for herself the latest cohort being trained, and she was hugely impressed by both their calibre and their commitment. Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage), I strongly encourage schools in Gosport and elsewhere to contact the university of Brighton to secure a trainee for this September and benefit from the next tranche of Troops to Teachers.

[Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)]

10. What steps she is taking to encourage pupils to study modern languages.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

18. What progress has been made on attracting former members of the armed forces to become teachers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

There are currently two cohorts of former service leavers on the Troops to Teachers programme, totalling 84 trainees. The university of Brighton is proactively working with the Department for Education and the Ministry of Defence to promote the expansion of the scheme through a targeted marketing and recruitment campaign, including attendance at recruitment fairs and MOD resettlement centres, as well as promotion through a variety of online and other publications.

[Mr Hollobone]

Those who served in Her Majesty’s armed forces represent Britain at its very best. Getting these individuals into our schools needs to be a key priority for any Government. Can the Minister supercharge this policy and put rocket boosters under it so that many more troops are turned into teachers?

[Mr Timpson]

My hon. Friend’s long-standing support for this policy is extremely gratefully received. He will be pleased to hear there has been a huge interest in the latest cohort, which will take up its training in September this year. It is our intention to do what we can to expand the programme in the future for the very good reasons my hon. Friend has given.

[Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)]

20. If she will encourage and extend the use of the Teach First scheme.

Investigations into Allegations of Abuse in Children's Homes and Schools

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

This is a statement regarding investigations relating to Jimmy Savile and a number of children’s homes and schools in England.

On 27 March 2014 the then Education Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), informed the House about the transfer of information received by the Department for Education relating to Jimmy Savile and several children’s homes and schools in England, dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This information was passed to the appropriate organisations for further investigation.

I can today inform the House that investigations have been completed by the relevant local authority, institution or legacy organisation and their individual reports are being published today.

None of the investigations have been able to reach firm conclusions about whether the alleged abuse took place or not. Although many of them say the informant was credible, the lack of corroborating evidence has prevented them from reaching a definitive conclusion. The investigating organisations are publishing a report of their findings today and links to their individual websites where the reports can be found are included at the end of this statement.

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff was appointed to provide independent oversight and quality assurance of the process and she has now produced a report covering a total of 14 investigations. The report “Independent oversight of investigations into matters relating to Jimmy Savile at schools and children’s homes” has been published today and is available at: http://www.gov.uk

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff concluded in her report that:

All the investigations reviewed into matters relating to Jimmy Savile have been conducted in an appropriate and robust fashion and that the resulting reports should be published.

All the investigations found that policy and practice has developed significantly in the schools and children’s homes since the time of alleged incidents. This is not as a result of Savile’s activities but because of the greater awareness of safeguarding risks that has developed over the last few decades.

The risk of a paedophile having unrestricted access to children, as Savile apparently had, is now substantially reduced.

I would like to thank Lucy Scott-Moncrieff for her assurance that the investigations were conducted in an appropriate and robust fashion.

Child abuse is an abhorrent crime whenever it occurs and whoever the perpetrator. All victims have a right to expect that allegations of abuse, no matter how much time has passed, will be investigated professionally and appropriately. I would like to put on record my sincere thanks to all the victims, survivors and witnesses for their invaluable assistance that has required them to relive distressing events in their life. These investigations would not have been possible without their co-operation.

Links to relevant websites for access to investigation reports:

Action for Children at: http://www.actionforchildren.org. uk/savilereport

Banardo’s at: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/ jsinvestigationfinalreport.pdf

Bournemouth Borough Council at: www.bournemouth. gov.uk/yewtree

Devon County Council at: http://www.devon.gov.uk/js-colleton-lodge-report.pdf http://www.devon.gov.uk/childrenfamilies

Gloucestershire County Council at: www.gloucestershire. gov.uk/saville-investigation-report

Henshaws Society for blind people at: http://henshaws. org.uk/resources/for-professionals/operation-yewtree

Hounslow Council at: http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/report-on-investigation



Leeds City Council at: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/ opendata/Pages/Savile-investigation.aspx

London Borough of Tower Hamlets at: http://www. childrenandfamiliestrust.co.uk/the-lscb

Manchester City Council at: www.manchester.gov.uk/savilereport

Nottinghamshire County Council at: http://www. nottinghamshire.gov.uk/caring/childrenstrust/pathwav-to-provision/mash

Nottingham City Council at: http://www.nottinghamcity. gov.uk/29395

Sevenoaks School at: http://www.sevenoaksschool.org/press-gallery

Southwark Council at: www.southwark.gov.uk/ holliesreport

[HCWS305]

Young People in Care

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

I thank the Chairman of the Education Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), who secured this important debate. I also reiterate my gratitude to his Committee and its members for their continued interest in our collective efforts to improve the lives of children in and leaving care—a group of young people who are among the most vulnerable in our society and who have not always received the support that they need to overcome the difficulties they often face in making a successful transition to adulthood.

Before dealing with the specific points that have been raised by hon. Members in the Select Committee report and in the thoughtful contributions today, I will take a few moments to set out the wider work of the Government on our commitment to improve the lives of care leavers. As the Chairman of the Select Committee fairly set out, since 2010, we have put in place a series of measures that mean that young people who leave care receive more help than ever before. In 2013, we published the first cross-Government care leavers strategy, which illustrates the priority that the Government give to improving the lives of care leavers. It includes measures to improve care leavers’ access to education, training and employment; help to access appropriate benefits and health support; and extra support for care leavers who have unfortunately ended up in the criminal justice system. Many of those measures cut across departmental budgets.

The strategy was preceded by a number of important changes that were designed to improve the level of support that care leavers receive from their local council. We have made it clear in statutory guidance that all care leavers should receive support from a personal adviser up to the age of 21, or 25 if they are in education or returning to education, or if they have a desire to do so. We have introduced bursaries for those who are participating in further or higher education. We have pushed all local authorities to provide a setting up home allowance of at least £2,000. We have been responsible for the introduction of more than 54,000 junior individual savings accounts for children in care. We have made it easier for care leavers to access their social care records. I am pleased to report that the vast majority of local authorities have signed up to delivering the care leavers charter.

Since launching the care leavers strategy, we have continued to look at further ways to support care leavers. Most notably, we have introduced the “Staying Put” duty, which will allow thousands of children in foster placements to remain with their foster carers until the age of 21. We are providing local councils with more than £40 million over three years to implement the new duty. I will return to that later.

We have strengthened the Ofsted inspection framework so that it includes a specific judgment on the quality of care leavers’ services. As Ofsted told the Education Committee:

“The quality and suitability of accommodation for care leavers contributes significantly to the judgement that inspectors make on the experiences and outcomes of care leavers.”

As the hon. Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) said, care leavers often have difficulties accessing mental health support when they need it. We are determined to address that problem and have announced the creation of the children and young people’s mental health and well-being taskforce to consider what changes are needed to improve outcomes for children and young people with mental health difficulties. Crucially, that work will include a focus on the needs of vulnerable groups, including those who have been in the care system.

[Bill Esterson]

I know that the Minister is aware of the shortage of CAMHS workers. He will appreciate that unless that is addressed, it will be difficult for him to live up to what he has just pledged. What work is he doing with colleagues at the Department of Health to ensure that there is an increase in the number of staff who are available to deliver what he has promised?

[Mr Timpson]

As is often the case, the strange dissection of responsibilities across Government means that ministerial responsibility for CAMHS resides elsewhere in the Department, but the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Mr Gyimah) works directly with the Department of Health, through the taskforce, to look at what resources are required. In recent weeks, it has been announced that further money has been made available to improve the services that are available to children who have mental health problems.

Every party in the House recognises that the mental health services that are on offer to children, particularly those who are in care, on the edge of care or leaving care, are simply not good enough. That is why we need a fundamental review of how we commission, deliver and review the progress of children and young people who should have access to those services. We have made some significant changes to how we approach special educational needs—there is joint commissioning, and we are looking at a system that can be used from birth to 25—and we can learn a lot of lessons from that in how we deal with mental health services, particularly for children in care and care leavers.

As part of our commitment to improving services for care leavers, we have funded a number of projects designed to stimulate new and innovative approaches. For example, we have given funding to the Care Leavers Foundation to run the New Belongings project, in which care leavers play a central role by helping to identify barriers and find solutions to improve services in nine local authorities. I am pleased to tell the House that we will provide further funding to extend the New Belongings project. The second phase will be rolled out shortly and will involve embedding progress in those nine councils. It will also extend the project to more local authorities. We will also continue to fund the From Care2Work programme, which helps care leavers to get a foot in the door with some of our major employers, providing work experience, apprenticeships and employment opportunities. It is only right that we record the progress that has been made in recent years, but as the debate has shown, we clearly still have some way to go before every care leaver will be getting the support they need.

I turn to the specific issues that have been raised in the Education Committee report and by hon. Members today, beginning with the difficult but important issue of bed-and-breakfast accommodation. I agree with all Members, led by the Chair of the Education Committee, who have said that bed-and-breakfast accommodation is not suitable for care leavers. That is, of course, what the law says. However, as I said in our response to the Committee’s report, we do not think an outright ban is the right approach. We are not a lone voice—the chief social worker for children and families has said:

“A total ban on bed and breakfast restricts the ability of professionals to exercise their judgement in making best interest decisions about young people’s safety and welfare.”

The charity Catch22 has said:

“The reality is that there is a need for emergency, crash-pad accommodation for a very distressed young person who is in an urgent situation and needs accommodation. An outright ban could deny them access to much needed support in an emergency.”

That position is supported by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and by the Local Government Association. The Care Leavers Foundation has said that it

“reluctantly concedes that permitting use of B&B in emergency situations is probably a necessary caveat, as there may be circumstances where in the absence of a B&B option a care leaver could potentially be at risk of street homelessness or being warehoused in a hostel.”

As I indicated to the Education Committee, in light of those concerns we want to test further the practical implications for local authorities if a total ban were introduced. We have started that process and are continuing to talk to relevant parties such as the independent reviewing officers group, Barnardo’s, Catch22, the Care Leavers Foundation, homelessness charities and others to better understand the issue. I know that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) raised that point.

We know that there are some excellent examples, which hon. Members have noted today. The hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) mentioned Hartlepool and other parts of the north-east, and Wiltshire has also managed to find ways to provide suitable accommodation without needing to resort to bed and breakfast, so it can be done. I should add that the Department for Communities and Local Government has provided £1.9 million to support local authorities in developing sustainable solutions to stop the unlawful use of bed and breakfast for families and children. The seven funded councils have achieved and sustained a 96% reduction in the number of households with children in bed and breakfast for longer than six weeks.

[Alex Cunningham]

I do not want to tease the Minister, but if a large number of authorities across the country can achieve a 100% reduction, the best practice is out there and authorities know how it can be done. Is it not time just to say, “Do it”?

[Mr Timpson]

Of course we want every local authority to do it, and the more that we can help them achieve that the better, but we have to consider the practicalities of a ban, bearing in mind the mixed views about how it could be implemented and the emergency situations in which bed and breakfast might be required. We must also ensure that local authorities that are falling short understand how ending the use of bed and breakfast can be achieved, and that is one purpose of the innovation programme—to spread good practice so that places such as Wiltshire and Hartlepool do not hold a secret but can impart their knowledge successfully across the country.

I can confirm that, following the Committee’s report, we have further strengthened our statutory guidance to make it clear that for 16 and 17-year-olds emergency placements in B and B should be used only in exceptional circumstances and be limited to no more than two working days. I will write to all directors of children’s services shortly on a range of matters relating to children in care and care leavers, and I will bring to their attention in that correspondence the amended guidance on bed and breakfast. It may be a good opportunity to let them know about the good practice in other parts of the country.

On 31 March, we will receive data collected on the accommodation of 19, 20 and 21-year-olds and whether it was deemed suitable, including a breakdown on bed and breakfast. For the first time next year we will collect data on 17 and 18-year-olds too, and that will help us to establish the impact of the strengthened statutory guidance on bed and breakfast. I return to the arguments made by the chief social worker and the central premise that if we have a high-quality professional body making sound decisions and backed by tailored support, no care leaver need be put in unsuitable accommodation.

[Mr Graham Stuart]

The Minister said that data are collected on 19 and 20-year-olds and next year they will be collected on 17 and 18-year-olds. What is the situation for 16-year-olds?

[Mr Timpson]

I anticipated that I might be asked that question and, in his usual manner, the Chairman of the Committee has established my exact thoughts. I am told that, for technical reasons, we cannot collect data until after the age of 16 as young people are still in care before that point, but we intend to refine the data when we receive them to establish whether any 16-year-olds are in bed and breakfast. The data are collected on the young person’s birthday as opposed to at financial year end. They cannot be collected on their 16th birthday so we have to wait until their 17th birthday. We will look at how we can retrospectively analyse the data and establish how many 16-year-olds have been in bed-and-breakfast accommodation during that year. If we can refine the data in the future, we will look to do so.

Several hon. Members raised the issue of alternative accommodation. It is right that all forms of alternative accommodation—bed and breakfast, supported lodgings, foyers and so on—should provide care leavers with a safe and secure place to live. Clear legal duties require that children are placed only in accommodation that meets their needs. Ofsted, through its new single inspection framework, monitors local authorities’ performance in supporting care leavers in the round, including the quality of accommodation provided. Care leavers have access to a personal adviser who can advocate on their behalf and challenge decisions by the local authority if, for example, they believe that the accommodation provided is unsuitable.

We are considering whether further external oversight is needed of the decisions that local authorities make. I am not persuaded, having listened carefully to hon. Members, that we need to establish a new inspection regime in order to achieve our aims, and others share that view. The chief social worker, Isabelle Trowler, has said that regulating all alternative accommodation would severely limit placement choice and the ability of professionals to use their discretion. Social workers should be visiting placements on a regular basis to ensure that the accommodation remains suitable for the individual. Most critically, we already have checks and balances in place.

As I have said, Ofsted inspects the quality of support provided to care leavers as part of the single inspection framework, and independent reviewing officers consider the decisions made about a child and would, of course, be expected to raise any concerns about unsuitable accommodation placements. We need to trust and support professionals to make sound judgments in the best interests of the child, rather than creating further bureaucratic processes. Local areas already have a clear duty to ensure that children are placed only in accommodation that meets their needs and, as mentioned, we already have checks and balances in the system to ensure that the best interests of the child are met.

[Alex Cunningham]

The Minister will recollect the story that the Chair and I shared about the young woman in extremely unsuitable accommodation. She was there for some time, with men braying at the door trying to gain entry. If the current inspection regime is not stopping that sort of thing, what will the Minister do to ensure that it does not happen again in future?

[Mr Timpson]

Clearly the situation that the hon. Gentleman describes is totally unacceptable, and we would not wish it on any young person. The statutory guidance makes it clear what checks local authorities have to make before they commission any alternative accommodation place.

The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) referred to the view of Catch22 that any universal approach to regulation on quality assurance would face considerable challenges. It may also stifle the creativity and support arrangements needed to allow young people to practise their independence skills. Ofsted was not convinced that stronger regulation of a complex and varied sector would address the uneven quality of care and support for young children. I take very seriously the point raised by the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) about safety checks and ensuring that those charged with the care and protection of children and young children make every effort to place them where they are safe and secure. The DFE statutory guidance could not be clearer:

“Young people should only be placed in accommodation where they receive high quality support which meets the needs set out in their care plan. Where local authorities use unregulated supported accommodation for young people aged 16 and 17, they should ensure that all providers are vetted and approved to the standards they require.”

That is being achieved by local authorities such as Hertfordshire, which uses a clear framework of quality assurance to assess provision before placement.

I understand the desire of hon. Members to be confident that all possible avenues have been explored fully to help to improve placement decisions on alternative accommodation for care leavers, as well as the accountability and oversight surrounding those decisions. To that end, I intend to commission a piece of work in the Department to look carefully at other arrangements to establish in more detail the veracity and likely consequences of taking a different approach, as proposed by the Committee, together with other potential options.

“Staying Put” was mentioned by a number of hon. Members, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker). The “Staying Put” duty, which we introduced last year, is giving more young people the opportunity to remain in a stable and secure family setting beyond the age of 18. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak wanted to know how the implementation was going. I will happily write to him with the details, as time prevents me from going into detail at this stage.

Some Members would like to see the extension of the Staying Put principle to those in residential care settings. As they may be aware, we are continuing to work with the NCB, the Who Cares? Trust and others to explore how that might work, and providing funding from the innovation programme to test a model of “Staying Put” for those in residential care. That is with North Yorkshire county council, to the tune of £2 million, under its No Wrong Door project. That will work with about 700 young people and, importantly, ensure that if young care leavers up to the age of 21 need it, they will be able to use that intensive period of extra support through the hub linked to their independent living.

Early feedback from children in care suggests that, while the majority of young people in residential care would like to have some kind of “Staying Put” arrangement, a single model of “Staying Put” would not be suitable—a view I think endorsed by my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton). I will of course consider carefully the scoping study and its recommendations. I have only just received that advice and cannot comment further at this stage. We commissioned that important work and I look forward to considering it in the next few weeks.

I am aware that my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness will want to say a few words at the end of the debate, so in conclusion, I once again thank hon. Members for demonstrating that they, like me, care deeply about what happens to children who have been in the care of the state. It would be good if we could widen the field of Members at these debates beyond those present, so they too could demonstrate their commitment. The Government have worked hard to put children in care and care leavers at the heart of our efforts to improve the lives of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society. We have taken a series of important steps to achieve just that, but I accept there is still more to do. I, and the Government, remain fully committed to giving children in and leaving care the support and future they deserve.

Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

2. What steps her Department is taking to support grandparents and other kinship carers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

We know the vital role many thousands of grandparents and other kinship carers play in looking after children who cannot be cared for by their birth parents. In 2011, we issued statutory guidance, “Family and Friends Care”, making it clear that every council must develop a publicly available policy that sets out its approach to assessment and the support available for children living with family and friends. We also fund a dedicated helpline and the increased use of family group conferences.

[Mr Sharma]

Before I ask my supplementary question, let me say that in my normal voice I could have sung “Happy birthday”, but I nevertheless wish you many happy returns of the day, Mr Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his response. With research showing that more than 80% of grandparents who become carers would like to stay in some form of work, what plans do the Government have to assist kinship carers in this area?

[Mr Timpson]

The hon. Gentleman’s point is a very important one in the lives of many grandparents, and I have recently discussed this issue with family groups that represent grandparents to see what more we can do. They were fruitful discussions. This is an area we need to look at, and I will continue to work with them.

[John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) (Lab)]

Most grandparents who take on the formal responsibility of raising their grandkids just want to keep them in the family, but taking on full-time caring in their 50s or 60s can come at a high price, often without any proper recognition. Policy guidance is fine, but does the Minister agree that much of the same recognition and support that is available for foster carers and adopting parents really ought to be there for grandparents who take on this role?

[Mr Timpson]

I do agree that we need to ensure that where grandparents take on what is a huge responsibility, often through the kindness of their hearts—and which has a huge effect on their own lives—we should ensure that it has every chance of being a success, not just for them but, most importantly, for the children they are caring for. Whether it is to do with pay and conditions or more holistic support, we need to ensure that the whole-family approach, which the legislation we recently introduced tried to articulate and embed, has a chance to flourish more in future. I believe there is a recognition across the House that we need to do more.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

3. What recent representations she has received on the financial management of academies; and if she will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

6. What guidance her Department issues to schools, colleges and other educational institutions on identifying young carers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

Since 2011 we have worked with the Children’s Society and the Carers Trust to develop good practice materials for schools in order to increase teachers’ awareness of issues affecting young carers, including those relating to identification. In preparation for the introduction of the new young carers duty this April, we are planning to invite bids for the development of further materials to help school staff to understand and respond better to the needs of young carers.

[Mr Marsden]

We have a fantastic branch of the Carers Trust in Blackpool and Fylde. I have worked with the trust and seen its young carers project over the last eight years, and last year I saw an inspirational presentation by Lauren Codling, its young carers champion. Given that the trust has identified 450 young carers and the last Blackpool census revealed the existence of more than 1,000, the trust believes that a statutory duty is urgently required to help young carers, schools and colleges to do things that they could and should be doing. There are good links between our college and Blackpool council, but the carers group has spoken to Ofsted about inspections only once in the last eight years. Looked-after children benefit from a statutory duty; why should not young carers do so as well?

[Mr Timpson]

I am aware of the superb work that is done by the Blackpool carers centre in helping young carers, many of whom are coping with parents with addictions. The identification of those carers, and the support that we give them, are vital to ensuring that they have the childhood that they deserve, at the same time as taking on a role that is often beyond their years. That is why we have introduced the new duty, and why we are working closely with charities in Blackpool and in Cheshire East—where I have also met young carers—to ensure that they continue to receive the support that we need. However, when we inspect those services, we need to be confident that the outcomes for young carers are measured in a way that demonstrates that the duty that we have introduced is having a discernible effect, and we continue to pay attention to that.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

7. What response her Department has received to its advertisement for intervention experts to work with underperforming children’s services departments.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

We have received 26 bids. That is a good response to our call for experts to work with underperforming children’s services departments and help them to improve.

[Simon Danczuk]

As the Minister will know, there is concern about a number of organisations that have failed to deal with child abuse allegations. I am sure the whole House agrees that no one who has been implicated in the ignoring or covering up of abuse should be appointed under this particular scheme. Will the Minister assure us that there will be a proper vetting process to prevent that from happening?

[Mr Timpson]

I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and the whole purpose of trying to bring additional expertise into children’s services is that we know that, sadly, there are still too many parts of the country where children are not being served adequately by those who are meant to be there to protect them. We want to encompass the whole range of expertise that is available in order to tackle that issue, but of course we need stringent checks in place to make sure that no one involved in such advisory roles has been doing what he describes, and I will happily write to him with further details of how we are ensuring that that is the case.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

On 27 October at Education questions I asked the Minister for a rigorous evaluation of the Department’s various experiments in the provision and management of children’s services. The Minister denied he was experimenting and said he was engaged in a series of “carefully thought out” improvement measures. Strangely enough, he failed to mention improvement experts, so when did the need to appoint external improvement experts by tender become Government policy, how many experts does he estimate he will need, what will they cost, and who will evaluate whether this experiment is value for money or just another step down the slippery slope of commercialising services and commoditising children?

[Mr Timpson]

I am tempted not to give a response at all, Mr Speaker, and I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman has been tempted down that line of questioning. He knows full well that our intervention, whether in Birmingham, Doncaster or any other local authority, has had a positive effect: 29 of those local authorities where we have had direct intervention since 2010 have come out of that process. However, we need to make sure that where there is ingrained failure in children’s services we do all we can to bring those services up to scratch, and I am not going to shy away from making decisions that ensure children across this country have better services, better protection and better lives.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

8. What assessment she has made of the effect of recent changes in child care costs on the affordability of nursery care for families on low and medium incomes.

Deaf Students (Educational Achievement)

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Alison Seabeck)on securing this very important debate. I want to take the opportunity to thank her not only for her personal insight into deafness, but for the work she has undertaken in her local area to support parents and carers of children with disability through the Make a Difference Plymouth parent support group. As she said, through her role as president of the Plymouth YMCA, she was instrumental in helping Yvette Beer and the Plymouth Deaf Children’s Society to secure new premises, which I understand she opened in December. One of the principal reasons for being so encouraged by hearing about such initiatives is that they are very much in the spirit of the special educational needs and disability reforms that came into force last September. I am sure I speak for the whole House when I express my appreciation to her for all she is doing to improve support for deaf children in her constituency.

As ever, I will do my best in the time available to respond to the points made by the hon. Lady, but if I run out of time, I will as usual write to her to pick up any outstanding issues.

The Children and Families Act 2014 sets out a range of measures to reform the special educational needs system so that it extends from birth to 25, giving children, young people and their parents greater control and choice in decisions about their support and ensuring that their needs are properly met. The reforms drew support from all parties and should work to the benefit of all children and young people, regardless of the type of need or impairment.

In addition, under the Equalities Act 2010, schools and other education providers must make reasonable adjustments for disabled children and young people to help alleviate any substantial disadvantage they experience because of their disability, and they must not discriminate against them. If children and young people need special educational provision or specialist services, the duties on schools, local authorities and others in relation to special educational needs then come into play. That ensures that strong legal protections and safeguards are in place.

To support deaf children in particular, the Department is funding many voluntary organisations to enable local areas to benchmark the support that they provide to them, and to access many of the tools and pieces of information on the most effective approaches. Much of the good practice that we know exists can then be used by many more people. We are keen to build on our understanding of the evidence about what works, and we will continue to work with organisations with expertise in this particular area. Our national voluntary and community sector grants programme is an important opportunity for us to continue to support good proposals. From my own involvement with charities supporting deaf people—including Signature, whose conference I spoke at in 2013—I know that there is a huge amount of knowledge and understanding that we can help to harness and bring to bear. We have provided £1.1 million to the National Sensory Impairment Partnership to carry out a benchmarking exercise and develop an outcomes framework for local authorities to assess how well they are supporting deaf pupils.

[Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD)]

On that note, does the Minister agree that it is terribly important for deaf children that the local authority is flexible? My constituent has a young son who is within a few days of the switchover and being enrolled in a school for this September. He is profoundly deaf with cochlear implants. The local authority says that he must join that school, but I think it should be flexible. Does the Minister agree that local authorities must be flexible to ensure the best outcomes for deaf children?

[Mr Timpson]

My hon. Friend will appreciate that I do not know the details of that case and it would be wrong for me to comment on it, but the whole thrust of our reforms to the special educational needs system is to ensure that it focuses relentlessly on the individual needs of each child, and on the support that they and their family need, in order for the child to reach their academic potential. We must have high aspirations and remove any barriers that prevent them from reaching their goal, and I expect that to happen in every local authority, irrespective of where it is.

The Government have funded the production of an early support guide for parents of deaf children, and the I-Sign project to develop a family sign language programme is available from the National Deaf Children’s Society. That is particularly important in the first few years when children are learning to communicate, especially for 90% of deaf children who are born to hearing parents.

The most important service for all children and young people is high-quality teaching—the hon. Lady touched on that. We have set clear guidance in the new code of practice on the process for identifying and assessing children’s special educational needs, putting support in place, monitoring the progress made by each child, and securing further support where necessary. Narrowing the gap between deaf children and their peers is a key barometer for whether deaf children are getting access to high-quality teaching. Although we must endeavour to make further progress in that area, we should also recognise the enormous improvements that have been made.

More deaf children are leaving school with good GCSEs, and we want them to aspire to reach their full potential. In 2012-13—the latest year for which data are available—73.5% of deaf children achieved five or more A to C grades in GCSE, compared with 50% in 2008-09. For pupils without SEN, those figures were 89% and 80% respectively. Over that period, deaf pupils progressed at approximately twice the rate of their peers. The attainment gap has closed significantly, and that must be a testament to the hard work of pupils themselves, as well as to the work of sensory support services across the country. I hear what the hon. Lady says about recent figures from her constituency, and that is disappointing when so much progress has been made. However, I hope that with our reforms and the renewed appetite to ensure that health care, social care and education work more closely around a family, those improvements will come back on track.

Improvements in teaching practice and technological advances mean that deaf children are now far more likely to achieve their full potential than they were five years ago, and we want that progress to continue. We are working to improve the training of teachers and school leaders to help them identify where pupils with hearing loss face barriers to learning, and offer appropriate support. The hon. Lady rightly asked how we are seeking to do that. Through the national scholarship fund, teachers and support staff can apply for funding to undertake high-level qualifications to improve their knowledge and enhance their ability to support the teaching and learning of pupils with SEN and disabilities. Importantly, that fund can be used for qualifications relating to sensory impairment, and more than 1,300 staff have gained such qualifications since 2010.

In April 2014, the National College for Teaching and Leadership launched a new funding round with up to £1 million to support up to 50% of course fees for qualified teachers and SEN support staff, and 648 awards were offered from last September. We need to ensure we have provision to meet demand, and that is an area we need to continue to keep our attention on.

The hon. Lady asked a specific question about the issuing of hearing aids. She acknowledged and appreciates that that falls within the remit of another ministerial portfolio, but I understand that the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison) addressed this issue in a previous debate and that Health Ministers are handling and monitoring the matter closely. I will of course re-emphasise the concerns the hon. Lady has expressed this evening to my colleagues in the Department of Health. Every intervention by health professionals should be based on clinical need and the legislation is clear that reasonable adjustments legislation applies to all young people.

On funding, it is for local authorities to decide which SEN services to provide for children and young people, including services for deaf children and how much to spend on them based on the duties we have placed on them in the new Children and Families Act 2014 and the accompanying code of practice. The services typically provided by local authorities, either directly or by commissioning others in the public or the private sector, include: services for visual, hearing and physical impairment; specific learning difficulties; speech, language and communication; profound and severe learning difficulties; and autism.

Councils are reporting that they are spending no less this year on their SEN services than they spent last year. Through their local funding formula, they also include a clear amount of funding intended to meet the needs of pupils with additional needs. The majority of children who are deaf and have a hearing impairment fall outside the category of educational health and care assessments. They will benefit from that funding through the delegated schools budgets, which have been protected. Special schools and other schools with special units often use their budgets to develop particular specialist services, including those for pupils with hearing impairment. Where necessary, schools receive extra top-up funding from the local authority for the additional support costs for pupils with the highest needs. We are committed to making sure that the requirements of children with special educational needs are met, and we have been clear to local authorities that they should prioritise vital front-line services to vulnerable children.

Nationally, more than £5 billion is being made available to councils for children and young people with special educational needs, disabilities and other high needs, as part of their dedicated schools grant. Allocations for the year beginning April 2015, notified to local authorities in December, indicated that more than £50 million more was being allocated to local authorities in the high needs element of their grant. The hon. Lady may wish to know that Devon’s dedicated school grant is increasing by more than £16 million next year and that the high needs element of its grant, which this year amounts to £59.6 million, is increasing by £0.2 million.

Just as important is how that money is spent—the way we measure improvement and outcomes for children and how we hold services to account for the quality of service they provide. Most deaf children attend mainstream schools, some of which have additional specialist units offering support on site. Assessments on how well schools perform will be made as part of Ofsted’s school inspection regime. The Ofsted inspection framework places a clear emphasis on meeting the needs of disabled pupils and pupils with SEN, and on considering the quality of teaching and the progress made by those pupils. Where a school has a specialist resource for deaf children, or for other forms of SEN, it is specifically covered by the inspection report.

One of the central tenets of the SEN reforms is to provide clear opportunities for families to influence and shape the development of local services, and to maintain legal rights to challenge individual decisions at the first-tier tribunal for SEN and disability. Last year, I asked Ofsted to carry out a study of local authorities’ planning in preparation for implementation of the special educational needs reforms, and to advise me on whether there was a need for an inspection framework to drive improvements. Ofsted’s findings and key recommendations were published in December. I have invited Ofsted formally to inspect local areas on their effectiveness in fulfilling their duties.

The hon. Lady talked about the key role of health in delivering support for deaf children. Ofsted will inspect along with the Care Quality Commission, and inspections will also involve a local authority officer. Inspections will form part of a wider accountability framework we are putting in place that has strong local accountability at its heart and which should provide assurance to families. Ofsted is now working up the details of the new arrangements, after which I hope to be in a position to provide further details.

With a significant number of children in England having been identified as having a hearing impairment and requiring extra support, it is imperative we ensure that they all benefit from the new SEN reforms. Not only do the SEN and disability reforms in the Children and Families Act provide legal protections, but they establish a better system for identifying needs and commissioning services across education, health and social care. The hon. Lady rightly spoke about the need to improve identification at the earliest opportunity so that the best support can be put in place to ensure that progress is made as soon as possible and that we do not delay ensuring that every child progresses, not just in their education but in the other development goals we know they are capable of.

The reforms should help ensure that services are responsive to local needs and that families do not feel they have to battle to find out what support is available or to access services. The evidence from the pathfinder areas and the early implementation of the reforms indicates that many parents are starting to see a different approach from the different agencies involved with them and their child. The new education and health and care plan will clearly set out in one place all the support across services that a child will receive, and crucially will focus on the outcomes, in education, work and other areas, that the child and their family want to achieve now and in the future.

This has been a thought-provoking debate, and I am sorry that we do not have more time to elucidate many of the important matters the hon. Lady has raised, but I again thank her for bringing this matter to the House and raising awareness of the importance of ensuring that all deaf children are given the best possible chance of succeeding, both educationally and more widely in their lives, as they move into adulthood. Our SEN reforms will help to deliver that well placed aspiration, and I look forward to continuing to work with her and the professionals who work day in, day out to provide the best possible support to help achieve the goals we have set, not just for ourselves, but more importantly for the children we are all there for.