Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on devising a loneliness policy test to embed consideration of loneliness and relationships throughout the policy-making process as set out in the Government's tackling loneliness strategy published in 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department remains committed to increasing awareness and embedding consideration for loneliness as part of the policy making process. Departments with commitments in the 2018 strategy, ‘A Connected Society: a strategy for tackling loneliness’, are required to include loneliness in their Single Departmental Plans. The Department for Work and Pension’s Family Test guidance will be updated in 2019 to include loneliness. The Government’s annual progress report on loneliness is due at the end of 2019.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 April 2019 to Question 241433, whether he plans to estimate the remaining dormant assets with the potential to be made available for the civil society sector.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since the Dormant Assets Commission reported on the feasibility of expanding the dormant assets scheme in 2017, industry has been leading the preparations for scheme expansion. In their April 2019 report, industry leaders identified quantifying dormancy as an action for sectors.
Participation in the dormant assets scheme is and will remain voluntary. While HMT and DCMS will continue to play a supporting and convening role, the success of the scheme depends on firms’ commitment to channelling dormant assets to good causes.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he has made an estimate of funds that will be made available to the civil society sector under the Dormant Assets Scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The dormant assets scheme has already distributed over £600m for the benefit of good causes. The Dormant Assets Commission, which reported on the feasibility of expanding the scheme in 2017, estimated that there may be up to £2bn of additional dormant assets that could be transferred into the scheme. This could significantly increase the quantity of funds available for good causes across the country.
Building on the work of the Commission, and supported by HMT and DCMS, four senior industry leaders published a blueprint in April 2019 for broadening the scheme to include assets from the insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors. Quantifying dormancy was not within the scope of this work.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential link between loneliness and levels of well-being among young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for National Statistics report on ‘Children’s and young people’s experiences of loneliness’, published in December 2018, found evidence that children who reported “low” satisfaction with their health said they “often” felt lonely. This study also reported qualitative evidence of the impact of mental ill health on loneliness and individuals ability to overcome loneliness.
ONS’s study also found that young people who reported low life satisfaction, happiness and worthwhile scores and high anxiety scores were more likely to report higher levels of loneliness.
The Children’s Society has found strong links between loneliness and well-being. Their recently published report also found that relationships are the most important factor in children’s well-being.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to tackle loneliness among young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jointly with the Co-op Foundation, the Government has invested £3.5m in projects tackling youth loneliness in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
In addition a number of new policies related to loneliness amongst young people were announced in last year’s strategy, ‘A connected society - A strategy for tackling loneliness’, including DCMS allocating £100,000 for research to improve understanding of how to address youth loneliness through uniformed youth groups’ work and the Department for Education’s new relationships education guidance featuring loneliness and social connections.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of levels of loneliness among young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As announced in last year’s loneliness strategy, ‘A connected society - A strategy for tackling loneliness’, and in addition to DCMS’s annual Community Life Survey, the ONS has undertaken further research on childhood loneliness.
The Community Life Survey results for 2017-18, first published in July 2018, showed that 16-34 year olds were more likely to report feeling often or always lonely than those aged over 50. This survey showed that 8% of 16 to 24 year olds feel often or always lonely. In 2018, the Children’s Society found that 11% of 10-15 year olds feel ‘often’ lonely. The ONS published another report on childhood loneliness on the 3rd April this year.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 45 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy, published in August 2018, what steps his Department has taken to establish a national Young Commissioners and Inspectors Group to involve young people directly and meaningfully in the commissioning, monitoring and evaluation of national programmes affecting young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 27th February 2019, DCMS launched three new youth voice projects, including a Young Commissioners and Inspectors Group, a Civil Society Youth Steering Group and a digital youth engagement research project. Through these projects, the department is enabling effective youth participation in national policy making and pioneering approaches which can be adopted across government. The projects are being delivered by a consortium of youth organisations led by the British Youth Council and will run as pilots until March 2020.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2019 to Question 233511 on Citizens' Juries, what the timeframe is for the announcement of the successful pilot locations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Innovation in Democracy Programme is a key part of the Civil Society Strategy announced last year. The successful locations will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 100 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy, published in August 2018, what steps his Department has undertaken to work with civil society partners, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Communities Partnership Board, to explore ways of raising awareness and enabling use of the community shares model in options to encourage community ownership of assets and within onward devolution approaches.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. As stated in the Strategy, community shares is a sustainable social investment model that empowers communities by giving members – as part-owners – a direct say in the success of an enterprise, encouraging them to play an active part in its future.
As part of developing a MHCLG Communities Framework, building on the work of the Civil Society Strategy, we are engaging with sector partners, to explore future options to ensure we create socially and economically strong communities, where community shares and community assets play a central role in supporting communities deliver their priorities. As part of the Government’s commitment to understanding what models of funding will best sustain the community ownership of assets, MHCLG are currently working with Power to Change on a jointly funded programme of research which will undertake a detailed economic assessment of assets in community ownership. The research which will be published in summer 2019 will inform a wide range of audiences including the voluntary and community sector, local government, funders and the emergent community business sector on effective approaches to supporting the community ownership of assets.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 52 of the August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to explore with the National Association of Local Councils and others the option for local charters between a principal council, local councils and community groups setting out respective responsibilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. As stated in the Strategy, the government wishes to devolve more power to community groups and parishes. Onward devolution provides an opportunity for communities to help shape, and in some cases manage, public services in the places where they live. Communities themselves are often better placed than central or local government to identify the real issues they face, provided they are informed, equipped and trusted to do so. In development of its Communities Framework, which builds on the work of the Civil Society Strategy, MHCLG continues to work with sector partners to consider how we can support local councils and their partners in the design and delivery of services to create socially and economically strong places where community voices are heard. We are working to ensure that models of good community decision making are included in the Communities Framework.