Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of the £300 million Start for Life funding announced in the Spending Review 2021 will be ringfenced when it reaches local authorities.
Answered by Will Quince
The £300 million investment announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will transform services for parents, carers, babies and children in half of council areas across England.
This package of support will provide funding for: the creation of a network of family hubs (£82 million), selected local authorities to co-design their Start for Life offer with parents and carers and publish it in an accessible format (£10 million), infant and perinatal mental health support (£100 million), breastfeeding support (£50 million) and parenting programmes (£50 million) in 75 areas. Trials of innovative workforce models for health visitors will also be funded in a smaller number of council areas to test approaches to improve the support available to new parents.
The Budget set out the 2024-25 financial year profile as follows: £18 million to create a network of family hubs to improve access to services for families; £20 million for parenting support; and £66 million for the Start for Life offer for families, including breastfeeding advice and parent-infant mental health support. The Budget is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents. Further information on funding profiles will be published in due course.
The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will work together to deliver this. The Department for Education will oversee the family hubs and parenting programmes, with DHSC overseeing the other components of the package.
We will set out more detail in due course on how this funding will be allocated.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish details of (a) how the £300 million Start for Life funding, announced in the Spending Review 2021, will be distributed between Departments and (b) the allocation of that funding over the three years of the Spending Review period.
Answered by Will Quince
The £300 million investment announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will transform services for parents, carers, babies and children in half of council areas across England.
This package of support will provide funding for: the creation of a network of family hubs (£82 million), selected local authorities to co-design their Start for Life offer with parents and carers and publish it in an accessible format (£10 million), infant and perinatal mental health support (£100 million), breastfeeding support (£50 million) and parenting programmes (£50 million) in 75 areas. Trials of innovative workforce models for health visitors will also be funded in a smaller number of council areas to test approaches to improve the support available to new parents.
The Budget set out the 2024-25 financial year profile as follows: £18 million to create a network of family hubs to improve access to services for families; £20 million for parenting support; and £66 million for the Start for Life offer for families, including breastfeeding advice and parent-infant mental health support. The Budget is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents. Further information on funding profiles will be published in due course.
The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will work together to deliver this. The Department for Education will oversee the family hubs and parenting programmes, with DHSC overseeing the other components of the package.
We will set out more detail in due course on how this funding will be allocated.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the (a) Family Nurse Partnership, (b) Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home‐visiting program and (c) other programmes delivered by health visiting services or family nurses can be included in the programmes funded from the £50 million for parenting programmes announced in the Spending Review 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The government has announced a £300 million package to transform services for parents and babies, carers and children in half of local authorities in England, helping to deliver our levelling up ambitions. £50 million will be available for parenting support. The department will set out more detail in due course, including on which parenting programmes will be available in the selected local authorities.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to Equaliteach in each of the last five years; and for what projects that funding has been allocated.
Answered by Will Quince
During Anti-Bullying Week, the department announced funding to five leading organisations, including EqualiTeach, to deliver new anti-bullying projects which are aimed at preventing and tackling bullying of all children and young people, including those with protected characteristics. EqualiTeach has been offered £163,765.54 grant funding for the period from 10 August 2021 to 31 March 2022.
In addition to this, across financial years 2016-2020 the Government Equalities Office (then part of the Department for Education) provided £105,016.00 to Equaliteach as part of the 2019-20 extension of the anti-homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (anti-HBT) bullying programme. Further details can be found here: https://equaliteach.co.uk/equaliteach-statement-on-geo-and-free-to-be/.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2021 to Question 61056 on Department for Education: Stonewall, if he will make an assessment of the consistency of the funding from his Department recorded in Stonewall’s Trustees' Report And Financial Statements and that Answer.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The contents of the Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements of Stonewall are a matter for the Trustees of Stonewall and its appointed auditors.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of social outcomes partnerships to support looked-after children.
Answered by Will Quince
At present, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has no plans to expand the future use of Social Outcome Partnerships/Social Impact Bonds within the context of children who are Looked After.
The department has previously engaged with the model in 2018, as part of the government’s commitment to supporting care leavers to live independent lives. The department has commissioned three projects, as part of the Care Leavers Social Impact Bond programme, to deliver support to care leavers, aged 16-25. These projects are yet to receive a full evaluation.
In May 2021 a summary report was published by the department, which documents current experience with Social Outcome Partnerships/Social Impact Bonds: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1003308/CSC_Summary_report_20210629_TH.pdf.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has for the future use of social outcomes partnerships in supporting looked-after children.
Answered by Will Quince
At present, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has no plans to expand the future use of Social Outcome Partnerships/Social Impact Bonds within the context of children who are Looked After.
The department has previously engaged with the model in 2018, as part of the government’s commitment to supporting care leavers to live independent lives. The department has commissioned three projects, as part of the Care Leavers Social Impact Bond programme, to deliver support to care leavers, aged 16-25. These projects are yet to receive a full evaluation.
In May 2021 a summary report was published by the department, which documents current experience with Social Outcome Partnerships/Social Impact Bonds: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1003308/CSC_Summary_report_20210629_TH.pdf.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to Stonewall in each of the last five years; and for what projects.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Please find attached an Excel file summarising payments that the Department for Education has made to Stonewall. The data has been provided on a financial year basis and covers 2017-18 through to 2020-21. The majority of the spend incurred was not by the Department for Education, but instead the Government Equalities Office.
Expenditure data for the 2016-17 financial year is subject to an ongoing data migration process from a previous service provider and is therefore not accessible at this time.
The Department for Education has an internal five year Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to create a department where everyone is able to bring their whole self to work and where honesty, challenge and innovation are encouraged and valued. By forming these relationships and spending, the department is helping to create an environment where all staff, regardless of their protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 (including but not limited to sexual orientation or gender identity), are supported and do not face discrimination, and supports the department to fulfil its requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) properties classified as heritage assets by his Department, (b) most recent estimate of the value of those properties and (c) annual income derived from those properties.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not have properties classified as heritage assets.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many adoptions have taken place in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not hold information on the number of all children in England who are adopted. However, we hold information on children who have been adopted from care.
The latest information on children looked after in England is contained in the ‘Children looked after in England’ statistical release, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.
Figures for the numbers of children looked after who were adopted are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/bc87ab18-fc58-4c83-a12b-f65dbedbba9b.