Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of reductions in the number of social workers on (a) children at risk, (b) disabled children and (c) carers.

According to information supplied to the department by local councils, the number of child and family social workers has not decreased and therefore no such assessments have been made. Information on the number of children’s social workers in local councils in England has been collected as at 30 September each year since 2013. The most recent data as at 30 September 2016 was published by the department on 16 February 2017 and is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-childrens-social-care-workforce.