Children: Social Services

(asked on 12th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities' children’s services departments are now (a) independent trusts and (b) community interest companies; and what the associated costs were of setting up each of those trusts and companies.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 17th January 2018

There are currently two independent trusts established with support from this department: the Doncaster Children’s Service Trust (established in October 2014) and Slough Children’s Services Trust (established in September 2015). The department paid £2.9 million and £3.3 million towards set up costs for Doncaster and Slough respectively.

Sunderland County Council established a community interest company, Together for Children, in April 2017. The department’s contribution to the set up costs for this company was £2.5 million.

‘Achieving for Children’ (AfC) is also a community interest company that was established in 2014 to provide services for Richmond and Kingston. It was established independently from the department and we did not contribute to its set up. AfC receive money through the Partners In Practice programme and has recently expanded into a third local authority (Windsor and Maidenhead).

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