Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she will select which local authorities host pilots for her proposed reforms to children's social care.

The department is taking a ‘test and learn’ approach with our Pathfinder programmes covering the most complex areas of reform. This is to understand how to scale reforms effectively and ensure it continues to meet our vision for the system.

The local areas selected to engage in our first Pathfinders will play a valuable role in informing how the department implements reforms and take an active part in designing how we deliver new policy. Pathfinder areas will have a broad range of characteristics so the department observes how to best implement reforms across the country.

The department is aware that we must balance the need for selected areas to have the capacity and willingness to deliver reform at pace, with openness and fairness. We will publish further details in due course.