Mothers: Childcare

(asked on 2nd February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of potential impact of a mother and baby care arrangement on supporting a mother in the raising of their baby or child.


Answered by
Claire Coutinho Portrait
Claire Coutinho
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
This question was answered on 10th February 2023

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 is clear that local authorities have a duty to provide services to children in need in their area. Where appropriate, this could include support for mothers who need help raising their babies.

Where there are concerns about the safety of a child, statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018) clarifies local authorities’ responsibilities for leading the assessments of children in need and making child protection enquiries. It sets out that local authorities, with their partners, should develop and publish local protocols for assessment.

Wherever possible, social workers will ensure that babies remain with their birth parents in residential family centres and supported environments, unless there is a safeguarding risk to either mother or child. Where a safeguarding concern exists and a local authority determines that a child is at risk of harm from its parent, it may take the action to remove the child.

On 2 February 2023 the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, a strategy for ambitious reform to transform children’s social care. We will invest £200 million to address those issues facing children and families, laying the foundations for whole system reform to provide more and better support to families.

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