Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of piloting reforms to children’s social care in 12 areas on the recruitment and retention of social workers in neighbouring authorities.

The department is currently designing the programme specifications for our Pathfinders.

• The Families First for Children Pathfinder will involve up to 12 local areas
• Pilots testing Family Network Support Packages will take place in seven local areas starting from summer 2023
• The Regional Care Cooperative Pathfinder will take place in two local areas from spring 2024.

The department will take learnings from other local initiatives, including those funded through our Children’s Social Care Innovation programme, to minimise impact on neighbouring authorities.

The department’s reforms across all local authorities over the next two years will aim to boost social worker supply, encourage social workers to stay in practice for longer and make sure they feel valued. We are investing more that £50 million every year over this Spending Review period to recruit, train and develop child and family social workers.