Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the long-term value of innovation projects in respect of local authority children's services departments.

The Department for Education is evaluating the impact and long-term value of the £200 million Innovation Programme.

In February this year, we published the evidence we have to date announcing the seven key features of practice and seven outcomes that emerged as the strongest features from the evaluation of Round One. Our assessment to date shows that these seven features of practice and outcomes are those which, when implemented effectively, can support and drive real change for children’s social care. They can be viewed at the following link: http://innovationcsc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/3.-Seven-features-of-practice-and-seven-outcomes.pdf.

We are continuing to test the impact of these seven features of practice and outcomes with projects in Rounds Two and Three through a robust independent evaluation. We are also supporting other children’s services departments to scale and spread the learning we have to date. For example; Hertfordshire’s successful ‘’Family Safeguarding’ project is extending their model to Luton, Peterborough, Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire in Round Two.