Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Transformation to children's social care to put families first, published 26 July 2023, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of piloting the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

The Stable Homes, Built on Love Strategy for Children’s Social Care, which was the Government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, announced an additional £200 million for system transformation until 2024/25.

The initial £200 million investment supported the urgent first phase of reform, testing and learning which interventions work, and this included a number of pathfinders covering the Families First for Children pathfinder, fostering and regional care co-operatives.

Longer term funding decisions to scale up these reforms will be made in subsequent Spending Review periods.