Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the correlation between deprivation and demand for children’s services.

Demand for children’s services is associated with a number of factors including deprivation. The most deprived local authorities have more looked-after children (per 10,000 0-17 year olds) and these rates have grown faster than the least deprived local authorities. In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.

We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the government’s review of relative needs and resources, where new, up-to-date formulae are being developed to ensure funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence.

We welcome the contributions from the sector in this area including Newton Europe’s ‘Making sense’ (2018) report and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services continuing research reports, ‘Safeguarding pressures’ (2018).