Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to mitigate staff shortages in (a) children’s homes and (b) urgent children’s care services as a result of covid-19.

Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for the government. Local authorities have the key day-to-day responsibility for delivery of children’s social care and we are working closely with them to ensure stability of services for our most vulnerable children.

£1.6 billion of additional funding is being provided to support local authorities address any pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including in providing children’s social care.

We recognise the extraordinary pressures on staffing across children’s homes and the difficult decisions providers are making to keep homes operating safely. We understand children’s homes are working closely with their local authorities on continuity plans for staff shortages at a local level and we are working closely with representative bodies to understand and monitor pressures, considering what further support we can provide.

In regards to social work, through the Coronavirus Act, we have taken powers to bring previously registered social workers onto the register of social workers held by the regulator, Social Work England, and have launched ‘Social Work Together’ to allow social workers to register their interest in returning to practice and to match them with employers. We are also looking to give local authorities additional flexibilities to meet the challenges of dealing with coronavirus.

The latest guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services.