Children: Social Services

(asked on 4th November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on the delivery of children's services by local authorities who have been exempted from children's social care legislation for six years once those six years have passed.


Answered by
Edward Timpson Portrait
Edward Timpson
This question was answered on 14th November 2016

Clause 30 of the Children and Social Work Bill specifies that a trial can last a maximum of three years and can be extended only once, by a further three years, subject to a report being laid in Parliament. It would therefore not be possible for a trial to be extended beyond six years in total.

The monitoring arrangements of each individual trial will be agreed as part of the application process. The Government has tabled an amendment at report stage to specify that before laying regulations the Secretary of State must ask for the advice of the expert panel on the proposed monitoring arrangements and this advice will be published. Anyone who has concerns about the welfare of children during a trial can notify the Department and action would immediately be taken to investigate this. If evidence arose that children were being adversely affected as the result of a trial, the Department will act swiftly to revoke the exemption – this would be done through the negative resolution procedure.

Reticulating Splines