Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Final Report of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, published on 23 May 2022, whether his Department plans to undertake work on the intersection between (a) poverty and deprivation and (b) children’s social care; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle the factors that cause children to require engagement with children’s social care.

The government will closely consider the recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s final report, alongside those from the National Panel Review into the tragic deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson and the Competition and Markets Authority’s study into children’s social care placements.

The department will consider all available evidence. This will include our ‘Drivers of activity in children’s social care’ research report, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drivers-of-activity-in-childrens-social-care, which examines factors associated with children’s engagement with children’s social care, including family income.