Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 27 of the Social Mobility Commission's report, Time for Change: an assessment of government policies on social mobility 1997-2017, published on 28 June 2017, what assessment she has made of the effect of the level of resources available to local authorities on their allocation of funding to parenting programmes.

Funding for children’s services, which may include parenting programmes and support, is non-ring-fenced and part of the wider local government finance settlement to give local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally determined priorities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend this and other sources of income on the services they provide. They do so taking account local need, priorities, and of course their statutory responsibilities.