Written question asked by John Bercow (Conservative) on Wednesday, 15 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 February 2006. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 March 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Safeguarding Children's Boards

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many local safeguarding children's boards have been set up.

Answer: The most recent data comes from DfES investigations in October 2005 to find out how local areas were putting in place the various reforms in the Government's Every Child Matters programme. 26 Local Safeguarding Children Boards had been established at that point while in a further 94 local areas, transition arrangements to move from Area Child Protection Committees to Local Safeguarding Children Boards by the deadline of 1 April 2006 had been agreed by the Local Authority. Based on these figures and informal contacts with local authorities we expect all English local authorities to have LSCBs in place by 1 April 2006.

Secondary information