Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Baroness Teather (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Thursday, 28 June 2007 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Looked-after Children

Question: Further to the answer that the Secretary of State gave a moment ago to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) about kinship carers, when the Green Paper was published, the Secretary of State suggested that he would be examining improving the allowances and support for such carers. However, although the White Paper acknowledges the financial pressures on grandparents, especially, it is rather vague about giving a commitment to improving allowances and on any specifics of the support that he would recommend. Is he still committed to improving that package and, if so, how will he do that?

Answer: Yes, I am. I am sorry that that is a bit vague in the White Paper. I hope that it will become clearer as we take the policy through because it is important. Grandparents, in particular, have a huge role to play. As, thankfully, people are healthier and living longer, there is a question of how we can use grandparents to greater effect. None of these problems is really to do with money. As Martin Narey, the head of Barnardo’s says, this is one of the few areas in which the problem is not cash and finance, but the system. We have put in another £305 million. We will put more money in place to help kinship carers through local authorities so that we get this right. We are spending £2 billion already. The problem is the system, so if extra finance is required, we need to provide that.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 462 c462
Session: 2006-07
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Education Children in care Carers Finance Grandparents Teaching methods Young people
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk