Written question asked by Emma Lewell (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 January 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 2 February 2018 (named day). It was answered by Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative) on Friday, 2 February 2018 on behalf of the Department for Education.

What Works Network: Costs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost has been to date of setting up the What Works Centre.

Answer: The cost committed to date of setting up the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care is £9,804,191.00 million. In October 2017, two contracts were awarded by Department for Education to establish the What Works Centre. A consortium led by NESTA was awarded the contract for an ‘incubator’, to develop the infrastructure, recruit the leadership team and develop the communications and dissemination strategy. Cardiff University was awarded the ‘research partner’ role to start the evidence synthesis and begin new trials and evaluations where there are gaps in the current evidence base. Both contracts will run until March 2020.

Secondary information