The Department for Education’s vision statement, Putting Children First, published in July 2016, set out our commitment to protecting children from all forms of abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM). The Children and Social Work Bill, currently before Parliament, will help us to deliver the change needed to secure a system that meets children’s needs.

As well as that wide-ranging work on safeguarding, we are currently funding two voluntary sector organisations working to safeguard girls from FGM. The Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development (FORWARD) and the Midaye Somali Development Network have been allocated a total of over £600,000 for work from December 2016 until March 2018.

On 1 March the Secretary of State made a statement to this House announcing her intention to put Relationships and Sex Education on a statutory footing. There will be a comprehensive programme of engagement, followed by full public consultation, and I know that those campaigning on issues such as FGM will want to contribute to that discussion.

Our statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), is clear that where a local authority undertakes an assessment under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 such an assessment will be carried out by a social worker.

Department for Education (DfE) officials take up a range of secondment opportunities, including in some instances to local authority children’s services, as part of gaining experience of frontline services to aid the development of better policy. However, DfE has not seconded any staff to local authorities in order to support the assessment of children’s needs under section 17 and the Department does not anticipate that any DfE officials would be directly involved in supporting such assessments.

Department officials do support local authorities to deliver improvements to children’s social care services. Such support may be provided in order to respond to inadequate performance in local areas or to help develop and deliver innovative new approaches to delivering such services.

Our statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), is clear that where a local authority undertakes an assessment under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 such an assessment will be carried out by a social worker.

Department for Education (DfE) officials take up a range of secondment opportunities, including in some instances to local authority children’s services, as part of gaining experience of frontline services to aid the development of better policy. However, DfE has not seconded any staff to local authorities in order to support the assessment of children’s needs under section 17 and the Department does not anticipate that any DfE officials would be directly involved in supporting such assessments.

Department officials do support local authorities to deliver improvements to children’s social care services. Such support may be provided in order to respond to inadequate performance in local areas or to help develop and deliver innovative new approaches to delivering such services.

Can the Secretary of State explain her U-turn in signing Labour’s amendments to scrap her own innovation clauses in the Children and Social Work Bill? Since her Minister and chief social worker were the key protagonists of those strongly opposed and dangerous clauses, will she explain how she can possibly remain confident in their ability to protect our most vulnerable children?

The number of children who have been placed on a child protection plan in each of the last five years is available in table A2 of the annual Children In Need statistical publication:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2015-to-2016

We do not hold information in the requested format on the number of the children who came back onto a child protection plan within 2 years of coming off one.

We are committed to delivering long term, sustainable improvements to the children’s social care system. Putting Children First: Delivering our vision for excellent children’s social care (July 2016) sets out the government’s reform programme for children’s social care in England for the next five years.

The government recognises the life changing impact domestic abuse can have on the lives of children. That is why we have expanded the Troubled Families Programme until 2020 to work with an additional 400,000 families, including those affected by domestic abuse.

The government’s Violence Against Women Strategy (April 2016), stresses the importance of taking an integrated whole-family approach to addressing and stopping violence and abuse. The government has provided £2m in funding to support new models developed by Safelives and Women’s Aid to identify and support victims and their families at an earlier stage and provide effective wrap-around support.

The Department for Education is funding four grants, totalling around £900,000, from 2016 to March 2018 to Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations working on issues concerning domestic abuse. Further details of the VCS grants can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-backs-projects-to-help-safeguard-vulnerable-children

This Government allowed two local authorities rated “good” for children’s services to be granted exemptions from statutory guidance, even extending these exemptions when there was no evidence of improvement. Ofsted has since rated them both “inadequate”, finding that for too long children have been left at risk and are suffering harm. Despite growing evidence of the dangers of these opt-out practices, the Secretary of State is determined to push through massive deregulation in the Children and Social Work Bill, which will allow local authorities to opt out of not just guidance but vast swathes of primary and secondary child protection legislation. Why does she think it is okay to experiment with the lives of vulnerable children?

As stated in my answer of 25 January, my policy is that no organisation can contract with a local authority to deliver child protection functions if they are operated on a for profit basis. This is the case regardless of organisational form. This is made clear in the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (Relevant Care Functions) (England) Regulations 2014. The Government has no intention of revisiting the settled position on this matter.

The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (Relevant Care Functions) (England) Regulations 2014 are clear that local authorities may not contract out child protection functions to any organisation that is operated for profit. The Government has no intention of revisiting the settled position on this matter.

The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The Government’s statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, revised last year, is crystal clear about the importance that we attach to preventative services. Providing help early, before issues and problems escalate, is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.

The Working Together guidance sets out that local agencies should work together to put processes in place for the effective assessment of the needs of individual children who may benefit from early help services. It is right that decisions about the provision of services, including preventative, early help services, are taken locally by agencies that are best placed to plan provision, taking account of local needs and circumstances.

Through the Children and Social Work Bill, the Government is introducing a stronger but more flexible statutory framework that will support local partners to work together more effectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. The new framework will allow the safeguarding partners – namely health services, the police and the local authority – much greater freedom to make decisions themselves as to who they work with and how best to arrange their services to improve the outcomes for children in their area. The new arrangements are based on the findings of the Wood Review, published in May 2016, which included extensive consultation with the sector.

In 2013 the government set up the Early Intervention Foundation, funded by the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, and the Department for Communities and Local Government. It operates independently of central government, to establish a robust evidence base for what approaches work best in early intervention and to support commissioners in implementing early intervention programmes and practice in their local areas.

The Government is also setting up a new What Works Centre for children’s social care. The What Works Centre will focus on improving outcomes for our most vulnerable children and their families. It will identify best practice in supporting children suffering from, or at risk of, abuse and/or neglect. The WWC will be able to build a truly comprehensive picture of what excellence looks like by looking at both effective interventions and practice systems. We expect the WWC to work in close partnership with the sector and bring new and innovative approaches to gathering, disseminating and embedding its findings, drawing on lessons from a wide range of interventions – including reviews of serious cases and our Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme.

Over the last two years the Government has invested over £100 million in 53 projects through the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme. The programme is supporting local authorities and other organisations to develop new approaches in children’s social care, including preventing child maltreatment. In April this year we committed a further £200m to support innovation and improvement over the next four years.

Proportionate and timely information is key to keeping children safe. In 2015, the Government published two key documents to support local practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers. These are: ‘Information Sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services’, which sets out how information should be shared between the local authority, police and indeed other agencies, and ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.

These documents were published as part of a package alongside other key documents, including ‘What to do if you're worried a child is being abused’ and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. Both documents make clear that if a child is at risk of harm or abuse, practitioners should share information.

Despite investment, the National Audit Office has judged child protection services to be “unsatisfactory and inconsistent”, which suggests systemic rather than local failure. Six years of Tory tinkering, rebranding and outsourcing has resulted in too many children’s services being deemed simply not good enough. Can the Minister tell us how much longer children will have to suffer because of his Department’s failures?

The Department does not hold information on the total number of children on a special guardianship order as at 31 March 2016. Information is only collected on the number of children who have ceased to be looked after under a special guardianship order each year. There were 3,830 such children in the year ending 31 March 2016. This information is published in national table D1 of the statistical first release ‘Children looked after in England, year ending 31 March 2016’, which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016

Information on care leavers who are parents is not available. The Department collects information on looked after girls aged 12 or over who are mothers, but it is not possible to determine numbers of care leavers who became parents after leaving care. The Department does not collect information on the children of looked after children or care leavers.

There are currently 203 members of staff working in the Department’s Children’s Social Care Divisions. Within those divisions there are 27 officials working exclusively on policy relating to adoption and family law, and 31 working exclusively on policy relating to looked-after children.

The remaining 145 staff work within the following divisions: Children’s Mental Health; Innovation; Intervention; Child Protection; Social Work Reform; and Special Educational Needs. All these areas work closely, and have accountability for their policy responsibilities with regards to adoption and looked-after children.

It is not possible to identify those that work specifically on the three care settings mentioned by the Hon lady.

Any measures to protect children where they are attending privately run classes, including those provided on private property, rest entirely with parents. It is a matter of parental choice to allow their children to attend and to make a considered decision about the suitability of the individuals running the class.

Schools are aware of their responsibilities in ensuring that any self-employed individual who is providing extra-curricular classes or sessions on their behalf has been subject to the necessary and appropriate checks, which could include checking individual status with the relevant sports or activity governing body.

If those checks reveal convictions for violence the school will then determine the appropriateness or otherwise of allowing that individual to continue to provide classes or sessions.