The Government takes security extremely seriously and is ensuring all necessary steps are taken.

Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are required to provide services for children in their local areas for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare, this includes children who are refugees. 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' (2018) clarifies the core legal requirements for how agencies work together to keep children safe, including responding to their needs.

Some children arrive in the country as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a statutory obligation to provide accommodation for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. This means that they become looked-after children and receive the same safeguards and services as any other looked-after child.

The government recognises that unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children can be some of the most vulnerable in our society. The government’s vision and additional commitment to care for these children is set out in the ‘Safeguarding Strategy for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking and Refugee Children’. The government has also published statutory guidance on the ‘Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Child Victims of Modern Slavery’ to help local authorities to care effectively for these children.

The information requested is not held centrally. Following commencement of provisions in the Children and Social Work Act 2017, Local Safeguarding Children Boards are currently being phased out and replaced by safeguarding partners (police, health and local authority). There is no requirement to have an independent chair of the new arrangements, which must be in place by September 2019.

The department publishes information on looked after children, child protection plans and children in need in local authorities, including those within the Greater Manchester area, in the Local Authority Interactive Tool. This can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.

There are a range of factors that contribute to trends in demand for children’s social care including deprivation in different local authorities. The most deprived local authorities have more looked after children (per 10,000 0-17 year olds), and these rates have grown faster, than the least deprived local authorities. The most common factors that present themselves in children’s social care assessments are domestic abuse and mental health. Data on this is available in Table C3 of statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017-18’ at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.

The department publishes information on looked-after children, child protection plans and children in need in local authorities, including those within Wirral and Liverpool, in the local authority interactive tool. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.

There are a range of factors that contribute to trends in demand for children’s social care including deprivation in different local authorities. The most deprived local authorities have more looked-after children (per 10,000 0 to 17-year-olds), and these rates have grown faster than the least deprived local authorities. The most common factors that present themselves in children’s social care assessments are domestic abuse and mental health. Data on this is available in table C3 of the statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.

Statutory guidance in ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2018) is clear that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care, and that they should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so.

Our communications campaign, ‘Together, we can tackle child abuse’, has helped raise the awareness of abuse among the public and professionals, and has provided local authorities with resources they can use to raise awareness locally.

Disadvantaged children and young people who are in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the eligible benefits are entitled to free school meals and, to ensure that as many of these children as possible are able to claim this benefit, we provide an eligibility checking system that all local authorities can access; this makes the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible.

Due to discontinuity in methods used for some of the data collected, we only look at trends in these numbers starting from 2013. I therefore refer the hon. Member for Wansbeck to the answer I gave on 17 December 2018 to Question 202744 raised by the hon. Member Stephen Lloyd.

The department does not have information on whether the local authorities that commissioned forensic tests from Trimega, between January 2010 and April 2014, have carried out a case by case assessment of the effect of toxicology on decision-making in relation to the welfare of children. However, the department wrote to local authorities on 17 November 2017 and 16 February 2018, asking them to review whether they had commissioned forensic tests from Trimega Laboratories Limited between January 2010 to April 2014, and to consider whether there was a need to take further action in order to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities.

The educational outcomes for children who experience abuse and neglect are markedly worse than for all children and these children face long term challenges in education and beyond. Three fifths (61%) of children starting to be looked-after during the year ending 31 March 2018 were identified as having a primary need of abuse or neglect[1]. The average Attainment 8 score for all looked-after children was 19.3 in 2017 compared to 44.5 for non-looked after children[2]. In addition, two fifths (39%) of all care leavers aged 19 to 21 were not in education, employment or training during the year ending 31 March 2018 compared to around 12% of young people of a similar age[3].

Research evidence suggests that the care system generally provides a protective factor for vulnerable children with early admission to care being associated with better educational outcomes than later entry[4]. This is why we have increased spending on the most vulnerable children by over £1.5 billion since 2010 and at the budget we announced an extra £410 million next year for social care, including children – alongside £84 million over the next five years to keep more children safely at home with their families.

[1] Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

[2] Outcomes for children looked-after by local authorities: 31 March 2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-las-31-march-2017.

[3] Not in education, employment or training statistics quarterly brief: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-neet.

[4] The Educational Progress of Looked-After Children in England: Linking Care and Educational Data, Rees Centre Oxford, 2015.

The most common factors that present themselves in children’s social care assessments are domestic abuse, neglect and mental health. Data on this is available in Tables B3 and C3 of statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017-18’ here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

The department considers a range of information when considering applications to open and take over an academy, free school and faith school in England, including information relating to the public sector equality duty.

The department does not always specifically request or record information on the impact of the change on the education and protection of girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender+ pupils, unless it is relevant to a particular application. We do not hold sufficient information on applications rejected on these grounds to provide an estimate.

We monitor the number of children looked after and the number of children with child protection plans on an ongoing basis. Figures on the number of looked after children at the 31 March in the last five years are published in Table A1 of statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

Figures on the number of children with child protection plans are published in Table A2 of the statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017-18’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

The government is working between now and the Spending Review 2019 to get a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services, including the factors that affect this demand, to help ensure that local authorities have the resources they need. The factors that affect these trends are cross-cutting and there is variation between local authorities. We are also working with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the fair funding review of relative needs and resources which is looking in more detail at levels of demand in local authorities.

The government is committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of background, have a fair chance to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them. Every child – including those from economically deprived backgrounds, with special educational needs, or who are in need of help and protection from children’s social care – should have the opportunity to achieve good outcomes. The government is working to ensure that local leaders are supported to provide these vulnerable children with the services they need to achieve well in education and, where necessary, to have a safe and stable home life.

To help school leaders support the most disadvantaged children, we have spent over £13 billion since 2011 – almost £2.4 billion this year alone – through the pupil premium to tackle educational inequality. In 2011 we established the Education Endowment Foundation with £137 million to research and promote the most effective ways of using pupil premium, so that schools leaders can improve their disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes.

In schools, our system leaders continue to provide support to help deliver better outcomes for vulnerable children. To ensure that system leaders can support all students, teaching schools must demonstrate high levels of progress and attainment for all pupils, and especially disadvantaged pupils, in order to be designated and funded by the department.

We know that many disadvantaged pupils have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the government has also provided over £340 million since April 2014, to support local authorities, working with their partners, including health and schools, to implement the SEND reforms. We have funded training and a SEND leadership programme to support local authorities and health services to deliver their SEND services, which included training on joint commissioning.

Equally, where children need help and support from social care to achieve safety and stability in their lives, we know effective leadership is vital for good practice to thrive. ‘Putting Children First’ sets out our reform programme to improve the quality of leadership and of the workforce in children’s social care. As part of these reforms, we have established the Children’s Social Care What Works Centre, to develop the evidence base for leaders to use in delivering what works to support vulnerable children and families. We are building further evidence of what works to improve these children’s educational outcomes at a national and a local level through the Children in Need review.

The department wrote to all local authorities in England asking them to review whether they had commissioned forensic tests from Trimega Laboratories Limited between January 2010 and April 2014. 131 local authorities have confirmed that they used the services of Trimega Laboratories Limited during this period.

It is unlikely that decisions about the welfare of children will have been taken solely on the basis of toxicology test results, as this would only form part of the evidence that local authorities consider when making decisions about vulnerable children. The department does not have oversight of individual decisions made in local authority areas but have asked local authorities to consider whether any additional action is necessary in order to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities.

Statutory child protection interventions are continuing to rise at record levels. What can the Minister do to ensure that such interventions are used only for high-risk cases, and not as an alternative to family support?