All my thoughts are with Billy and the family for the horrific tragedy they have suffered. My hon. Friend will know that we are debating the Sentencing Bill later today, looking at how we redress the balance here. The Law Commission is also doing a special piece of work looking at homicide law, and I would happily discuss that with her and Billy and discuss how best we can support them.

The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 came into force on 24 April 2020 and expired on 25 September 2020. Further regulations continuing a small number of these amendments came into force from 25 September 2020 (Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020) following a public consultation over the summer. This is to ensure that services are maintained during the COVID-19 outbreak. These amendments are in place until 31 March 2021.

Where local authorities deemed it appropriate to make use of the amendments, taking account of all available information, every decision had to be agreed at senior manager level. The amendments were monitored by the department based on a triangulation of information gathered from a variety of sources, including local authorities, charities and key partners, including Ofsted.

As a departmental official, the Chief Social Worker is routinely involved in the development of policy on children’s social care, providing independent expert advice.

The legal cost for the initial Judicial Review (High Court) and the appeal (Court of Appeal) are estimated to total £80,000.

The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 came into force on 24 April 2020 and expired on 25 September 2020. Further regulations continuing a small number of these amendments came into force from 25 September 2020 (Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020) following a public consultation over the summer. This is to ensure that services are maintained during the COVID-19 outbreak. These amendments are in place until 31 March 2021.

Where local authorities deemed it appropriate to make use of the amendments, taking account of all available information, every decision had to be agreed at senior manager level. The amendments were monitored by the department based on a triangulation of information gathered from a variety of sources, including local authorities, charities and key partners, including Ofsted.

As a departmental official, the Chief Social Worker is routinely involved in the development of policy on children’s social care, providing independent expert advice.

The legal cost for the initial Judicial Review (High Court) and the appeal (Court of Appeal) are estimated to total £80,000.

The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 came into force on 24 April 2020 and expired on 25 September 2020. Further regulations continuing a small number of these amendments came into force from 25 September 2020 (Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020) following a public consultation over the summer. This is to ensure that services are maintained during the COVID-19 outbreak. These amendments are in place until 31 March 2021.

Where local authorities deemed it appropriate to make use of the amendments, taking account of all available information, every decision had to be agreed at senior manager level. The amendments were monitored by the department based on a triangulation of information gathered from a variety of sources, including local authorities, charities and key partners, including Ofsted.

As a departmental official, the Chief Social Worker is routinely involved in the development of policy on children’s social care, providing independent expert advice.

The legal cost for the initial Judicial Review (High Court) and the appeal (Court of Appeal) are estimated to total £80,000.

Protection orders are an important tool for keeping victims safe and preventing the continuation or escalation of violence.

Protections for victims of sexual offences, including historic abuse include:

• Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, which are in place to ensure the successful management of violent and sexual offenders in the community.
• Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, which can be used to impose a range of restrictions on sexual offenders, including travel restrictions.
• Sexual Risk Orders, which can be used to impose restrictions on individuals who have done an act of a sexual nature and, as a result, pose a risk of harm to the public in the UK or children or vulnerable adults abroad. For a Sexual Risk Order to be imposed, the individual does not need to have committed an offence.
• Sex Offender Notification Requirements, which require offenders to provide certain information to the police, for example notifying them if the offender is living in a household with a person under the age of 18.

Additionally, the Victim Contact Scheme is available to victims of violent and sexual offences where the offender receives a sentence of 12 months or more. The scheme provides victims with information and advice about the criminal justice process – including being kept informed of key stages of the offender's sentence and to advise on victim-related conditions that can be attached to the offender's release licence. Conditions can be around non-contact or excluding the offender from entering specific locations such as areas where the victim lives or works. The offender risks being recalled to prison should they breach any licence conditions.

The Youth Custody Service’s internal safeguarding review was established in April 2018, under the following Terms of Reference:

1. Review, and where appropriate revise, the current operational policies for Safeguarding within the Youth Secure Estate;
2. Review the processes for handling allegations and complaints, including but not limited to, access, response, investigation and the support offered to children and young people
3. Review the corporate governance structures for safeguarding given the transfer of functions from the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to the Youth Custody Service (YCS)
4. Review the staff recruitment and vetting procedures in place and systems for referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
5. Review the safeguarding training offer and arrangements for all staff
6. Review information sharing arrangements between different departments within establishments, for example between Safeguarding and Security teams.
7. Ensure the YCS is compliant with and executing its duties in relation to the Working Together guidance issued by the Department for Education, and any other relevant statutory requirements
8. Scope and establish working relationships with relevant external stakeholders. For example, the chairs of Local Safeguarding Children Boards on the custodial care of children; Association of Directors of Children’s Services; YJB etc.
9. Make recommendations on policies, processes and procedures, as deemed necessary to improve safeguarding measures for children and young people
10. Share and disseminate good practice with staff across the youth secure estate, in line with the YCS’s emerging continuous improvement model.

The YCS safeguarding report is in the process of being finalised and I will write to you when the report has been submitted to me.

The ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ guide already mentions the potential need for early help for children in a challenging family circumstance. In a section on ‘Identifying children and families who would benefit from early help’, the text includes: “Practitioners should, in particular, be alert to the potential need for early help for a child who…. is in a family circumstance presenting challenges for the child such as drug and alcohol misuse, adult mental health issues and domestic abuse.” A child undergoing family breakdown would potentially be in this group.

We have not considered adding parental alienation to the definition of emotional abuse in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’. The definitions of different forms of abuse in that guidance are not intended to be exhaustive.

‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ is statutory guidance to which all schools must have regard. The guidance is clear that all schools should have an effective child protection policy. The policy should be updated annually (as a minimum), and be available publicly either via the school website or by other means.

Following the government’s youth justice reform programme, announced in December 2016, responsibility and accountability for Youth Justice custodial provision transferred from the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to the Youth Custody Service (YCS); a distinct arm of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

The YCS assumed operational responsibility for the day to day running of youth secure services; including the youth secure estate (YSE), secure escorts, the placement of children remanded or sentenced to custody and the management of performance across the YSE, with effect from 1 September 2017.

The YJB’s Safeguarding Statement, which is published online, outlines its ongoing commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in contact with the youth justice system, as well as supporting the youth justice sector in the delivery of their safeguarding duties.

All of the YJB business and corporate plans published over the last five years are concerned with safeguarding children in the youth justice system; including those in the secure estate.

Key YJB commissioned and published documents concerned with safeguarding children include the following:

Children in Custody 2016–17: An analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences

in secure training centres and young offender institutions which is available online at

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/6.3903_HMIP_Children-in-Custody-2016-17_FINAL_WEB_221117.pdf

YJB Safeguarding Report April 2013 – March 2015 which is available online at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486686/Safeguarding_Report.pdf

Deaths of Children in Custody: Action Taken, Lessons Learnt (2014) which is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/yjb-plan-to-prevent-deaths-of-children-in-custody

Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint, safeguarding processes, governance arrangements, and roles and responsibilities (2015) which is available online at

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/456672/minimising-managing-physical-restraint.pdf

Placing any child or young person more than 20 miles away from their area requires the agreement of the director of children’s services. Children should always be placed where appropriate and the director of children’s services must make that decision.

We are currently consulting on proposals to update the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education from September 2018. The consultation opened on 14 December 2017 and closes on 22 February 2018.

We plan to publish the revised guidance, for information, early in the summer term 2018. This will give schools and colleges adequate time to review their policies and procedures and make any changes necessary to meet the requirements before the guidance comes into force in September 2018.

The hon. Member may wish to be aware that we have also published separate advice on sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges. This defines what sexual violence and sexual harassment is, how to minimise the risks of it happening and how to manage reports of incidents. The consultation on Keeping Children Safe in Education seeks views both on this advice and on the extent to which it should be reflected in the statutory guidance.

The department collects data on local authority spend on a range of services for children and young people, published annually in the statistical first releases available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data.

Local authorities are not required to provide separate data regarding spend on children provided with support under section 47 of the Children Act 1989.

I am sorry, but the department does not hold the data in the format you requested.

The consultation 'Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect' sought views on a mandatory duty to report child abuse and neglect and an alternative duty focused on taking appropriate action, as well as the effects of embedding current government reforms. The consultation was a broad exercise which invited views on a range of different models, including the potential scope of any duty and the types of abuse such a duty might pertain to.

The government has committed to laying a report before Parliament on the outcome of the consultation. Submissions are being considered and a government response will be published in due course. Just as it was right to consider in depth the evidence around these questions, it is important that we apply equally careful consideration to formulating our response in such a complex policy area, with such vitally important implications for the safety and welfare of children.

The government’s ongoing social work reform programme continues to seek to create a world class child protection system, where the needs of individual children are identified early and they get the help and support they require as soon as possible to keep them safe.

The department is planning to launch a public consultation on revising Keeping children safe in education later in the autumn. The department expects revised guidance to be published for information in spring 2018, to give schools and colleges time to plan for any changes, before it comes into force in September 2018.

The Government recognises the specific difficulties that minors may face when coming forward with evidence to the Inquiry. The terms of reference for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse require it to "consider the experience of survivors of child sexual abuse; providing opportunities for them to bear witness to the Inquiry, having regard to the need to provide appropriate support in doing so".

It is for the Inquiry (which operates independently of Government) to determine how to provide this appropriate support. Information about how the Inquiry supports victims and survivors who come forward with evidence are given on the Inquiry's website - www.iicsa.org.uk

I am very pleased to see the hon. Lady back in her place. I know she has not been able to be here for some time. It is very simple: we were unable

to build the consensus required to take forward the power to innovate. I remain absolutely committed to innovation and would welcome local authorities’ plans for how they can improve outcomes for children by redesigning their services and improving their outcomes in the process.

We had a healthy debate about the power to innovate in Committee, but I am afraid the hon. Lady still fails to grasp what we are trying to

achieve. Local authorities and social workers tell us that when well-intentioned legislation prevents them from doing what is best for young people, they want to be able to try new ways to ensure that the outcomes for children improve. That is why a whole raft of organisations, including the Children’s Society, have told us that they welcome the Government’s commitment to innovation in children’s social care and support the intention to allow local authorities to test new ways of working in a time-limited, safe, transparent and well-evaluated way. I would have thought the hon. Lady would welcome that, rather than trying to concoct difficult arguments about the way forward that we want to take with the Bill. It is wrong, and she should follow the path that the profession wants to take.

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.