The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022-23 makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022-23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services. In total, we expect Core Spending Power to rise from £50.4 billion in 2021-22 to up to £53.9 billion in 2022-23.

The Government is providing around £1.6 billion additional grant in 2022-23. This includes additional funding for Supporting Families and Cyber Resilience, which will be distributed outside of this Settlement. We are allocating most of that funding through the provisional Settlement, including through a one-off 2022-23 Services Grant, which gives local authorities an additional £822 million of funding for all services. Local authorities can also make use of over £1 billion of additional resource specifically for social care in 2022-23.

For Sefton Council, this represents an increase in cash terms of up to 7.1% compared to last year, worth £17.8 million. This is above the average cash increase across England of 6.9%.

Respite care services, including short breaks, for disabled children and their families are provided based on an individual assessment of each child and family’s needs.

The department believes it is right for local authorities, who know their areas’ needs best, to determine what services are required locally, including early help.

This year, councils have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care. The government has also given over £6 billion in funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including children’s services.

The department will continue to work with other government departments, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to ensure the needs of children’s services are reflected.

Where a child has complex health needs or is in receipt of palliative or end-of-life care, respite provision may be appropriately delivered by health providers, including children’s hospices. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assess the social care needs of disabled children and young people, and to provide respite care where necessary. Where it is appropriate, local authorities can fund respite care provided by hospices, either as a short-term stay or as a service provided to the child or young person in the family home by the hospice team. Local authorities and health commissioners regularly liaise to plan and commission the most appropriate package of respite care for the children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening condition in their area.

In addition to statutory services, the department is providing £27.3 million to the Family Fund in financial year 2021-22 to support over 60,000 families on low incomes raising children and young people with disabilities or serious illnesses. Grants can be used for a range of purposes, including family breaks.

The information requested is not currently available as the data is being centrally validated.

In Southport and Sefton, children’s and young people’s mental health services will receive additional investment from 2021/22 to support COVID-19 recovery, reduce waiting times and improve access. A local 24 hours, seven days a week mental health crisis helpline was developed and implemented at the start of the pandemic. There are two mental health support teams in the Southport area, based in schools, to provide mental health interventions and advice to pupils/teachers in schools and colleges for low to moderate level mental health conditions. A further team will be implemented in 2022/23, supporting a further 20 schools.

An online resource ‘Kooth’ has been recommissioned with Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council to provide digital support to young people in the Southport and Sefton areas. A ‘one stop shop’ online mental health referral and information platform was launched in May 2021 to enable children, young people, parents and professionals to make direct referrals to mental health services and to access information and self-help materials. A comprehensive mental health training and support programme was delivered locally to bolster the skills and knowledge of school and college staff in supporting children’s and young people’s mental health.

No such assessment has been made.

No application was received from Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council to the second round of the Safer Streets Fund.

On 3 June we announced that 50 projects have been awarded a total of £18.4 million from the second round of the SSF to invest in crime prevention projects to tackle neighbourhood crimes, such as burglary, vehicle theft and robbery.

The Department has made no such assessment. Local authorities are responsible for developing and implementing schemes such as Liveable Neighbourhoods.

The Department has consistently made clear in its guidance to local authorities that effective engagement with communities is key to delivering schemes that work for everyone. It is for local authorities to determine what consultation and engagement is appropriate.

The Department provides no Ministry of Defence Civil Service jobs that are located in the towns of Sefton or Southport.

Apprenticeships provide people with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start an exciting career in a wide range of industries, everything from artificial intelligence, archaeology, data science, business management, and banking. We want more people to benefit from high quality apprenticeships. Since May 2010, there have been 8,940 apprenticeship starts in Southport (constituency) and 30,760 in Sefton (local authority).

We are supporting employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities by increasing the incentive payment to £3,000 for every new apprentice hired between 1 April and 30 September 2021 as part of the government's Plan for Jobs. We continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions to enable Kickstart placements to turn into apprenticeships where that is the right thing for the employer and the young person.

In addition, we are supporting the largest ever expansion of traineeships and working with employers to develop new occupational traineeships in rail, construction and engineering which will create a pathway for young people to progress into apprenticeships or other employment. The government confirmed an additional £126 million in the latest budget to fund a further 43,000 traineeship places in the 2021/22 academic year, and we have extended the £1,000 incentive payments for employers who offer traineeship work placement opportunities to July 2022.

To encourage more young people to consider apprenticeships, we are promoting apprenticeships in schools across the country through our Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme. This free service provides schools and teachers with resources and interventions to help better educate young people about apprenticeships. In the Skills for Jobs white paper, published in January, we announced that we will be introducing a 3 point plan to enforce the Baker Clause, our requirement that all maintained schools and academies provide opportunities for providers of technical education and apprenticeships to visit schools to talk to all year 8 to 13 pupils. This includes creating clear minimum legal requirements, specifying who is to be given access to which pupils and when. This is an important step towards real choice for every pupil.

The information requested is not held centrally in the form requested. There is no official definition for the term “working class” and it is not used by the Department for Education in formal statistics.

Young people can leave a school setting at age 16 or age 18. National statistics are published on the proportion of young people achieving level 2 qualifications (level 2 is 5 (or more) GCSEs at grades 9-4/A*-C or equivalent) by ages 16 to 19. Figures are published by pupil characteristics including free school meal (FSM) eligibility which can be used as an indicative measure for low income. Information provided is for those not achieving level 2 but that does not mean they left school with no qualifications.

In the Sefton local authority, the total proportion of 16 year olds not achieving level 2 is 37% in the 2019/20 academic year compared with 30% five years ago. Looking at those who were eligible for FSM, 65% had not achieved level 2 compared with 50% five years ago.

At age 18 in Sefton, the total proportion not achieving level 2 was 22% in 2019/20 compared with 15% five years ago. Looking at those who were eligible for FSM, 47% had not achieved level 2 compared with 30% five years ago.

The accompanying table shows a five year time series for both ages and includes gender and those not eligible for FSM. Comparable figures are not available for Southport or by ethnicity.

National estimates which show level 2 attainment by gender, FSM status and ethnicity are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/level-2-and-3-attainment-by-young-people-aged-19/2019-20. These detailed breakdowns are not published by local authority.

The Department remains committed to providing world class education, training and care for everyone, whatever their background, and taking the action needed to address disparities.

The meetings scheduled with me in March and April were rearranged due to Parliamentary business. The meeting on the 20 May was cancelled due to an unforeseen circumstance.

My office will be in touch soon to re-schedule this meeting as soon as possible.

25 projects across England were selected to receive a share of £150 million to demonstrate how practical innovative actions can work to improve communities' resilience to flooding and coastal change.

79 eligible expressions of interest (EOIs) were received, and independently assessed by a panel of experts. Two EOI proposals were received from project teams in Sefton, one of which will receive funding from this programme.

The project approved for funding in Sefton ( Ecological Community Owned Coastal Buffer Strips) is being led by Wyre Council. Sefton Council is a key partner. This project will deliver actions across the North West coast, including Formby, to improve resilience to flooding in the area.

The Environment Agency provided feedback to the lead officer at Sefton Council on 26 April 2021 to help the team identify the strengths of the unsuccessful proposal (Increasing Community Flood Resilience in Merseyside: Novel Applications of Smart Technology and Data Analysis). The feedback also notes areas they might want to consider improving if they choose to continue to develop the ideas further.

The Environment Agency is working with all projects that did not secure funding via this programme to take their good ideas forward through other routes. Sefton Council has provided summary information about its proposal for the Environment Agency to share with partners and stakeholders who may be interested in supporting the proposal.