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26 Feb 2008 : Column 1525W—continued
Project management and construction project management services for Academies let in 2004 for a period of 4 years (these are framework agreements and the value of the overall contract is dependant on the number of individual contracts awarded to Capita);
The supply of interim personnel and consultants for the Office of the Schools Commissioner (OSC). Information on contracts is supplied as follows (this may not be a comprehensive list).
| Contract | Year let | Contract length (year) | Contract value (£ million) |
An answer to the questions what penalties for default were imposed on contract provisions; whether the contract was advertised; how many companies applied for the contract; how many were short-listed; what criteria were used for choosing a company; what provision was made for renewal without re-tender in each case; could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Children in Care: Housing
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what the average cost of housing a looked-after child in an independent children’s home is in 2007-08; [186700]
(2) how many looked-after children are housed in (a) a local authority and (b) independent children’s home; [186701]
(3) how many children have been placed for adoption with an extended family member in each of the last five years; [186702]
(4) how many children were adopted in each local authority in each of the last five years; [186749]
(5) how many adoption placements were made with extended family members in each of the last five years; [186752]
(6) how many children born to children in care were (a) taken into care and (b) adopted in each of the last five years; [186808]
(7) how many children in care were born to mothers aged under 16 years, broken down by age of mother, in the last 12 months; [186809]
(8) how many children have been (a) in foster placements and (b) in children’s homes for over a year, broken down by age of child. [186810]
Kevin Brennan: The information is as follows:
Information on the average annual cost of housing a looked-after child in an independent children’s home is not collected centrally by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
Information on the number of children looked after that are housed in (a) a local authority and (b) independent children’s homes is not collected centrally by the DCSF.
Information on the number of children who have been placed for adoption with an extended family member in each of the last five years is not collected centrally by the DCSF. However, table A3 of the Statistical First Release (SFR 27/2007) entitled ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2007’ shows the number of children looked after by English local authorities (LAs), who were placed for adoption at 31 March for each year from 2003 to 2007. The SFR is located at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000741/index.shtml and table A3 can be found within the first set of excel tables on the website.
Information on the number of children who were adopted in each LA in each of the last five years is not collected centrally by the DCSF. However, the number of children looked after by English LAs, who were adopted in each LA in each of the years ending 31 March 2003 to 2007 can be found in table LAE1 at the same aforementioned link. Table LAE1 can be found within the third set of excel tables on the website.
Information on the number of adoption placements that were made with extended family members in each of the last five years is not collected centrally by the DCSF. Please see the first aforementioned paragraph answering PQ 186702 for the most readily available data.
Information on the number of children born to children in care who were (a) taken into care and (b) adopted in each of the last five years is not collected centrally by the DCSF.
Information on the number of children in care that were born to mothers aged under 16 years, is not collected centrally by the DCSF.
Information on the number of children looked after in English LAs who have been (a) in the same foster placement and (b) in the same children’s home for over a year, broken down by age at 31 March 2007 is shown in tables 1 and 2, as follows:
| Table 1: Children looked after for over one year in the same foster placement at 31 March 2007( 1, 2, 3) , England | |
| Number | |
Children in Care: Social Workers
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of children in care have a named qualified social worker assigned to them. [185459]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 7 February 2008]: The percentage of children in care who have a named qualified social worker assigned to them in England has increased from 94.8 per cent. in 2005-06 to 95.5 per cent. in 2006-07.
Children: Databases
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when the ContactPoint database will be operational; whose details will be included on it; who will have access to it; how much it will cost to establish and maintain; and if he will make a statement. [186261]
Kevin Brennan: ContactPoint is a key element of the Every Child Matters programme to transform children's services by supporting more effective prevention and early intervention. Its goal is to improve outcomes and the experience of public services for all children, young people and families. It will provide a quick way for practitioners to find out who else is working with the same child or young person.
ContactPoint will be deployed to the ‘Early Adopter’ local authorities and two of our seven national partners in October 2008. It will be deployed to all other local authorities and national partners by May 2009.
The information that must or may be included on ContactPoint is set out in the Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007 made under section 12 of the Children Act 2004.
ContactPoint will contain records for all children and young people in England who are under the age of 18. To help support the transition to adult services, there is provision for records of young people leaving care or with learning disabilities to remain on ContactPoint up to the age of 25 but only with their consent.
Access to ContactPoint will be limited strictly to those who need it to do their job (currently estimated at around 330,000 practitioners). Before being granted access, users must complete mandatory face-to-face training, have obtained security clearance (including enhanced Criminal Records Bureau clearance) and have a user name, a password, a PIN and a security token to control their access to ContactPoint.
When accessing a child’s record, all users will have to state a clear reason why they are accessing ContactPoint. All use of the system will be monitored and audited and every access to a child’s record will be detailed in the ContactPoint audit trail. This will be regularly monitored by local authorities, using on-line user activity reports, to ensure that any misuse is detected and that appropriate action is taken.
One-off implementation costs will total £224 million. Operating costs will be £41 million per year, most of which will pay for the additional staff needed to ensure the on-going security, accuracy and audit of ContactPoint.
Children: Day Care
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what estimate he has made of the impact of proposed changes to registration and annual childminder fees on the future supply of registered childminders; [188193]
(2) if he will give consideration to the merits of phasing the increases in registration and annual fees for pre-schools and full-day nursery care centres. [188567]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 22 February 2008]: We published impact assessments on the proposed changes to the child care registration and fee arrangements as part of the consultation exercises. On the registration requirements, our assessment did not show an effect on the supply of childminders as we are making only minor adjustments to the existing arrangements. The new system of regulation will provide Ofsted with the information it needs to determine whether essential standards of child welfare have been met and our proposals were supported by a majority of respondents in our consultation exercise last year.
On the proposed fee changes we expect the impact on numbers of childminders to be small. As we made clear in the impact assessment and the consultation document, we are not proposing to remove the current subsidy for registration and inspection costs and we would intend to phase in changes to the fee arrangements over three years, with the changes not complete until 2010. Local authorities are required to secure sufficient childcare available to meet the needs of working parents and have allied powers to assist providers. The fees consultation exercise closed on 20 February 2008 and we will carefully consider all the responses before publishing the Government's response in the spring.
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