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13 Jan 2009 : Column 634W—continued
West Midlands Phase 2 and Phase 3 :
The West Midlands is taking a phased approach to the revision of its RSS.
Consultation on Phase 2 is completed and it will be submitted to an Examination in Public in Spring 2009.
Review of Green Belts recommended
The draft Phase 2 West Midlands regional spatial strategy identifies the need for review of Green Belt round Coventry and Redditch.
Provision of traveller pitches recommended
The provision of traveller pitches will be addressed in Phase 3 of the RSS review. The West Midlands Regional Assembly are currently developing option papers for Phase 3 and have yet to commence consultation.
The Government are currently considering representations made on the Proposed Changes and are working towards the final issue of the RSS in 2009.
Review of Green Belts recommended
The Government’s Proposed Changes included proposals for selective Green Belt review at Oxford and Guildford, and possibly south of Woking, plus small scale reviews at Chertesy and Redhill/Reigate.
Provision of traveller pitches recommended
The Draft South East RSS sets out the number of traveller pitches required across the region, however it is up to the local authorities to identify the specific location of traveller sites in local plans.
The Government are currently considering representations made on the Proposed Changes and are working towards the final issue of the RSS in 2009.
Review of Green Belts recommended
The Proposed Changes included proposals to revise the Bristol and Bath, Gloucester and Cheltenham and South East Dorset Green Belts.
Provision of traveller pitches recommended
The Draft South West RSS sets out the number of traveller pitches for each local authority area, however it is up to the local authorities to identify the specific location of traveller sites in local plans.
Four RSSs have already been issued by the Secretary of State and the West Midlands (Phase 1) RSS:
15 January 2008—West Midlands (Phase 1) Black Country sub-regional plan
12 May 2008—East of England
21 May 2008—Yorkshire and Humber
15 July 2008—North East
30 September 2008—North West
Travelling People: Caravan Sites
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether her Department has issued guidance to local authorities on using semi-rural and rural land to provide Traveller sites. [245993]
Mr. Iain Wright: Guidance to local authorities on the use of semi-rural or rural land for Gypsy and Traveller Sites is contained in ODPM Circular 01/2006 ‘Planning for Gypsy and Traveller Caravan Sites’.
Children, Schools and Families
Building Schools for the Future programme: Sixth Form Colleges
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether sixth form colleges will be included under the Building Schools for the Future programme after 2010; and if he will make a statement. [242008]
Jim Knight: In “Raising Expectations: enabling the system to deliver” (published March 2008), we stated our intention to bring sixth form colleges within the scope of the Building Schools for the Future programme, so that they can be part of securing the area-wide entitlement. This remains our position, and we are considering the details along with the key partner organisations involved.
Case Reviews
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what procedures his Department has in place for reviewing serious case reviews; and what guidance he has given his officials on the circumstances in which such reviews should be drawn to the attention of Ministers. [240486]
Beverley Hughes: Local authorities are responsible for notifying Ofsted of serious incidents involving children. This includes cases which then become the subject of a serious case review (SCR). When a review is complete the report is then evaluated by Ofsted. DCSF Children and Learners teams in the regional government offices have a support and challenge role in relation to SCRs, in particular with respect to the implementation by Local Safeguarding Children Boards and local agencies of recommendations in individual reports. They also provide briefing to officials in the DCSF, to enable them to keep Ministers informed of overall progress. But Ministers are not involved in the SCR process and do not see draft SCR reports or take any decisions until that process is complete and the executive summary is made public. Ministers have vested in them a range of statutory powers in relation to local authorities, including intervention powers, and it is important that they allow the SCR process to take its course.
Children in Care
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what rules apply to the out-of-county placement of vulnerable (a) adults and (b) children; what procedures are employed to monitor such placements; and how the costs of such placements are shared. [244268]
Beverley Hughes: This reply relates to England only.
(a) The Department of Health is responsible for the framework relating to the accommodation and support of vulnerable adults who are assessed as requiring community care services. We will forward my hon. Friend's enquiry to that Department so that he can receive a written reply to part (a) of his question.
(b) There are extensive regulations and guidance setting out local authority responsibilities towards all children that they look after. The placing local authority will always remain responsible for maintaining the child's care plan setting out how the authority will arrange the services necessary to meet to their assessment the child's needs. However, where children are placed out of their responsible local authority, the local authorities involved will need to take into account the regulations below that provide information about funding responsibilities for health and education services.
The arrangements for provision of and payment for health care for looked after children placed out-of-authority children are set out in statutory guidance “Establishing the Responsible Commissioner: Guidance for PCT commissioners on the application of the legal framework on PCT's secondary care responsibilities” which was issued in 2006.
“The Education (Areas to which Pupils and Students Belong) Regulations 1996” specify arrangements for funding when a pupil living in one local authority area is ordinarily resident in a different local area. These regulations apply to any pupil, including looked after children living in “out of authority” placements.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many women in prison have children in the care of (a) social services and (b) another guardian. [244505]
Mr. Hanson: I have been asked to reply.
The National Offender Management Service does not routinely keep information on the number of prisoners with children in the care of either social services or another guardian. However, the Corston Report (March 2007) referred to 12 per cent. of women prisoners’ children being in care or with foster parents or adopted.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children have been placed out of area by each social services department in England since 2005-06; [244850]
(2) what the average distance was between the relevant social service area and the placement of children subject to out of area arrangements with regard to each social services department in England in the latest period for which figures are available. [244849]
Beverley Hughes: Information on the number of children in care in each local authority who have been placed out of area by each social services department in England for the years ending 31 March 2006 to 2008 and the average distance between their home address and placement, at 31 March 2008, has been placed in both the Libraries.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in the care system are placed in residential children's homes. [245277]
Beverley Hughes:
Information on the number of children in the care system that are placed in residential children's homes can be found in table A3, taken from the Statistical First Release (SFR 23/2008) entitled ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers)
year ending 31 March 2008’. This shows the number of children looked after at the 31 March for 2004 to 2008 by placement.
and table A3 can be found within the excel link labelled National Tables.
Children in Care: Custodial Treatment
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many prisoners in England were previously children in care at any time during their lives and received a custodial sentence when they were juveniles. [244506]
Mr. Hanson: I have been asked to reply.
Information on the total number of prisoners in all prison establishments in England and Wales who were in local authority care at some point when under the age of 16 is not centrally available.
However, a social exclusion unit report “Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners” published in 2002 reported that 27 per cent. of the prison population had been taken into care as a child against an average across the general population of 2 per cent.
We are not able to give the information requested regarding who of those in care had also received custodial sentences while juveniles.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Children in Care: Missing Persons
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in care in each local authority area have gone missing in each of the last five years. [245242]
Beverley Hughes: Information on the number of children in care in each local authority who have gone missing is available for the past four years.
Information for years ending 31 March 2006 to 2008 can be found in table LAB5, taken from the Statistical First Release (SFR 23/2008) entitled ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008.’
Information for year ending 31 March 2005 can be found in table LAB5, taken from the Statistical First Release (SFR 27/2007) entitled ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2007’.
Children in Care: Pupil Exclusions
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many looked after children in each local education authority (LEA) have been permanently excluded by the head teacher of their school since 2005; how many of those in each LEA while officially permanently excluded remain on their original schools’ rolls; and how many of them in each LEA are being educated at other establishments while permanently excluded from their original school. [245604]
Beverley Hughes: The OC2 data collection collects information on a range of outcomes for looked after children from local authorities. This information has been published in the Statistical First Release “Outcome Indicators for Children Looked After, Twelve months to 30 September 2007—England” (SFR 08/2008), which is available on the Department's website via the following link:
This publication contains figures for the period 2005-07.
Information on exclusions from school at local authority level can be found in table 1 (in the second excel link) which shows the number of permanent exclusions during the previous school year. The OC2 data collection is an aggregate data collection from local authorities and it is therefore not possible to provide this information broken down by how many children, while officially permanently excluded remain on the original school rolls or are being educated at other establishments.
Children: Abuse
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were subject to abuse whilst subject to a child protection plan in each of the last five years. [244554]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 16 December 2008]: Information on the number of children who were subject to abuse while subject to a child protection plan is not collected nationally.
Table 1 shows the number of children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March 2008, according to the category of abuse which led to the plan being put in place, for the years 2004 to 2008.
| Table 1: Children who were the subject of a Child Protection Plan (CPP), by category of abuse( 1,2) , years ending 31 March 2004 to 2008 | ||||||||||
| Coverage: England | ||||||||||
| Number | Percentage | |||||||||
| Category of abuse | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| (1) Figures may not add due to rounding. (2) This table includes unborn children. (3) ‘Multiple’ refers to instances where there is more than one main category of abuse. These children are not counted under the other abuse headings, so a child can appear only once in this table. ‘Not recommended’ refers to classificatory categories not recommended by ‘Working Together’ (1999). Source: CPR3 | ||||||||||
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