| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
13 Jan 2009 : Column 643W—continued
Children: Day Care
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many early years providers had an inadequate care judgment on more than one occasion in each year since 2005; [241077]
(2) how many nurseries Ofsted has prosecuted in each year since 2005; [241078]
(3) how many registrations of nurseries Ofsted (a) cancelled and (b) suspended in each year since 2005; [241079]
(4) how many early years providers had one or more inspection outcomes that resulted in enforcement action against them in each year since 2005. [241080]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 8 December 2008]: These are matters for Ofsted. The chief inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and copies of her replies will be placed in the Library.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding will be provided to (a) Romsey constituency, (b) the City of Southampton and (c) Test Valley Borough under the free childcare for training and learning for work scheme in 2008-09; and if he will make a statement. [243933]
Beverley Hughes: Free child care for training and learning for work, will be delivered by the Learning and Skills Council, rather than by local authorities. There will, accordingly be no funding allocations at local authority or sub-local authority level. Funding will be made available on the basis of demand across the country as a whole.
Children: Disadvantaged
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what information his Department holds on the number of children who are entitled to free school meals in each (a) ward and (b) lower super output area. [245008]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department holds data on the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals who attended maintained schools in England. Tables showing the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals in each ward and lower super output area in England have been placed in both the Libraries.
Children: Protection
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which of Lord Laming’s recommendations made in the report of the Victoria Climbié inquiry are yet to be implemented; and how many were implemented within the recommended timescales. [241893]
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and which of Lord Laming’s 108 recommendations made in the Victoria Climbié inquiry are yet to be implemented; and how many of them were implemented within the advised timescales. [241558]
Beverley Hughes:
This Government launched a radical programme of reform in response to Lord Laming’s Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié. Through the Children Act 2004 we have put in place a much stronger framework for children's services and particularly for safeguarding children. The Government’s detailed response to the recommendations of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry
Report was set out in “Keeping Children Safe” which was published in 2003, alongside the Green Paper “Every Child Matters”.
The actions the Government committed to undertaking in response to Lord Laming’s recommendations have been carried out or are in progress; the one exception is the revision of guidance on the Children Act 1989. Volume 1, on Court Orders, has been revised and published, and many of the key messages which “Keeping Children Safe” said were to be incorporated in the revised Children Act 1989 guidance have been incorporated into other guidance documents and standards. We plan to revise further volumes of the 1989 guidance next year, taking into account commitments announced in Care Matters: Time for Change, legislative changes through the Children and Young Persons Act 2008, and proposed revisions to the National Minimum Standards for children’s social care.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he has taken to increase the level of co-operative working between officials in his Department and health visitors on policies relating to safeguarding children. [244688]
Beverley Hughes: While responsibility for the recruitment, training and deployment of community nurses, including health visitors, falls to primary care trusts and is therefore under the oversight of the Department of Health (DH), my Department works closely with DH, health visitors and their representative body in particular in the development and implementation of health and safeguarding policies.
Children's Trusts are the local partnerships which bring together the organisations responsible for services for children and families, including NHS bodies which employ health visitors, in a shared commitment to improve children's lives. The Government are working to strengthen Children's Trusts through revised statutory guidance issued on 18 November and further legislation.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were killed or injured in each local authority area in Yorkshire and the Humber between April 2007 and August 2008; how many of these were on the Child Protection Register; and if he will make a statement. [244782]
Beverley Hughes: Information on the number of children killed or injured in each local authority area is not collected centrally. The Office for National Statistics collects information on the number of child deaths by local authority. Table 1 shows the count of deaths in children aged 0 to 17 for each local authority area in Yorkshire and the Humber.
The available information on children subject to child protection plans is shown in the following table.
Table 2 shows the number of children who were the subject of a Child Protection Plan at 31 March 2008, in each local authority area in Yorkshire and the Humber.
| Table 2: Children( 1) who were the subject of a Child Protection Plan—year ending 31 March 2008 | |
| Number | |
| (1) Includes unborn children. | |
The latest figures on the numbers and percentage of children subject to Child Protection Plans or placed on the Child Protection Register were published in a Statistical First Release (SFR) 24/2008 ‘Referrals, Assessments and Children and Young People who are the subject of a Child Protection Plan, England—Year ending 31 March 2008’ on 16 September 2008. A copy of this release is available on my Department's website:
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to prevent the occurrence of child abuse in the North East. [245004]
Beverley Hughes:
This Government launched a radical programme of national reform in response to Lord Laming's inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié. Through the Children Act 2004 we have put in place a much stronger framework for children's services and particularly for safeguarding children. The Government's detailed response to the recommendations of the Victoria
Climbié inquiry report was set out in ‘Keeping Children Safe’ which was published in 2003, alongside the Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’. In November 2008 Lord Laming was asked to prepare an independent report of progress being made across the country in implementing the safeguarding reforms introduced in response to his original recommendations. His findings will be submitted early next year.
The Government have also announced that all Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) responsible for serious case reviews (SCRs) which have been judged inadequate are being asked to convene an independently chaired panel to reconsider the review. This process will be applied to any future SCRs which are assessed to be inadequate. In addition, Ofsted will carry out unannounced annual inspections of children's services across the country.
The Government office for the north-east monitors the performance of local authorities in the region and their partners on all outcomes of ‘Every Child Matters’, including on Staying Safe. Over the coming months there will be a particular focus on LSCBs' performance in relation to managing SCRs and improving the quality of the reviews and reports.
Climate Change
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of its capacity to adapt to climate change; and what plans he has to publish a climate change adaptation strategy. [241178]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: In July 2008, the cross-Government Adapting to Climate Change Programme published Adapting to climate change in England—a framework for action which set out the Government’s strategy for adaptation and the work-plan for the cross-Government Programme for the next three years. This programme increases Government’s capacity to adapt by ensuring a co-ordinated approach across all Departments and the public sector, and overall responsibility for it rests with DEFRA. Information about the Programme and its work can be found at:
This includes taking forward work flowing from the Climate Change Act—including a national Climate Change Risk Assessment and cost benefit analysis which will inform future priorities for the statutory adaptation programme that will then begin in 2012.
The Government’s longer term strategy on adapting to a changing climate will be set out in this statutory National Adaptation Programme, which will be reviewed and updated on a five year rolling basis in response to updated risk assessments, and report to Parliament.
In addition, DCSF is continuing with its work looking at how a changing climate impacts each of the policy areas it has responsibility for, as well as working towards embedding adaptation into its corporate and policy decision making processes across the Department.
DCSF are aiming for BREEAM excellence and higher for the new builds planned for Sheffield and Darlington sites in 2010 and 2012 respectively, incorporating sustainability in design and construction. Use of BREEAM assessments, as well as being a mandated requirement for Government new builds, considers the broad
environmental concerns of climate change, resource use and impact on wildlife, balancing these against the need for a high quality, safe and healthy environment.
Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) with reference to the answer of 26 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1837-8W, on coastal areas, what matters his Department has placed on the agenda of the cross-departmental working group on seaside towns; and if he will make a statement; [244406]
(2) what involvement his Department has had with the Coastal Town Network; at what level his Department is represented; and what issues his Department has raised at the Network. [244852]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department for Children, Schools and Families is part of the cross-Government working group on coastal towns and has agreed to send appropriate representatives to its meetings where relevant matters arise. While the Department has not yet placed any issues on its agenda, we are committed to supporting its work to address the challenges faced by coastal towns, including in particular the need to improve educational achievement.
Community Relations
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he plans to take to ensure that staff in schools where safer school partnership officers are in place know about the characteristics that may help identify individuals vulnerable to violent extremism, as referred to in paragraph 148 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise. [245695]
Mr. Khan: I have been asked to reply.
A number of reviews took place over the summer which sought to draw out learning and emerging practice on the delivery of activity to prevent violent extremism, including the joint Audit Commission and HMIC Learning and Development Exercise (LDE). Though each review had a different focus, together they provide a useful package of learning material upon which local partners can draw and which will inform the Government’s approach to Prevent.
There are a number of common themes which run through all these reviews. Some of these require action from national Government, some from local partners and many from both. We have ensured wide distribution of the LDE report to enable local partners to benefit directly from the important learning it contains in taking forward their local Prevent response. We published “Delivering Prevent—Responding to Learning” on 10 December, which sets out the key strands of learning from the reviews and work already underway to address these key themes. We will continue to develop our response to the reviews throughout the year.
I will place a copy of “Delivering Prevent—Responding to Learning” in the Library of the House.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |