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12 Jun 2009 : Column 1068W—continued
Regional Ministers: Official Engagements
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the official engagements of (a) the Minister for London, (b) the Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber, (c) the Minister for the South East, (d) the Minister for the North West, (e) the Minister for the East of England, (f) the Minister for the East Midlands, (g) the Minister for the South West, (h) the Minister for the North East and (i) the Minister for the West Midlands in their roles as regional ministers were between (i) 1 and 31 March, (ii) 1 and 30 April and (iii) 1 and 31 May 2009. [279569]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Children, Schools and Families
Children in Care: Missing Persons
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children went missing from care homes in each local authority area in each year from 1999 to 2003. [275226]
Dawn Primarolo: The information has been placed in the House Libraries.
Information on the number of looked after children that went missing from care homes was not collected in 1999 and 2000.
Children in Care: Personal Records
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 7 May 2009, Official Report, column 413W, on children in care: personal records, what penalties local authorities may incur for not keeping children's records for the required amount of time. [276649]
Dawn Primarolo: Where a local authority failed to comply with regulations by not keeping children's records for the required time, then the person(s) whose records were lost would be entitled to take legal action to seek whatever redress is judged to be appropriate from the authority concerned.
Children: Abuse
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many representations he has received on the allegations of child abuse at Kendall House. [271015]
Dawn Primarolo: Since August 2008, the Department has received 42 emails and two letters related to allegations of abuse at Kendall House.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average number of days taken to pay an invoice by (a) his Department and (b) each of its executive agencies was in each month since November 2008. [279524]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not hold readily available information on the average number of days to pay an invoice. This information cannot be extracted from existing payment performance data without incurring disproportionate cost to the Department.
However, the following table shows the proportion of all invoices paid by the Department within 10 working days, following the announcement by the Prime Minister in October 2008.
| Date | Number of invoices | Percentage |
The Department does not have any executive agencies.
Family Courts: Grandparents
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what (a) recent discussions he has had and (b) discussions he has planned with the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service on ensuring that family court proceedings include the examination of the relationship between grandparents and children. [278456]
Dawn Primarolo: The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has had no discussions with the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) on the issue of the relationship between grandparents and children in court proceedings and none are planned on this issue.
CAFCASS has a statutory remit to ensure that the best interests of the child are protected and that children are not put at risk. It is for local authorities to explore kinship care and placements with the wider family in public law care cases and for CAFCASS to explore whether extended family placement options have been properly considered and assessed.
CAFCASS, in family court cases, often need to consider the relevance of a child's attachment to one or more grandparents and to promote both contact and residence options where these are in the child's best interests.
Rehabilitation: Lincolnshire
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 20 May 2009, Official Report, column 1434W, on rehabilitation: Lincolnshire, how much of the (a) £24.7 million and (b) matched additional funds for drugs and alcohol treatment is being provided for residential treatment for under-18s. [279298]
Dawn Primarolo:
That information is not held centrally. The £24.7 million pooled treatment budget is allocated to local authorities to enable them to commission treatment services according to the local needs of young people. Additional funds from the Primary Care Trust and the
Area Based Grant are also used to fund specialist treatment services where appropriate.
For the vast majority of young people under 18 community-based services are the most appropriate option. There are a total of 35 residential places available across the country that is able to support young people with substance misuse and other complex needs. In addition, local authorities can arrange a package of support that combines specialist drug treatment with specialist children's home, fostering places or other supported accommodation.
Schools: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding the Government allocated to increasing parental engagement in schools in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each year since 1997. [279337]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are committed to supporting parental engagement. That support can take many forms at a local level, such as targeted support and family learning. In the Children’s Plan: Progress Report published in December 2008 we outlined further measures to support parents, schools and early years settings in engaging parents as partners in their children’s learning—comprising action to support parents and to prioritise parental engagement throughout the education system.
It is important that support for parental engagement is embedded in the day to day work of professionals in schools and early years settings and is established as part of the core business of those organisations.
This means a variety of funding routes should be used to support parental engagement. However, the main initiatives that cover parental engagement in schools are extended services including parent support advisors and family learning interventions.
Because parental engagement is only one element of extended services and decisions are made locally about spending and priorities, it is only possible to give overall government funding on these programmes for this area. Details of funding for these programmes since their inception are set out in the following table.
It is not possible to provide figures for Castle Point as it is a district of Essex and funding is only provided to local authorities.
| Extended services( 1) | Family learning( 2) | |
| (1 )Is made up of start up, sustainability and subsidy funding. Subsidy funding is only in 2008 to 2010 and has not been allocated for 2010 yet. The sustainability line includes funding for PSAs from 2008 onwards. (2 )Allocation for 2009 onwards has not been decided yet. (3 )The funding from 2003 to 2006 is for full service extended schools and includes allocation for start up, co-ordinators and child care. | ||
Schools: Merseyside
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding his Department has allocated to increasing parental engagement in schools in (a) Crosby and (b) Merseyside in each year since 1997. [278907]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are committed to supporting parental engagement. That support can take many forms at a local level, such as targeted support and family learning. In the Children’s Plan: Progress Report published in December 2008 we outlined further measures to support parents, schools and early years settings in engaging parents as partners in their children’s learning—comprising action to support parents and to prioritise parental engagement throughout the education system.
It is important that support for parental engagement is embedded in the day to day work of professionals in schools and early years settings and is established as part of the core business of those organisations.
This means a variety of funding routes should be used to support parental engagement. However, the main initiatives that cover parental engagement in schools are extended services including parent support advisors and family learning interventions.
Because parental engagement is only one element of extended services and decisions are made locally about spending and priorities, it is only possible to give overall government funding on these programmes for this area. Details of funding for these programmes since their inception is set out in the following table.
| Extended services( 1) | Family learning( 2) | |
| (1 )Is made up of start up, sustainability and subsidy funding. Subsidy funding is only in 2008 to 2010 and has not been allocated for 2010 yet. (2)Allocation for 2009 onwards has not been decided yet. (3) The funding from 2003 to 2006 is for full service extended schools and includes allocation for start up, co-ordinators and child care. | ||
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