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7 July 2009 : Column 751W—continued
Funding levels have yet to be agreed for the following projects.
These projects have started in BSF, but have yet to achieve approval of the outline business case, which confirms the funding.
| Wave | Local authority |
| (1) Authorities which have three-tier schools in all or part of the authority. | |
Carers: Yorkshire
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent estimate he has made of the number of young carers in (a) Barnsley, (b) Doncaster and (c) South Yorkshire. [282791]
Dawn Primarolo: The 2001 Census, which is the only source of nationally comparable data on the number of carers of all ages, indicated that there were some 700 children and young people aged under 18 in Barnsley, 900 in Doncaster and 4,000 in South Yorkshire who were offering some care to family members, neighbours, friends or others.
The Census records young people who are described by the adults in the household as offering care to their families or communities. This includes young people who are responsible for the care of a family member (which is how young carers are usually defined) plus others who may provide more occasional support such as child care for their parents or care for neighbours and friends.
Child Workforce Development Council
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what budget he has allocated to the Child Workforce Development Council for (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) each future year for which figures are available. [283236]
Dawn Primarolo: The Children’s Workforce Development Council has been allocated a core grant allocation of £31,003,000 for 2010-11 as part of the comprehensive spending review agreements. The additional contributions for specific programme delivery have not yet been agreed.
The financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13 are beyond the extent of this comprehensive spending review cycle and therefore information is not available.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full-time equivalent staff the Child Workforce Development Council employed in each year since its establishment. [283237]
Dawn Primarolo: Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) was established in 2005. The following table details the average monthly number of full-time equivalent staff employed by CWDC in each year since its establishment:
| Permanent | Other | Total | |
| (1) Taken from published Annual Reports and Financial Statements. (2) As will be restated in draft audited accounts 2008-09 to be laid before summer recess 2009. (3) Taken from draft audited accounts 2008-09. | |||
Children in Care
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will bring forward secondary legislation under the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 to provide that (a) children in care shall receive a visit from a local authority representative at least once a month, (b) adults who have been in care may be considered for appointment as independent visitors by local authorities, (c) a child may be placed outside a local authority's area if it is in the child's best interest, (d) before any child in care is placed back home with a parent a local authority must ensure that (i) it is safe for the child, (ii) the parent or parents can look after the child and (iii) the child is happy to go home and (e) the duties of independent review officers shall include (A) keeping in touch with each child in care, (B) listening to children's views, (C) making sure a child in care understands the local authority's planned arrangements and (D) checking action taken against care plans and reviews. [262513]
Dawn Primarolo: We intend to tackle the issues raised in the question as follows:
(a) Section 15 of the Children and Young Persons Act places a duty on local authorities to arrange for all looked after children to be visited by a representative of theirs and for all looked-after-children to have available to them advice, support and assistance when they seek it. We shall be issuing regulations about how local authorities should discharge its duties under this section. We intend to impose a general minimum requirement setting the frequency of social work visits to looked-after-children and we will specify in addition that visits should also take place at the request of the child or their carer. We will be consulting on draft regulations and guidance including the frequency of visits in due course.
(b) We will also be using new regulations to broaden the categories of children who could be provided with an independent visitor. Care experienced adults might well make very suitable independent visitors for looked-after-children and we will consider them alongside other options.
(c) Section 8 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 sets out the considerations that local authorities must have regard to when they are considering making a placement for a looked-after-child. We will be strengthening regulations and guidance so that all placement decisions must be based on a thorough assessment of the needs of the individual child concerned which, for some children is likely to result in a placement away from their home community and out of their local authority area.
(d) Our strengthened regulations and guidance will say that every looked-after-child must have a care plan based on thorough detailed assessment setting out how the local authority intends to respond to their needs. All care plans must take into account the child's wishes and feelings. Plans to re-unify looked-after-children with their families must take account of children's safety and include an assessment of how the child and their family's circumstances have changed so that their parents are able to resume the child's care.
(e) Section 10 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 specifically strengthens the role of the independent reviewing officer (IRO) by:
Making it clear that one of the IRO's core responsibilities is to ensure that children and young people are able to contribute meaningfully to their care plan and its reviews.
Imposing a new legal duty on IROs to ensure that due consideration is given by the local authority to the child's wishes and feelings.
Ensure that each child will have a named IRO, so that a child can be confident that one person will offer continuity and have oversight of their case.
Through new regulations and guidance, we intend to specify that every child must have their own named IRO and that IROs must meet with the young person in advance of the review meeting. This is to ensure that they understand the purpose of the review and are given the opportunity to fully contribute to the discussion about the plan for their future care. Every review should provide a real opportunity to scrutinise the child's care plan to ensure that it continues to offer an appropriate response to the full range of their needs.
Children in Care: Merseyside
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were in residential care in (a) Merseyside and (b) Crosby in each of the last five years. [282529]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 4 June 2009, Official Report, columns 640-45W. This response showed the number of children in residential care at 31 March, by local authority for years ending 31 March 2000 to 2008.
Merseyside is made up of the following local authorities: Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St. Helens. Figures cannot be provided below local authority level.
Children In Care: Missing Persons
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children went missing from care homes in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year from 1997 to 2008. [282907]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 12 June 2009, Official Report, column 1068W. Information on the number of looked after children that went missing from care homes was not collected prior to 2001. This information cannot be provided below local authority level.
Children in Care: Staffordshire
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of looked-after children in Staffordshire achieved results equivalent to or higher than the average results achieved by all children in (a) England and (b) Staffordshire in each key stage examination in each of the last five years. [282488]
Dawn Primarolo: Published information for children looked after continuously for 12 months at 30 September each year is available in the local authority tables via the following links:
All tables show the attainment for each key stage for looked after children compared to all children. This shows the numbers and percentages achieving the expected level which are provided instead of the average results.
Data for key stage 1 are not included for 2004 because this was the trial year for key stage 1 teacher assessments—as this took place in a sample of schools; it is not possible to provide a comparison between the attainments of looked after children and all children.
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