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12 Jan 2010 : Column 916W—continued
| Looked-after-children adopted during the year by the time between the decision that a child should be placed for adoption and the making of the adoption order, by ethnic origin( 1, 2, 3) , year ending 31 March 2009, coverage: England | |||||||||||
| Number | |||||||||||
| Time between decision that a child should be placed for adoption and date of adoption | |||||||||||
| All children looked after adopted during the year | Over 6 months | Over 12 months | Over 18 months | Over 24 months | Over 30 months | Over 36 months | Over 42 months | Over 48 months | Over 54 months | Over 60 months | |
| (1) The waiting time has been calculated as the number of days between the date the LA decide adoption is in the child's best interest and the date the child is then adopted. (2) These figures are presented on a cumulative basis e.g. a child that is included in the 'Over 12 months' category has also been included in the 'Over 6 months' category. (3 )Rounding and suppression: To ensure that no individual can be identified from statistical tables, we use conventions for the rounding and suppression of very small numbers. At national level numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. Numbers from 1 to 5 inclusive have been suppressed, being replaced in the table by a (-). It has been necessary to suppress other figures whenever it would be possible to calculate the value of a suppressed number by means of simple arithmetic. The rule applied in these circumstances has been to suppress the next smallest data item provided its value is strictly less than 20. Source: SSDA903. | |||||||||||
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many adopted children of each age at the time of approval for adoption waited longer than (a) six, (b) 12, (c) 18, (d) 24, (e) 30, (f) 36, (g) 42, (h) 48, (i) 54 and (j) 60 months to be adopted following the decision that adoption was in their best interest in each year since 2001. [305327]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of looked after children adopted in the years ending 31 March 2001 to 2009, who had waited longer than (a) six, (b) 12, (c) 18, (d) 24, (e) 30, (f) 36, (g) 42, (h) 48, (i) 54 and (j) 60 months to be adopted following a local authority decision that they should be placed for adoption, by age at the time the decision was made that they should be placed for adoption, has been placed in the House Libraries.
The figures shown for the time between the local authority decision and the date of the making of the adoption order are cumulative.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for how many children in each local authority area adoption was determined to be in their best interest in the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available; and how many of those children were placed for adoption by (a) their local authority, (b) a private adoption agency and (c) a voluntary adoption agency. [305328]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the number of looked-after-children for whom the local authority decision was that they should be placed for adoption is not available.
Children: Social Services
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent estimate he has made of the average amount of time taken to complete an initial assessment of children referred to children's social care. [307423]
Dawn Primarolo: Data on the average amount of time taken to complete an initial assessment of children referred to children's social care are not held centrally. We do however collect data on the percentage of initial assessments completed within seven working days of referral. In 2008-09 this figure was 72 per cent.
Departmental Furniture
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has spent on furniture for use in the office assigned to him since June 2007. [302668]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: A total of £1,158.76 has been spent to acquire additional furniture for the Secretary of State's office since June 2007.
Departmental Official Cars
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much expenditure his Department has incurred in respect of official car services for (a) him and (b) each other Minister in his Department in each quarter since June 2007. [302936]
Ms Diana R. Johnson:
For financial year 2007-08, I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement
made by the then Secretary of State for Transport (Ruth Kelly) on 22 July 2008, Official Report, column 117WS.
For financial year 2008-09, I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made by hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Clark), on 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 80WS.
Early Intervention
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his policy is on early intervention; and if he will make a statement. [307947]
Dawn Primarolo: It is the Government's intention to put early intervention and prevention at the heart of children's services.
That is why we set out in the Children's Plan that by 2010,
"we will expect Children's Trusts to have in place consistent high quality arrangements to provide identification and early intervention for all children and young people who need additional help in relation to their health, education, care and behaviour, including help for their parents as appropriate."
Over recent years there has been massive investment to support early intervention. There is now a children's centre in every neighbourhood and almost 90 per cent. of schools are delivering the 'core offer' of extended services including childcare, health services and extra-curricular activities. We are also trialling programmes such as the Family Nurse Partnerships and Family Intervention Programmes in several areas.
We will shortly publish a consultation document on early intervention to help local partners to improve the quality and consistency of support for vulnerable children and families.
Family Law
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the outcome was of the time recording exercise undertaken in 2004 on the time being spent on public and private family law cases. [308103]
Dawn Primarolo: This is an operational matter for CAFCASS. I have asked the chief executive of CAFCASS, Anthony Douglas, to respond by letter to the hon. Member. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House Libraries.
Foster Care
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many kinship care foster placements there were in each of the last 30 years; [305361]
(2) how many (a) foster and (b) kinship care foster placements there were in each local authority area in each of the last five years. [305366]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the number of foster placements by local authority and type of placement for the last five years has been placed in the House Libraries. Further years can only be provided at disproportionate cost. This information is only available from 1992 onwards.
Mrs. Maria Miller:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children (a) fostered and (b) adopted
were placed with (i) grandparents, (ii) other relatives and (iii) friends of the family in the last 12 months. [305368]
Dawn Primarolo: The latest period for which figures are available covers the 12 months to 31 March 2009. There were 65,500 children looked after during the year ending 31 March 2009 under a foster placement; 10,500 (16 per cent.) of these were looked after by family or friends and 55,000 (84 per cent.) of these were looked after by other carers. These figures exclude those looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. Information on the relationship of the foster carer to the child is not collected therefore it is not possible to provide the full detail requested.
Information on the relationship of adopted children to their adoptees is not collected centrally by the Department.
GCSE: Disadvantaged
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in what proportion of schools in each index of multiple deprivation decile less than 30 per cent. of pupils obtained five A* to C grades at GCSE including English and mathematics but excluding equivalents in the (a) earliest and (b) most recent year for which figures are available. [310369]
Mr. Coaker: The information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Home Education
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when his Department will publish its analysis of the responses to its consultation on the Badman Report on elective home education in England. [310388]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The response to the "Home Education: registration and monitoring proposals" public consultation was published on 11 January 2010. It can be found on the Department's Consultation Unit website on:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?menu=3&;title=Archive%20and%20results
Pre-School Education: Finance
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans he has to extend the free entitlement to early education to two- year-olds who live in families with modest and middle incomes. [305175]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government will continue to make progress on the long-term ambition set out by the Prime Minister to extend the offer of free part time nursery places for all two-year-olds whose parents want them. Already over 20,000 two-year-olds have access to free places and the reforms we are making to tax relief for child care vouchers will allow us to go further.
Social Services: Leeds
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much Leeds social services spent on children's services in each year since 2001. [306931]
Dawn Primarolo: The available information on how much Leeds local authority spent on children's social care in each year since 2001 is shown in the following table:
| Gross expenditure on children's services from 2001-02 to 2007-08 | |
| Gross expenditure (£000) | |
| Notes: 1. Responsibility for collecting financial information on local authority spend on children's social function was passed to the DCSF in 2008-09. 2. Figures used in this PQ answer were obtained from the Department of Health. | |
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