Written questions by McIntyre.

What steps her Department is taking to support victims of rape and sexual violence in Gloucester.

The Ministry of Justice has significantly increased funding for victim and witness support over recent years. As part of this, the Department provides Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) with annual grant funding to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types.For the financial year 24/25, we are providing £41 million of ringfenced funding for Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) roles, and £21 million of ringfenced funding for community-based domestic abuse and sexual violence services. This is in addition to the core funding the Ministry of Justice provides to PCCs to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need. Gloucestershire PCC received £1,343,073 in financial year 24/25 to support victims.Additionally, the MOJ-commissioned 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, delivered by Rape Crisis England and Wales, provides victims and survivors access to vital help and information whenever they need it. Free and confidential emotional and listening support is available to all victims and survivors of rape and sexual abuse aged 16 and over. Where appropriate, the service will signpost victims to longer-term support services, including therapeutic support.Since May 2024, the Ministry of Justice has also been running a pilot providing free sentencing remarks to victims of rape and serious sexual offences. We will be evaluating the pilot to understand cost, uptake and impact on victims when it ends in May 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) children living in temporary accommodation in the Gloucester constituency.

Homelessness and rough sleeping levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. This Government will address this and deliver long term solutions to combat the need to sleep rough. We will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us on back on track to ending homelessness and rough sleeping once and for all.Whilst we develop our new cross governmental strategy, the £547 million Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) which runs from April 2022 to March 2025 will continue its support to up to 300 local authorities across England including Gloucester City Council by funding local, tailored rough sleeping services.On 31 March 2024, there were 198 households in temporary accommodation in Gloucester. Of these, there were 94 families with 204 children. This information is available at table TA1 Detailed_LA_202403.xlsx.

What steps she is taking to improve opportunities for young people in Gloucester.

The Opportunity Mission will build opportunity for all by giving every child, including children across Gloucester the best start in life, helping them achieve and thrive, and building skills for opportunity and growth. This will be underpinned by family security, and we must tackle the underlying barriers to opportunity that hold too many young people back. That is why the department is committed to recruiting 6,500 additional teachers, creating 3,000 new or expanded school-based nurseries, expanding childcare entitlements for eligible working families, providing free breakfast clubs in every primary school and launching Skills England to transform opportunities and drive growth. We are also investing more in children’s services to set them on a sustainable trajectory and have announced new funding for kinship care and fostering to keep children safe and provide family security for our most vulnerable children. We will also introduce the youth guarantee, which will help 18 to 21-year-olds to access education, training, or apprenticeships opportunities and receive employment support. This will give all young people the best start in their career, so they can secure good, skilled jobs in the future, both in Gloucester and across the country. The government will also introduce new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted and growing sectors. Foundation apprenticeships are a work-based training offer that will give more young people a foot in the door and will support clear progression pathways into further work-based training and employment. We will work closely with the sector to ensure the design is fit for purpose and meets employers’ needs and further detail will be set out in due course.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of people sleeping rough in Gloucester; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing a long term plan to end rough sleeping.

Homelessness and rough sleeping levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. This Government will address this and deliver long term solutions to combat the need to sleep rough. We will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us on back on track to ending homelessness and rough sleeping once and for all.Whilst we develop our new cross governmental strategy, the £547 million Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) which runs from April 2022 to March 2025 will continue its support to up to 300 local authorities across England including Gloucester City Council by funding local, tailored rough sleeping services.On 31 March 2024, there were 198 households in temporary accommodation in Gloucester. Of these, there were 94 families with 204 children. This information is available at table TA1 Detailed_LA_202403.xlsx.

What recent steps she has taken to establish Young Futures Hubs in (a) Gloucester and (b) across the country.

The Government is committed to rolling out a new Youth Futures programme, including a network of Young Futures Hubs which will bring together services to help improve the way young people can access the support they need.Officials from across a range of departments are already working together, using evidence of what works to start to shape how the prevention partnerships and hubs will work in practice. As part of this we are engaging with local communities, the police, charities, and other key partners to support the design of the programme and explore options for it’s delivery, ensuring we are making use of the vast knowledge and experience that already exists. This includes considerations of the most suitable locations as well as how best to engage with those young people who would benefit most from their support.We will provide further detail on the future timelines for delivery as the work develops.

What steps she is taking to improve educational outcomes for (a) children in social care and (b) care-experienced young people in Gloucester.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving all our children and young people the start in life they deserve. The government is committed to working in partnership with local government to support children who have experienced the care system across all settings, and to improving their educational outcomes.In July, the King’s Speech set out the government’s plans to introduce a Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which will help raise standards for children in care and ensure that every child can thrive in a safe, loving home as part of the government’s commitment to deliver high and rising standards in education for children and young people in England. The Bill is expected to be introduced within the first session of Parliament and will be a crucial step in breaking down barriers to opportunity for children and young people.Children in care and care leavers in Gloucester will also benefit from the almost £1 billion we have put into the high needs budget for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in 2025/26 given the high levels of SEND in the cohort, and the £300 million of funding we are putting into further education to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed.

What steps she is taking to help reduce the number of children in poverty in Gloucester.

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. Our publication on 23 October ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’ sets out how we will develop the Strategy, harnessing all available levers to deliver a reduction in child poverty this Parliament. The Strategy will look at policies across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments. The Taskforce will hear directly from experts on each of the Strategy’s themes including children and families living in poverty and work with leading organisations, charities, and campaigners. The vital work of the Taskforce comes alongside our commitments to triple our investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, extend the Household Support Fund for an additional year until 31 March 2026, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers.

What steps she is taking to ensure that disabled children are included in the Children's Wellbeing Bill.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will remove barriers to opportunity for every child, by raising school standards and delivering our commitment on children’s social care.The precise content of the Bill will be confirmed upon the Bill’s introduction, which will be as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

What steps his Department has taken to reduce the waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services in Gloucester.

It is the responsibility of NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board to make available appropriate provision to meet the mental health and other care needs of children and young people in Gloucester.Nationally, we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across children and adult mental health services to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on busy children and young people’s mental health services.We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England so that mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life. We will also roll out open access Young Futures hubs for children and young people in every community. This national network is expected to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges.We are currently working with colleagues at NHS England and across Government to consider options to deliver these commitments.