Speeches by Daby.

“Of the money that has been put towards foster care, I believe there has been an uplift of around £11 million for fostering. I will pass on to Fran with some of the details around the money but there is a—”

“I think you raise a good point and, as a constituency MP myself, I have come up against a situation where respite is needed but respite placement has not been identified. That puts an additional strain and struggle on the family, an unnecessary stress, I think you are absolutely right. We do have challenges, I have to …”

“The local authorities make the decision as to where they place children and they find themselves in some very difficult and tight situations. The task is for the local authority to make sure they have the right provision, they place children in the right provision from the get-go, day one. Ofsted absolutely need to mak…”

“What you have described is absolutely right. Ofsted has been tasked with registering provisions that are unregistered but not the provisions like the barges and the unsuitable types of provisions we are talking about. If they are in a children’s home that is not registered, they have been tasked with registering every …”

“The local authorities are very energised generally around this because they recognise that they need children’s homes and children’s provisions. They are working with the Department on that. We have had many local authorities that have already started to put forward their ideas and their bids and ways in which they can…”

“Yes.”

“It is a very good question. We recognise we need to build more and we are encouraging local authorities to do that, to identify spaces and places for open children’s homes. We are looking at 200 and it would be the local authorities that would identify the areas and make that known to the Department. They will be manag…”

“I have met with a few adoption organisations and the issue around support in school often comes up because of the early years trauma and teachers needing to recognise this and to make sure that the understanding is there for the children in school. I am already looking at this as an area to see what more we can do, whe…”

“I am aware of the uncertainty and the insecurity that that is causing, because obviously the announcement has not been made. The announcement will be made very soon about the adoption and special guardianship funding. As soon as that information is available, it will be made known. I absolutely understand, I hear, I do…”

“We have come into Government and we have inherited this situation that you have outlined, where there are areas of focus and areas of need. I believe that these areas can be addressed. I have met with Adoption England. We fund Adoption England as well. It recognises the areas we have suggested where it needs to act and…”

“I think we are at the first step. We started within the Department with what we are trying to do and have begun to do. Where I feel we have made a big splash with kinship carers is that we will carry on reviewing and looking at what more needs to be done in this space to support kinship carers.”

“People becoming kinship carers will be a very minimal number of people when you think about their employment and would have a very small impact on an organisation or employers. However, we recognise that kinship leave is very important.”

“We have kinship leave within the Department for Education. This is an area that we think is quite crucial. We are looking at and focusing on it and I am sure Fran can say a bit more about it.”

“You could invite her to come and speak to you. I am sure she delighted to do that and she will be able to speak about the work that she is doing, the areas that she is focused on and how she is working with Government as well.”

“As a Select Committee?”

“Sure. I am not sure if you are aware of the new kinship ambassador. We have a new kinship ambassador called Jahnine Davis. She is there to focus on the policies with us around kinship care. She will also be working with local authorities and kinship carers, making sure that there is consistency across local authorities…”

“We are looking at other areas and other ways in which we can support kinship carers, absolutely. We are looking at the adoption and special guardianship funding to enable kinship children to be able to benefit from that, as well as the virtual school head. I am just going to pass on to Fran in case I have missed anythi…”

“It is a huge concern and it is good that you have raised it. It needs attention. We have cross-departmental ministerial meetings. It has already come up to do with the size of people’s homes, temporary accommodation and so on. Also I think there are some priorities for local authorities to do with foster carers needing…”

“Absolutely, yes.”

“No, we don’t have data on that but it is a good thing to raise and it is something that we can gain from local authorities, because that is quite crucial.”