Written questions by Asato.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing school-based whole family support practitioners to support the SEND system.

This government wants to create a high-quality system that places children and families at the centre of its design, providing meaningful and consistent support for families as their needs change over time. Schools, colleges, early years and childcare settings, and other educational providers, including alternative provision, all have a pivotal role to play in safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. Their insight and co-operation are vital to the successful delivery of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. People working in education settings play an important role in building relationships, identifying concerns and providing direct support to children. The Children’s Social Care National Framework sets out the purpose, principles and enablers of good practice and the outcomes that should be achieved. The guidance describes what everyone working with families should do and helps everyone come together with a clear vision for how to transform the support that families receive. Services should prioritise supporting the whole family, recognising that problems do not exist in silos and are often interconnected and intergenerational. Intervening to provide support at the earliest opportunity can help prevent challenges from escalating and improve outcomes. Family hubs play an important role helping families access vital services to improve the health, education and wellbeing of children, young people and their families. As part of the family hubs’ ‘Start for Life’ programme, there are now over 400 family hubs open across 88 local authorities, creating a welcoming place where families with children aged 0 to 19, or up to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), can be connected to a wide range of services. Programme guidance outlines the minimum expectation that local authorities should be delivering in their family hubs for SEND support Family Hub Service Expectations.This support includes the staff in the family hub being knowledgeable about the SEND services available and being able to connect families to SEND services within the family hub network. Over the last three years, many of the local authorities on the programme have chosen to focus on improving SEND services, bringing local offers together in one place and funding early identification/intervention on speech, language and communication needs.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, published on 26 November 2024; and what steps she is taking to include the (a) prevention and (b) tackling of child sexual abuse in her Department's plans for introducing Multi-Agency Child Protection Units.

This government is committed to keeping children safe and to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their success. Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.The department is very grateful for the work of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, including their report published last week on child sexual abuse in the family environment. Any instance of child abuse is abhorrent, and this report importantly highlights the weaknesses in the system that have shielded abusers and left children at risk of harm. There is a renewed government focus in which we will be driving a holistic and ambitious response to tackling all forms of abuse, including child sexual abuse. Multi-agency child protection teams are based on a recommendation from a previous Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, Child Protection in England. They are part of the Families First for Children (FFC) pathfinders that draw on evidence from the ‘Supporting Families’ and ‘Strengthening families, protecting children’ programmes, which deliver multi-agency and multi-disciplinary whole-family support for children and young people. Evaluation of the ‘Supporting Families’ programme showed a 32% reduction in children going into care from families within two years of being on the programme. The ‘Family Safeguarding’ programme evaluation also found significant reductions in the numbers of new looked after children aged under 12, which reduced by 26%, average number of children on Child Protection Plans aged under 12, which reduced by 43%, and police call outs, the monthly average of which reduced by 64%.In the ten FFC pathfinder areas, multi-agency child protection practitioners from the local authority, police, health and other relevant agencies are working together in a much more integrated way with overall responsibility for protecting children from harm, alongside social workers with the highest levels of knowledge and skills in child protection work. We know that by working together, agencies are better able to accurately and quickly identify when children are likely to experience, or are experiencing, significant harm and take decisive and skilled action to address this.In addition to the £45 million already invested in the FFC pathfinder programme, last week the government announced two grants for Children’s Services in 2025/26 which should be used together, alongside the £680 million increase in the Social Care Grant:A Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant worth £250 million of new funding to enable direct investment in additional prevention activity through transition to Family Help.A Children and Families Grant worth £415 million, including £253.5 million of what was ‘Supporting Families’ funding in 2024/25.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory minimum fee framework for foster carers.

I pay tribute to the vital efforts of foster carers, who carry out a challenging role that requires skill, dedication and love. Our policy statement, ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’ sets out our plans to recruit and retain more foster carers and provide access to support for both kinship and foster carers. This statement can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf This government has also confirmed its commitment to further reforms to children’s social care in the future. As part of these reforms, the department will consider how it can further support foster carers and ensure that more children receive loving care in foster families. However, there are no current plans to introduce a statutory minimum fee framework for foster carers. Fostering service providers, including local authorities, have the flexibility to pay additional fees. Decisions to pay fees are therefore made independently by the fostering service provider. The department encourages all fostering service providers to regularly review the fees they pay to their foster carers to ensure they remain appropriate. All foster carers should receive at least the National Minimum Allowance (NMA), to cover the costs of raising an extra child in their home. The NMA has been uplifted by 3.55% for the 2025/26 financial year If any foster carers receive less than the NMA, they should discuss this with their fostering service and use their complaints procedure if necessary. If the issue is not resolved, it can be escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who has assured the department that these cases will be considered and dealt with appropriately.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of recognising (a) non-formal and (b) experiential learning alongside academic achievements in the curriculum review.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) is being independently conducted by a group of education leaders (the review group) and chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Terms of Reference were published in July 2024.The review has been asked to consider how to remove barriers to learning and remove ceilings to achievement. It will support the innovation and professionalism of teachers, enabling them to adapt how they teach the curriculum to their students’ lives and life experiences.The review will also look at whether the current assessment system can be improved for both young people and staff. It will seek to deliver an assessment system that captures the strengths of every child and young person and the breadth of curriculum with the right balance of assessment methods whilst maintaining the important role of examinations.The role of the review group is to consider the evidence, the responses to the call for evidence and widespread engagement with the sector over the coming months, and then make recommendations for the government to consider.The review group will publish an interim report in the new year setting out their interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work. The final review with recommendations will be published in autumn 2025.The government will consider changes to the National Curriculum and assessment in light of the recommendations of the review.A link to access the CAR’s call for evidence can be found below: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/improving-the-curriculum-and-assessment-system.