Speeches by Daby.

“Government amendment 1 is crucial to ensure that Skills England is not unnecessarily held back. Transformation is under way—businesses and employers cannot afford to wait. Government amendment 2 is a normal procedure for Bills originating in the House of Lords. I urge the Committee to support the Government amendments …”

“I hear what the shadow Minister is saying and will endeavour to get more information to him on those points. He asked about the flexibility of apprenticeships and levies. I wrote to the Chairs of the Committee yesterday addressing his question, but I understand that that was only yesterday.”

“As I have already said, the devolved areas will work on LSIPs with ERBs and maintain a close and strong relationship with Skills England. LSIPs provide ongoing mechanisms through which local employers, strategic authorities, providers and other stakeholders come together to identify and address skills needs and issues.…”

“I ask the hon. Gentleman to allow me to proceed further, because there is so much to say. We have announced £300 million of additional revenue for further education, with £50 million available to sixth-form and further education colleges from April, to help to respond to priorities including workforce, recruitment and …”

“I am sorry, Ms Furniss. This is very flustering. As I said, we have had 14 years of complacency and neglect from the previous Government. Following the reforms they introduced, including the apprenticeship levy, apprenticeship starts have fallen by more than 30%. It is concerning that fewer young people are benefiting …”

“The right hon. Member speaks of the enormous challenges; might I point out that the enormous challenges were left by the previous Government, which he was part of? The right hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston were both previously in the Government, so it is only right that I set the co…”

“Government amendment 1 lets the Secretary of State make regulations that determine the date, or dates, when clauses 1 to 8 and schedules 1 to 3 come into force. The other provisions of the Bill in clauses 9 to 14 come into force on the day on which the Bill is passed. This amendment seeks to overturn the amendment pass…”

“Absolutely. In saying that, I also want to acknowledge that many IFAs and private children’s homes do good work and provide care for children, and good quality care, but we will not tolerate the profiteering that is taking place. Yes, absolutely a fair and transparent process.”

“We recognise that there may be some ways in which some companies will try to—I am trying to think of the right word—hide or avoid, so that they don’t incur a profit cap or come under it. We are analysing all of this and looking at how we make sure that everything is transparent, open and not hidden really. As I have al…”

“As we work on this and are building the capacity ourselves and firming up our lines of review, I am happy to share that with this Committee. Thank you.”

“Foster carers are like gold dust. They absolutely do a great job with caring for children, bringing children into their life and into their home. We absolutely value the experience, the care, the love that foster carers provide to children. I believe that foster carers rates were increased above inflation in the last i…”

“We absolutely value foster carers and we absolutely feel that foster carers have the support from the local authorities and have the support and encouragement from Government as well. It is a space where we recognise that we need to do more and we are always reviewing it as well. On rolling out the fostering hubs, we r…”

“Sibling contact is extremely important and it should already be that way for local authorities when they are placing children. Siblings should always be placed together, basically, and local authorities have the responsibility to place siblings together unless there is a significant reason why that should not happen. I…”

“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.”

“Absolutely, yes.”

“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…”

“Thank you for the question. I also acknowledge the great work that kinship carers are doing and they are very good at coming together to support each other as well. The Department offers the peer-to-peer support and some mentoring support as well through family rights groups.[1] The Department has been working on the p…”

“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…”

“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…”

“As a Select Committee?”