Speeches by Daby.

“In making sure that we have got the early help, the intervention, the family, the family hubs, that is part of making sure—”

“The early intervention work is key to our whole system approach of making fundamental changes to children coming into care. It is very much about making sure that we have the support systems and mechanisms in place early. That will be done through the family hub-type structures and making sure that we have the more joi…”

“You are absolutely right, we face many challenges now that we are in government. One of those is that over the last 10 years the number of looked-after children has increased by 22% and has reached 83,630. There are many challenges, which is why the Bill is so crucial in making sure that we look at early intervention a…”

“These are all still being worked out and looked at. It is still putting all the information together. It needs to be reviewed, we need to look at it and make sure that the protection factors are in place for children. I don’t know if you have anything further to say on that. I would like to take away what you are sayin…”

“What I mean is with IICSA and what the Department is looking at and how we continue to work with the Home Office on the recommendations. That is what I mean.”

“Nobody does. That was the next word that I was going to say. Nobody wants children to go to school hungry. We want children to be able to focus on their learning; neither do we want children to have tooth decay or any issues associated with that. I hear the point that is made and the evidence. This is why education is …”

“We have got to where we are now through the care review. Fran will say more about the processes. A lot of work on the care review was done with the previous Government. Since I have been the Minister, I have had multiple engagements with children and care leavers, listening to their views and their wishes, and really m…”

“Thank you, Chair. I am Janet Daby and I am the Minister for Children’s Social Care.”

“That is not something I was aware of, to be very honest. Let me take that away and have a look at it.”

“I will pass that to you, Fran.”

“You are absolutely right, we are changing inspections in children’s social care and Ofsted is committing to removing the single headline. Ofsted has not started, but it is in the consultation process.”

“Not at present.”

“Information like that is very concerning, because that places, as you are aware, more pressure on the local authorities to be able to find appropriate placements, and that in itself can be very difficult with the impact of driving up cost. It was put in local authorities and we will also be looking at through the Regio…”

“We are looking into this, yes. This does raise concerns and it is something that we need to look into, absolutely.”

“I am not sure. To be very honest, we would need to wait until we hear what the announcement is to know.”

“In the child poverty area there is a departmental meeting that is chaired by the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Education, so at that level I imagine they would have been consulted on this. That information has not been brought to my attention to have those conversations.”

“I am concerned because I want to hear the information and whether there is any pending effect on children’s welfare needs and families. I am interested to hear what it has to say and, if there is an impact, what that impact may or may not be. I want to ensure that children have the best care, which they need.”

“I will pass on to Fran, but before I do I just want to say that when children are placed out of borough, and if they have been moved back in, there needs to be a period of how that will work and the whole reunification.”

“Thank you for raising that. In the autumn Budget, we have seen a real commitment from the Government to the reforms in children’s social care. It is going in the right direction and there are some real big step changes with the kinship allowance, family help and child protection. There are some big movers here for movi…”

“The other thing in response is that we are in a very difficult fiscal financial position as a Government. We are seeing investment from the Government towards children’s social care, the reform work that is taking place, but it is difficult to predict how Treasury will continue to fund and support this. We know there i…”