Recommendations & Conclusions
5 items
8
Recommendation
Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vul…
Rejected
The NAO report collates for the first time a wide range of information from across government about the adverse outcomes facing the most vulnerable adolescents. The Department for Education told us it would be challenging to report across government on ‘every possible difficulty’ but it would be possible to focus …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation. It says it does not maintain a single definition of vulnerability because different agencies need flexibility. The Vulnerable Children and Families Strategy Board will monitor data sharing progress.
HM Treasury
23
Recommendation
Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vul…
Rejected
The poor outcomes experienced by vulnerable adolescents are often overlapping. For example, we received written evidence highlighting research which shows people who have been in care are more likely to experience homelessness, long-term physical and 53 Q 39 54 C&AG’s Report, para 1.19 55 Q 44; HMI Probation, A thematic …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating they are committed to data sharing and that a single definition of vulnerability is not appropriate. The Vulnerable Children and Families Strategy Board will monitor data sharing to safeguard vulnerable children.
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vul…
Rejected
The NAO found that Government data sets are not consistently joined-up, which makes it difficult to understand the nature and scale of the adverse impacts faced by adolescents, particularly where these are overlapping adverse outcomes. This makes it harder to understand how risks escalate and how support can be better …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating they are committed to data sharing and that a single definition of vulnerability is not appropriate. The Vulnerable Children and Families Strategy Board will monitor data sharing to safeguard vulnerable children.
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vul…
Rejected
The Department for Education and Ministry of Justice referred to a joint data sharing exercise they carried out in 2020 to understand the educational and children’s social care background of children who have been cautioned or sentenced for an offence. The Ministry of Justice told us this had helped “shine …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating they are committed to data sharing and that a single definition of vulnerability is not appropriate. The Vulnerable Children and Families Strategy Board will monitor data sharing to safeguard vulnerable children.
HM Treasury
26
Recommendation
Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vul…
Rejected
The government have plans to join up more data sets. For example, the Department for Education told us about work it has planned to link anonymised data on education, hospital admissions, mental health services, community services and maternity services. In response to our questions about how quickly it would develop …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating that different agencies define vulnerability differently and need flexibility, therefore it's not appropriate for one department to set a common approach for collecting and using data to assess outcomes for all vulnerable adolescents; …
HM Treasury