Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
We asked the Department whether its definition of ‘vulnerable children’ remained relevant in light of...
Conclusion
We asked the Department whether its definition of ‘vulnerable children’ remained relevant in light of the pandemic. The Department explained that two elements of the definition that it used to decide who could access a school place—children with a social worker or an EHC plan—were fixed. But the definition also included an important third category, which was those children whom schools considered vulnerable in other regards. This allowed schools flexibility to take account of factors such as wider home circumstances or mental health issues, and to make sure that places could be made available to the children whom schools knew would suffer if they were not able to access 7 Q 10 8 Q 25 9 Q 26 10 Qq 11, 25 11 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.3, 2.5 12 Q 51 13 Q 24 14 Q 51 10 COVID-19: Support for children’s education face-to-face education.15 We challenged the Department about whether schools generally understood and felt empowered to apply this aspect of the definition. The Department agreed to consider whether its guidance could have made clearer that schools had this discretion, and what it could do to help make sure that people felt empowered to make those decisions.16
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: January 2022 2.2 The department continues to work with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and local authorities (LAs) to collect, interpret and report data on referrals to children’s social care during the pandemic. 2.3 The latest data in the Vulnerable children and young people survey suggest that overall referrals since the pandemic began remains around 10% below expected levels. The survey includes data on sources of referrals to enable tracking of referrals from partners (such as schools or police) against expected numbers. In addition, the survey includes qualitative insights into how some LAs are working differently with local partners to safeguard vulnerable children in their local area during this time. 2.4 While the department continues to interrogate the data on referrals it is already supporting LAs to ensure children are effectively safeguarded. 2.5 The Children’s Social Care recovery fund will provide up to £24 million for nine regional plans to fund proven solutions to challenges local authorities face in delivering effective children’s social care services following COVID-19. 2.6 Additionally, the department intervenes in all local authorities that are rated inadequate for children’s social care services and supports improvement in those where performance is declining.