Select committee: Education Committee
Recommendation 2
4th Report - Children’s social care
Published 10 Jul 2025
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Children’s social care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
By the end of this year, the Department for Education must issue a comprehensive response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care which was published over three years ago. This should set out which recommendations have already been taken forward and a timeline and funding estimate for those which have not. It must evaluate the impact of the pilot programmes which have already taken place and set out how it plans to scale up those which prove to be effective. (Recommendation, Paragraph 9)
From: Education Committee, 4th Report - Children’s social care (HC 430), 10 July 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 October 2025 (deadline 10 September 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says its reform programme, backed by investment of "over £2 billion", addresses many of the Committee's concerns, and accepts some recommendations while declining others such as a national sufficiency strategy.
- On out-of-area placements and sufficiency, it does "not believe a national sufficiency strategy would be responsive enough" to local needs, and says national reporting of reasons for out-of-area placements would be "costly" to local authorities.
- On a profit cap, it would consider one "only if" other measures are not successful, and "can commit to consulting specifically with the Committee" as part of the process.
- On kinship care, it does not currently plan to extend Pupil Premium Plus or admissions priority, citing "limited evidence", but is exploring collecting data through the school census.
- On a national register of foster carers, it is "considering the potential costs and benefits" and will engage stakeholders to "determine next steps".