Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the role of the local authority in terms of (a) child protection, (b) safeguarding and (c) other duties for schools which become academies; and who will finance those roles.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities’ responsibilities in relation to child protection and safeguarding are unaffected by schools becoming academies, as they are not dependent on the type of school which a child attends. Details of the role we expect local authorities to play are set out in the statutory guidance “Working together to safeguard children 2015”[1]. Ofsted also inspects local authorities’ children’s social care services against the rigorous ‘Single Inspection Framework’, which includes a review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.

The White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere,[2] sets out the education functions which we expect local authorities to provide when schools have become academies. These are focussed on supporting the interests of pupils and parents rather than services related to maintaining schools.

Local authority funding for children’s social care is administered by the Department for Communities and Local Government. As part of our ongoing National Funding Formula consultation[3], we are proposing to create a new central schools block, which will fund a range of education services that local authorities carry out for all pupils and parents, regardless of whether they are in a maintained school or an academy.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf

[3] https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 30272, what account he has made of the effect on economic growth of the recent reduction in fuel duty.

Damian Hinds

The Government took into account a wide number of factors when considering the impact of freezing fuel duty at Budget 2016, including the impact on growth. HMRC/HM Treasury analysis published in 2014 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analysis-of-the-dynamic-effects-of-fuel-duty-reductions

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of adults in Southampton have been diagnosed with dementia in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison

Information is not available in the format requested.

The number of people recorded on the practice dementia disease register is available in the Quality and Outcomes Framework, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, from 2006/07, when dementia indicators were introduced into the framework. The proportion of patients diagnosed is not available but the numbers of people on the dementia register are available. This is a measure of prevalence rather than incidence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to provide information to enable future planning by supported housing providers during the next 12 months.

Brandon Lewis

The supported housing sector provides valuable support to some of our country’s most vulnerable people and we recognise the important role that it plays.

We are currently undertaking an evidence review of the supported housing sector, which is due to report shortly. We will work with the sector as part of developing a long-term sustainable funding regime.

In the meantime, we have put in place a one-year exception for all supported accommodation from the social rent reduction policy and from the Local Housing Allowance cap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government’s policy is on the use of child advocates to support social workers working with unaccompanied migrant children.

Karen Bradley

Unaccompanied migrant children are looked after by local authorities, which provide social work support and access to legal representation. Such children are also referred to the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel for specialist support.

In addition, the Government ran a trial of independent child trafficking advocates from 8 September 2014 for a period of 12 months across 23 local authorities in England. The trial provided a valuable contribution to our understanding of this area of work and we are currently working with a broad range of interested parties as well as Parliamentarians to further develop our thinking so that we ensure we support trafficked children appropriately. We will update Parliament in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are supported by (a) NHS West London, (b) NHS North Manchester and (c) West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Alistair Burt

The number of registered patients in each of the specified clinical commissioning group (CCG) areas as at 1 April 2016 is shown in the following table.

CCG	Number of registered patients
NHS West London	242,428
NHS North Manchester	206,140
NHS West Hampshire	553,237

Source: Information extracted on a quarterly basis from the General Practice payments system, which is maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on giving housing association tenants whose tenancies are defined as market rental the right to buy.

Gavin Barwell

The voluntary Right to Buy will give 1.3 million housing association tenants the opportunity to purchase a home. We are currently working with the National Housing Federation and the housing association sector on the implementation of the main scheme and will announce more details in due course.

As is set out in the voluntary agreement, the scheme will apply to those housing association tenants who live in a social or affordable rented home.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the proportion of people working in (a) law, (b) journalism, (c) politics, (d) medicine and (e) other professions who attended (i) selective and (ii) non-selective schools.

Nick Gibb

The Department does not hold this information.

The Sutton Trust has looked at this matter as part of its Leading People study, which can be viewed on its website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to maintain the in-year budget for public health provision allocated by Southampton City Council.

Jane Ellison

On 4 June as part of wider Government action on deficit reduction announced by the Chancellor, the Department was asked to deliver in year savings of £200 million in 2015/16 through reductions to the Public Health Grant to local authorities.

The Department launched a consultation exercise on 31 July to engage with local authorities on how best to deliver these savings in a way that minimises any impact on services. As a result of the consultation, 6.19% savings was applied to all local authorities in year public health budgets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, what progress has been made since that announcement on the estates regeneration programme.

Brandon Lewis

Work has progressed well since the announcement. The Advisory Panel, which the noble Lord, the rt. hon. Lord Heseltine and I jointly chair, has been set up and is already engaging with the key issues and will be undertaking a planned programme of site visits across the country. The Government has issued a Statement inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates; proposals are being received and considered by the Government’s advisory team.