The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which faith-based organisations ministers of his Department have visited since June 2015.
Mr Marcus Jones
Ministers in DCLG regularly visit faith-based organisations and a list of meetings with external stakeholders is published quarterly at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dclg-ministerial-data
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to respond to the Children’s Commissioner’s report, Protecting Children from Harm, published in November 2015.
Edward Timpson
The report captures the findings from the first part of the Children’s Commissioner’s inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. The Government will give careful consideration to the findings of the full inquiry when it is completed in December 2016.
Tackling child abuse is a priority for this Government. This Government has set up the first ever cross-government Ministerial Child Protection Taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling this abhorrent crime. The taskforce’s work will build on the Government’s wide-ranging reforms to create a care system that puts children’s needs first. This includes the appointment of a Chief Social Worker to champion reform in the profession, a £400 million investment in social work training, and cuts to bureaucracy to free up social workers to do what they do best.
We have also invested an extra £100m to support vulnerable children and we areproviding £7m for services supporting survivors of child abuse.
The Government is committed to driving forward fundamental reforms to protect the most vulnerable children in our society and give them the opportunity to succeed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 18747, whether people are made aware of advance Universal Credit payments being made available to them at the initial work search interview.
Priti Patel
To be eligible for a Universal Credit (UC) Advance payment, the claimant has to have an underlying entitlement to UC, be in financial need, and be able to afford to repay the Advance. These criteria are contained within the Social Security (Payments on Account of Benefit) Regulations 2013.
If during the initial work search interview, a work coach identifies a claimant is in financial need, or cannot manage until they receive their first UC payment, they will advise them about advance payments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2015 to Question 20339, what the repayment requirements are for universal credit advance payments; and whether interest is charged on those payments.
Priti Patel
Universal Credit (UC) Advance Payments of benefit are recovered from the UC award over a period of six months. In exceptional circumstances recovery can be deferred for up to 3 months.
No interest is charged on advance payments of benefit.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what advice his Department gives to universal credit applicants on their eligibility for council tax reduction.
Priti Patel
Local Council Tax reduction schemes are delivered by Local Authorities.
Universal Credit claimants are signposted to the Local Authority for information on eligibility.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has met with representatives of the Citizens Advice Bureau to discuss feedback they have received from universal credit claimants.
Priti Patel
Senior officials regularly meet with representatives from Citizens Advice to discuss Universal Credit on behalf of the Secretary of State.
Citizens Advice staff are also actively engaged with the Universal Credit programme to feed their claimant insight into work on Universal Credit claimant orientation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the finding in the annual report to Parliament of the Lord Chief Justice, dated 16 January 2016, that the UK’s system of justice has become unaffordable to most; and if he will make a statement.
Mike Penning
As the Justice Secretary said in June, we have a two nation justice system at present. Those who have benefitted financially need to do more to protect access to justice for all and we are discussing with the profession how this can be taken forward.
As the Lord Chief Justice made clear in his annual report, the investment the Government is making to modernise our courts and tribunals is a significant step, and one which will enable us to tackle many of the issues he identified.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support young people who have been receiving palliative care and are transitioning from children’s to adults’ services.
Ben Gummer
The Department has provided grant funding to Together for Short Lives which is the membership organisation for children’s hospices to support the Transition Taskforce to provide guidance and training that supports good transitions locally between children’s and adult services for those with life-limiting conditions or needing palliative care.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what extra support is provided to foster carers receiving children who have experienced multiple placement breakdowns.
Edward Timpson
The statutory framework is clear that fostering services must provide carers with the necessary training, information and support, in the interests of children placed with them.
Through the Children’s Services Innovation Programme, the Government continues to support the roll out of interventions such as KEEP (Keeping Foster and Kinship Carers Safe and Supported) and the Mockingbird Project. The Children’s Services Innovation Programme has £100m worth of funding and supports 53 programmes in the development, testing and spreading of more effective ways of supporting children and families who need help from children’s social care services. KEEP is a training programme for foster carers and part of the National Implementation Service, which has £4.1m worth of funding. The Mockingbird Project supports groups of ten foster carers around a ‘hub’ which provides support. This is part of the Fostering Network, which has £1.6m worth of funding. Both projects aim to increase the positive parenting skills of foster and kinship carers in responding to children’s difficulties. They seek to build resilience, improve placement stability and enable young people to thrive as children and adults.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many graduates began the Frontline programme in each year since its establishment; and how many have been enrolled to start in 2016.
Edward Timpson
104 graduates began the programme in the first cohort (2014), followed by 124 graduates in the second cohort (2015). Enrolment for the third cohort is not yet complete, however Frontline aim to recruit up to 180 participants to start in 2016.