Tag: Stephen Timms

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides for local authorities to share best practice on children’s social work.

Edward Timpson

Supporting innovation and creating the right environment to drive excellence and radically transform the lives of children and their families are essential to delivering our vision for children’s social care between now and 2020.

The Department’s £100 million Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme, established in 2013, supports 53 projects to develop, test and spread more effective ways of supporting children and families who need help from children’s social care services. The Department has invested around £7 million to evaluate the projects and these studies will provide findings for local authorities over the next year as well as making a significant contribution to establishing an evidence base for driving change.

Supporting the sector to share best practice is at the heart of our What Works Centre (WWC) and Partners in Practice (PiP) initiatives. WWC will build an evidence base to show the best practice available to help social workers and other practitioners to better support children and families. PiPs represent a genuine partnership between national and local government to support long term improvement through exploring greater freedoms in the design and delivery of services; evidence about new structural models and innovations; and modelling best practice, sharing learning and supporting the wider sector.

In addition, the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families provides support to the profession and offers independent expert advice to Ministers on social work reform.

The Department also commissions research and evaluation studies that local authorities can draw on to inform and improve their practice. A recent example is the research review of Parents’ Capacity to Change (Ward et al 2014).

All studies are published on the Department’s research pages on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/research#publications

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which is the first year in which he expects welfare spending to be contained within the welfare cap.

Priti Patel

The Government believes it is right to monitor welfare spending carefully. We will review the level of the Welfare Cap at the Autumn Statement, which is when the Office for Budget Responsibility will formally assess spending against the Welfare Cap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 31496, how many appeals were (a) withdrawn and (b) adjourned at the First-Tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) due to his Department not sending a representative in (i) 2012-13, (ii) 2013-14 and (iii) 2014-15.

Justin Tomlinson

I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the Answer given by the Minister for Justice, my Rt.Hon. Friend, Shailesh Vara, Question UIN 32293

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claims for universal credit were made online in each year since that benefit was introduced.

Priti Patel

A year by year breakdown of the information requested is not available for publication. We can say that since its introduction, around 90% of Universal Credit claims have been made online.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 33376, by what date his Department plans to decide on whether British Sign Language is an acceptable alternative to qualifications in English for the purposes of completing an apprenticeship.

Nick Boles

We are considering whether British Sign Language could be an acceptable alternative to qualifications in English for the purposes of completing an apprenticeship. We will provide an update about this matter before summer recess.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35126, on deportation, how many removals were cancelled after an assessment by a medical escorting officer in 2015.

James Brokenshire

The data requested is not available centrally and is not routinely collected. It could be provided only by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what opportunities the Department offers to trainee soldiers under the age of 18 to re-sit GCSEs as part of their elective personal development.

Mark Lancaster

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 23 May to Question number 37109.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost of rough sleeping to the NHS.

Jane Ellison

According to the last Departmental estimate, homeless people – primarily rough sleepers and those living in hostels – cost National Health Service hospitals at least £85 million a year, based on around 40,500 people living in hostels (Healthcare for Single Homeless People (2010).

Homeless people consume around four times more acute hospital services than the general population. These extra costs arise from the severity of their health conditions and because they are more likely to be admitted as emergency admissions.

We have made £40 million available through the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme to provide tailored hostel accommodation to improve the physical and mental health outcomes of rough sleepers and provide stable, transitional, shared accommodation for young people who are homeless or in insecure housing. We have also encouraged local areas to develop and improve hospital discharge arrangements for people who are homeless through the £10 million Homeless Hospital Discharge Fund, including by more effective multi-agency working.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what powers she has to prevent multi-academy trusts from expanding faster than their capacity to maintain a strong record on school improvement.

Edward Timpson

Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) take decisions in the name of the Secretary of State. RSCs are responsible for intervening where there is underperformance and for the creation of new academies.

When schools are converting to academy status as part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) or joining an existing MAT, it is the RSC’s role to decide whether to approve or decline the application. The RSC, supported by their headteacher board, will want to be assured that the governance and leadership of the MAT is clear and robust; and that the MAT has the capacity to drive improvement across all schools within it.

The RSC will reassess MATs at key milestones throughout the academic year (such as following exam results) and at key stages of their growth to consider their capacity to support and enable the academies within their MAT to improve.

This information is publically available and can be found in the RSC decision-making framework on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517565/RSC-Decision-Making-Framework.pdf

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of excluding agency workers from the pay bill when determining a company’s liability for paying the Apprenticeship Levy due to such workers’ ineligibility for apprenticeships.

Mr David Gauke

Where an employment agency supplies labour to a client and pays Class 1 secondary National Insurance contributions for those workers, they will be liable to pay the levy, providing their annual pay bill exceeds £3million.

The government recognises the important contribution that contingent labour makes to the economy, however, excluding agency workers would create adverse incentives to hire all staff off-payroll.

The government will support all employers in using the levy funds to invest in apprenticeships and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills is working with employers to create apprenticeships across all sectors.