Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to monitor implementation of the duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 on local authorities to (a) identify, (b) assess the needs of and (c) provide whole family support for young carers from April 2016.

Edward Timpson

Section 96 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which came into force in April 2015, imposes a duty on local authorities to to “…take reasonable steps to identify the extent to which there are young carers within their area who have needs for support.” Once a young carer has been assessed, the local authority must consider whether the child has needs that could be met by services provided under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, that is, whether they should be supported as a child in need.

The Department currently supports the Carers Trust to help local authorities and voluntary sector partners to embed good practice, including good practice surrounding whole family support. This approach is intended to ensure effective, joined up, support with the potential to offer a single point of professional contact for young carers and their families. We will draw on the learning from that work when considering further action.