Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 19 January 2015.
Simon Danczuk
Labour, Rochdale
2:30,
19 January 2015
What response her Department has received to its advertisement for Intervention experts to work with underperforming children’s services departments.
Edward Timpson
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
We have received 26 bids. That is a good response to our call for experts to work with underperforming children’s services departments and help them to improve.
Simon Danczuk
Labour, Rochdale
As the Minister will know, there is concern about a number of organisations that have failed to deal with child abuse allegations. I am sure the whole House agrees that no one who has been implicated in the ignoring or covering up of abuse should be appointed under this particular scheme. Will the Minister assure us that there will be a proper vetting process to prevent that from happening?
Edward Timpson
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and the whole purpose of trying to bring additional expertise into children’s services is that we know that, sadly, there are still too many parts of the country where children are not being served adequately by those who are meant to be there to protect them. We want to encompass the whole range of expertise that is available in order to tackle that issue, but of course we need stringent checks in place to make sure that no one involved in such advisory roles has been doing what he describes, and I will happily write to him with further details of how we are ensuring that that is the case.
Steve McCabe
Shadow Minister (Education)
On
John Bercow
Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Speaker of the House of Commons, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
That is a fourfold question, but I know the dexterity of the Minister will facilitate a speedy single response.
Edward Timpson
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
I am tempted not to give a response at all, Mr Speaker, and I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman has been tempted down that line of questioning. He knows full well that our Intervention, whether in Birmingham, Doncaster or any other local authority, has had a positive effect: 29 of those local authorities where we have had direct intervention since 2010 have come out of that process. However, we need to make sure that where there is ingrained failure in children’s services we do all we can to bring those services up to scratch, and I am not going to shy away from making decisions that ensure children across this country have better services, better protection and better lives.
An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.
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