Information since 1 Apr 2022, 3:57 p.m.
Calendar |
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Wednesday 14th September 2022 Department for Education Baroness Barran (Conservative - Life peer) Legislation - Main Chamber Subject: Schools Bill - third reading View calendar |
Select Committee Documents |
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Tuesday 5th July 2022
Oral Evidence - Office of the Children's Commissioner for England Accountability hearings - Education Committee Found: existing levy, so I am not asking for a new levy.Finally, I missed one question I wanted to ask you on the Schools |
Thursday 26th May 2022
Written Evidence - The Local Government Association STC0002 - Secure training centres and secure schools Secure training centres and secure schools - Public Accounts Committee Found: We hope that this issue is effectively resolved through the forthcoming Schools Bill, to ensure councils |
Friday 18th March 2022
Oral Evidence - Mr Robin Walker (Minister of State for School Standards at Department for Education) Department for Education Education challenges facing children and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds - Education Committee Found: That will be as part of a wider Schools Bill, but this is certainly one of the key elements of it that |
Tuesday 1st March 2022
Written Evidence - Department for Education FPQ0105 - The future of post-16 qualifications The future of post-16 qualifications - Education Committee Found: The Government supports the Education (Careers Guidance in Schools) Bill, introduced by Mark Jenkinson |
Written Answers |
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Home Education: Registration
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion) Monday 25th July 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to provisions in the Schools Bill, what steps he has taken to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place around the (a) use and (b) protection of the data collected as part of the proposed requirements to create a register of home schooled children; what assessment he has made of the compatibility of those provisions with GDPR; and to whom that register will be accessible. Answered by Will Quince - Minister of State (Education) Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The proposed ‘children not in school’ registers are intended to help with the identification of children being educated otherwise than at school, so that local authorities can undertake their existing responsibilities, to ensure all children are receiving a suitable education.
All local authorities will be required to process personal data they collect and store on their register in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. This legislation requires each local authority, as a data controller, only to collect and store the minimum personal data necessary and to protect and restrict access to the personal data by implementing appropriate technical and organisational measures.
Policy changes which require personal data processing, such as the ‘children not in school’ registers, are subject to scrutiny by the data protection officer (DPO) and their team, as part of the Data Protection Impact Assessment. The DPO will discuss requirement with the Information Commissioner’s Officer as part of their duties under the ‘prior notification’ obligations in Article 36 of the UK GDPR. This will ensure there are safeguards in place to protect the data on local authority registers. |
Home Education
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North) Wednesday 20th July 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of provisions in the Schools Bill on home education. Answered by Will Quince - Minister of State (Education) The department has completed all relevant and required impact assessment for the Schools Bill.
The children not in school measures, which are those most likely to impact home educating families, have been subject to a thorough Equalities Impact Assessment. This considers the impact on families with different protected characteristics. The measures have also been subject to a regulatory impact assessment, which looks at the impact measures will have on businesses and charities. A summary of these impact assessments has been published online as part of the Schools Bill impact assessment document. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-bill-impact-assessment. |
Special Educational Needs: Absenteeism
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West) Friday 15th July 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities will be penalised for making autonomous decisions on absence from education based on the specific needs of their child under the provisions in the Schools Bill. Answered by Will Quince - Minister of State (Education) Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory. Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents have a duty to ensure that their child of compulsory age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education, either by attendance at school or otherwise.
The department appreciates that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, particularly for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Addressing these requires strong relationships and close working between families, schools, local authorities, and other relevant local services. This is the intention of the attendance clauses in the Schools Bill.
When considering the appropriate action to address absence, schools and local authorities should consider the individual circumstances of each pupil and family, and take the best course of action to support the child’s return to school. The department encourages parents to work with their child’s school and the local authority to discuss the reasons behind their child’s absence. They should agree together an action plan, so that the right support can be put in place to help their child to return to regular and consistent education. |
Pupils: Attendance
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer) Wednesday 29th June 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Schools Bill on how Special Educational Needs will be taken into account when monitoring school attendance. Answered by Robin Walker Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory, and parents have a duty, under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that their child of compulsory age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education either by attendance at school or otherwise. The department appreciates that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, particularly for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Addressing these requires strong relationships and close working between families, schools, local authorities, and other relevant local services. This is the intention of the attendance clauses in the Schools Bill.
The Bill will put the department’s new attendance guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ onto a statutory footing. This will ensure greater consistency in the attendance support offered to pupils and families, regardless of where in the country they live, and emphasises the importance of providing attendance support in an earlier and more targeted way to respond to pupils’ individual needs.
The new guidance makes it clear that schools should develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of attendance, whilst recognising the interplay between attendance and wider school improvement efforts, such as strategies on mental health, wellbeing, and SEND. Schools will be expected to have sensitive conversations with pupils about their needs and work with families to develop specific support approaches for pupils with SEND. This includes establishing strategies for removing in-school barriers to attendance, ensuring attendance data of this group of pupils is regularly monitored to spot patterns and provide support earlier, including ensuring joined-up pastoral care is in place and referring pupils to support from other services and partners where necessary.
These expectations, alongside the expectations placed on academy trust boards, governing bodies, and local authorities to work in conjunction with school staff to provide joined-up support for all pupils and families, will ensure that pupils with SEND are supported to attend school regularly.
Alongside the new expectations in the Schools Bill, the department is currently consulting on proposed changes we want to make to the SEND and alternative provision (AP) system in England.
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which is open for public consultation until 22 July 2022, sets out the department’s proposals for a system that offers children and young people the opportunity to thrive, with access to the right support, in the right place, and at the right time.
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Education: Publishing
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South) Tuesday 28th June 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of proposals relating to the curriculum Arms-Length Body in the Schools Bill on educational publishers across the country; and if he will take steps to ensure that educational publishers are able to compete on equitable terms. Answered by Robin Walker As announced in the Schools White Paper, the department will establish a new arm’s length curriculum body, building on the success of Oak National Academy’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will work with thousands of teachers to co-design, create, and continually improve packages of optional, free, adaptable digital curriculum resources and video lessons. These optional resources will be available across the UK, helping teachers deliver a high-quality curriculum.
Teachers in the UK benefit from a diverse commercial education resources market that offers a range of materials to support high-quality planning and teaching. The curriculum body will work with the market, leading a broad and inclusive national process that will involve commercial education resource suppliers as well as teachers, schools, school trusts, Subject Associations, National Centres of Excellence, and many others, as it develops and delivers its support offer for schools.
Building on our existing understanding, the department is currently working with commercial organisations to gather further information that will help us to understand the potential effect on the market. It is important to us that areas of the market that offer high-quality, carefully sequenced resources that meet teachers’ needs can continue doing so. Opportunities for educational publishers and other partners to work with the curriculum body will be open to all across the sector.
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Academies
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South) Monday 27th June 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of provisions in the Schools Bill on the operating freedoms available to academy schools. Answered by Robin Walker Academy trust freedoms include the autonomy for academy trusts to make decisions on matters such as financial governance, the school year and day, curriculum, staffing, and pay. These enable academy trusts to collaborate, innovate, and run themselves efficiently to support teachers and schools where the challenge is greatest to deliver the best outcomes for their pupils.
As set out in the Schools White Paper, the department knows the best multi-academy trusts transform outcomes for pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, and deliver improvement in schools and areas where poor performance had become entrenched.
There are no provisions in the Schools Bill that undermine academy freedoms. The Schools Bill makes provisions for the Academy Trust Standards, which will bring together existing requirements currently set out across funding agreements, legislation, and the Academy Trust Handbook into a single statutory framework. This will bring greater clarity, understanding and reassurance to the sector, and will ensure the same minimum standards apply consistently to all academies now and in the future.
The department will consult with the sector on every iteration of the Academy Trust Standards regulations. |
Academies
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South) Monday 27th June 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) value and (b) potential merits of the operating freedoms available to academy schools. Answered by Robin Walker Academy trust freedoms include the autonomy for academy trusts to make decisions on matters such as financial governance, the school year and day, curriculum, staffing, and pay. These enable academy trusts to collaborate, innovate, and run themselves efficiently to support teachers and schools where the challenge is greatest to deliver the best outcomes for their pupils.
As set out in the Schools White Paper, the department knows the best multi-academy trusts transform outcomes for pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, and deliver improvement in schools and areas where poor performance had become entrenched.
There are no provisions in the Schools Bill that undermine academy freedoms. The Schools Bill makes provisions for the Academy Trust Standards, which will bring together existing requirements currently set out across funding agreements, legislation, and the Academy Trust Handbook into a single statutory framework. This will bring greater clarity, understanding and reassurance to the sector, and will ensure the same minimum standards apply consistently to all academies now and in the future.
The department will consult with the sector on every iteration of the Academy Trust Standards regulations. |
Home Education: Registration
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer) Monday 20th June 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children they estimate will be included in the registers proposed under clause 48 of the Schools Bill [HL]. Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) The proposed Children Not In School registers are intended to help with the identification of children being educated otherwise than at school and, in particular, those who are currently children missing education. At present, there is no accurate picture of how many of these children there are at a local or national level. The introduction of the registers should, however, help to address this. In the latest Association of Directors of Children's Services annual survey (in 2021), they estimated that approximately 81,000 children across all 152 local authorities in England were electively home-educated on school census day, 7 October 2021. The department would therefore anticipate, at least, similar numbers of children coming within scope of the registers. |
Academies
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer) Friday 27th May 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Secretary of State for Education is able to require local authorities to develop local strategic plans to bring local authority maintained schools into the academy system. Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education) My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, does not have the power to require local authorities to develop strategic plans to bring local authority-maintained schools into the academy system. The Schools Bill contains a power for local authorities to support schools in joining academy trusts by applying for academy orders on their behalf.
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Schools: Admissions
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham) Monday 23rd May 2022 Question to the Department for Education: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Point 162 in the Schools White Paper, which specific provision in the Schools Bill will ensure that local authorities take responsibility for managing all applications for in-year admissions. Answered by Robin Walker The proposal for local authorities to manage in-year admissions does not require primary legislation. As part of the Schools White Paper, the department has committed to consulting on reforms the schools admissions framework including requiring local authorities to manage in-year applications, as well as applications in the normal round. The department is working with stakeholders to refine our proposals. We will then carry out a full public consultation as required by statute when making changes to the School Admissions Code before implementing proposed changes to the code. |
Petitions |
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Stop the schools bill as it is a total and unreasonable overreach of power. Petition Rejected - 15 SignaturesDrop the schools bill as it is a total and unreasonable overreach of government power. This both infringement of the rights of the partent and of the schools and educators. And plases massive controls over our children's lives in the hands of authorities. This petition was rejected on 27th Jun 2022 for not petitioning for a specific actionFound: Scrap the schools bill entirely and leave the education systems alone as the government is obviously |
Do not require parents to register home educated children with local authorities Petition Open - 10,927 SignaturesSign this petition Gov Responded - 8 Aug 2022 30 Nov 2022 closes in 3 months, 1 week Remove the clauses relating to 'Children not in school' from Part 3 of the Schools Bill, and do not pursue compulsory registration of all home-schooled children. We see no evidence that this would be beneficial, and we believe the proposals place a discriminatory burden on supportive parents. Found: Remove the clauses relating to 'Children not in school' from Part 3 of the Schools Bill, and do not pursue |
Bills |
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Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23
Presented by Baroness Barran (Conservative - Life peer) Government Bill (Department for Education) A Bill To Make provision for the regulation of Academies; about school and local education funding; about the attendance of children at school; about the regulation of independent educational institutions; about teacher misconduct; and for connected purposes |
Bill Documents |
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Jul. 13 2022
8th Report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Select Committee report Found: Bill [HL]: Government Response Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill: Government |
Jul. 07 2022
European Convention on Human Rights Supplementary Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Human rights memorandum Found: SCHOOLS BILL EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPLEMENTARY MEMORANDUM BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION |
Jul. 06 2022
Schools Bill: Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill: Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum |
Jul. 06 2022
Schools Bill: Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill: Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum |
Jun. 01 2022
Letter from Baroness Barran to Peers regarding issues raised during the Second Reading: teachers, funding, academies, selective schooling, attendance in schools, Independent educational institutions, children not in school registers. Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Will write letters Found: www.education.gov.uk/contactus/dfe To: I nterested Peers 1 June 2022 My Lords, The Schools |
Jun. 01 2022
Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum (updated) Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum (updated) |
Jun. 01 2022
Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum (updated) Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum (updated) |
May. 26 2022
2nd Report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Select Committee report Found: Second Report SCHOOLS BILL [HL] 1. The Schools Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 11 May. |
May. 19 2022
Schools Bill [HL] Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Briefing papers Found: Schools Bill [HL] |
May. 13 2022
HL Bill 1 Explanatory Notes Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Explanatory Notes Found: HL Bill 1ŒEN 58/3 SCHOOLS BILL [HL] EXPLANATOR Y NOTES What these notes do These Explanatory |
May. 12 2022
Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum |
May. 12 2022
Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Delegated Powers Memorandum Found: Schools Bill [HL]: Delegated Powers Memorandum |
May. 11 2022
European Convention on Human Rights Memorandum Schools Bill [HL] 2022-23 Human rights memorandum Found: 1 SCHOOLS BILL EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS MEMORANDUM BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION |
Non-Departmental Publications - News and Communications |
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Jun. 16 2022
Ofsted Source Page: Amanda Spielman’s speech to the Confederation of School Trusts’ Document: Amanda Spielman’s speech to the Confederation of School Trusts’ (webpage) News and Communications Found: As we all know a white paper was published this spring, and the schools bill translates a proposed new |
May. 10 2022
Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street Source Page: Queen’s Speech 2022 Document: Queen’s Speech 2022 (webpage) News and Communications Found: potential wherever they live, raising standards and improving the quality of schools and higher education [Schools |
May. 08 2022
Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street Source Page: PM to announce new laws to level up education opportunity so no child is left behind Document: PM to announce new laws to level up education opportunity so no child is left behind (webpage) News and Communications Found: Schools Bill to help deliver government’s ambition to give every child in the country a world-class |