The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for spending her time here in the Chamber today, on her birthday, to debate this issue. As she acknowledged, her Motion is wide ranging, but I will attempt to stray into the other departmental areas that have been outlined by noble Lords today. I do hope, however, that the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, does not decide next year that it is his turn to put down a wide-ranging debate on his birthday.
I assure noble Lords that the Department for Education is aware of their passion and ambition, as well as the scale of the challenge. This is central to our main purpose as a Government: to help level up and build back better from the pandemic. Although I cannot give the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, and the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, a cheque from the Treasury, the Prime Minister has made it clear that there will be more money coming down the track. Children and their educational recovery are a priority as we look forward.
The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, also challenged the Government in his impassioned speech on whether what we are doing will work. I assure noble Lords that the extensive recovery package is underpinned by its evidence-based nature. We have decided to invest over £1 billion in one-to-one and small-group tutoring, some delivered through tuition partners and academic mentors, and some through school-led tutoring. We have decided to prioritise that because the evidence tells us of the months of catch-up that this will deliver for young people. That is a key thread for us.
Some £500 million is also to be invested in professional development and support for teachers. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, asked whether we really needed to know that having the teacher in front of the student was a priority. In education, there is a clamour for funding lots of excellent things, but we are clear on the importance of having the teacher in front of the child and that giving them professional development, including through the early career framework, which will begin in full this September, and enabling investment in mid and senior-level leadership, is an appropriate way, based on the evidence, to spend this money at this time because it is one of the ways to enable our children to catch up.
We have also realised in the light of the evidence that certain cohorts of disadvantaged children seem to have been more greatly affected by the lockdown. That is why tutoring is a pillar directed at them. We also know that schools need more in order to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, which is why, within a number of the planks of the recovery package, the funding is weighted towards such children. As I have told noble Lords before, that began with the £650 million pupil premium and has continued with the £302 million recovery premium and with the summer schools. In answer to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, I can assure him and other noble Lords that we are funding what the evidence tells us will work to help these children catch up as quickly as possible.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and my noble friend Lord Moynihan talked about the centrality of children, children’s rights and the place of children now. As noble Lords will be aware, the family test was introduced in 2014. It incorporates the family explicitly into domestic policy-making and ensures that potential impacts on family relationships are taken into account.
As I am sure noble Lords are aware, the Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet member in charge of driving family policy through. A number of noble Lords—the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, and my noble friends Lady Wyld and Lord Bourne—mentioned the development of the family hub model and its importance. We have just finished procurement for a national centre for family hubs, and we are investing £14 million in that initiative. Local models are delivering, and we know we need to spread that best practice throughout this country.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Morris and Lady Bennett, my noble friend Lord Moynihan and the noble Lord, Lord Woodley, mentioned the importance of physical education for children’s well-being. That is why we have opened up a bidding fund of £200 million for summer schools, and well over 80% of schools have asked to be involved in that.
I assure noble Lords that in my role in the department, when I look at schools and the successful schools in our country, I focus on those with a disproportionate number of SEND children and of free school meals children, such as Dixons Allerton Academy in Bradford and Ark St Alban’s Academy in Birmingham. Over 70% of Ark St Alban’s children are on free school meals, and it achieves great educational outcomes for children. That is what we are pointing to.
When we look at funds such as the summer school funds, I also look at why certain schools have not bid, to check what is happening. Sometimes, when schools are under stress and in crisis, they might not even have the capacity to ask the department for money. I check to see what is happening to the funds we place, whereas other aspects of the recovery package, such as the initial £650 million, went out through the normal funding mechanism from the department.
We have shown that we are ready to deliver for our children. As a number of noble Lords mentioned—the noble Lords, Lord Shipley, Lord Patel and Lord Winston, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Garden and Lady Morris—an important part of what we have sought to deliver for children in that recovery package has been the remote education package. We have funded Google Classroom or Microsoft Education for more than 6,000 schools.
I know that some criticism has been levelled at the department’s provision of laptops and connectivity to children. By August 2020 the department had delivered 220,000 laptops. It may not be the most glamorous part of the department to talk about, but I have the privilege of overseeing the department’s commercial function. It is too easy to forget that during the first lockdown, there was a massive disruption in the global supply of technology products. Virtually the whole world—I use that term not accurately but as a turn of phrase—was seeking to buy laptops. The department’s commercial function, enabling us to purchase and distribute 1.3 million laptops, was no mean feat in the circumstances we faced.
Am I therefore saying to noble Lords that that was perfect? No, of course I am not, but we rose to that challenge and also provided 75,000 4G wireless routers. We spent £400 million on this overall. Many noble Lords will be aware that many of our mobile phone companies also rose to the challenge and offered free data to so many children. This provision was in addition to the 2.9 million laptops and computers that existed before the pandemic started. We have really sought to rise to that challenge.
For instance, a recent initiative from the department, Connect the Classroom, is trying to get some, particularly rural, classrooms, the speed of broadband they need to deliver remote education. We know that many teachers went above and beyond to assist parents in helping their children to access and use the technology that we have provided. As the Prime Minister said, there is more coming down the track, but a huge amount of money—over £3 billion now—has been put into education recovery support. That is on top of an uplift announced in 2019 of £14.4 billion going into schools overall.
Of course, many ideas, for instance the review of the school day—which my noble friend Lord Bourne and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, mentioned—were the work of Sir Kevan Collins. We reiterate our thanks and respect for his work and the time that he spent assessing needs. But there were various views on the extension of the school day and the noble Lord, Lord Winston, expressed the concern of teachers. Beside the financial implications, we have now put out a short consultation about that with teachers and other stakeholders.
The noble Lords, Lord Jones, Lord Patel and Lord Woodley, mentioned skills. We are aware that youth employment prospects have been disproportionately affected by the economic fallout. The ONS data continue to highlight the significant impact of the pandemic on the labour market and unemployment is expected to continue rising during 2021. That is why the Chancellor announced support for jobs and skills, with a focus on young people, in the summer economic update of July 2020. The plan included the £2 billion Kickstart scheme to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people aged 16 to 24 on universal credit, and a £900 million investment to scale up employment support schemes and double the number of work coaches to 27,000.
The noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Jones, also mentioned technical digital skills. I am extremely proud to be the Minister taking the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill through your Lordships’ House. At the same time, we have introduced T-levels, a high-quality alternative to A-levels. Over 250 employers have determined the content of those T-levels, so students can gain the best knowledge, practical skills and grounding in their first career. I assure noble Lords that the first T-levels will include digital skills. Noble Lords may be aware that we have also rolled out a new thing called a digital skills boot camp, which is a 12-week programme to enable people to retrain. We are about to launch a second wave of those.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel, also noted the importance of STEM subjects. I share his enthusiasm in this area and emphasise that, over recent years, we have seen an increase in girls taking STEM subjects at A-level and are committed to seeing that increase continue. As Minister for Women, I also had the particular pleasure of meeting young women who have taken those courses and STEM apprenticeships. The new specialist sixth-form colleges for 16 to 19 year-olds, focusing on maths, have a specific target for outreach to increase the number of girls taking maths, further maths and physics at those institutions.
I turn to another plank of this debate, namely health. We are aware of the unacceptable variations in health outcomes for children across the country, both in geographical and population groups, and of the differences between some of the most deprived areas compared to the least. For instance, emergency hospital admissions for children under five can be 38% higher.
Early years was mentioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady Wyld and Lady Andrews, and the noble Lords, Lord Rooker and Lord Watson. We have set up the Healthy Child Programme for nought to 19 year-olds, which is universal in reach, but personalised to the health inequalities in the early years of life. This programme is designed to identify and treat problems early and help parents to care well for their children, change and improve behaviour, and prevent preventable diseases.
There is also the focus on physical activity as part of health and well-being, which I mentioned before and I believe was also mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. We have announced more than £10 million of funding for schools across England this academic year to enable them to take part in existing schools sports and swimming activities outside school hours. I will take back the specific request by the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, for a meeting about the evidence on the extension of the school day. I also have the pleasure of being responsible for the out-of-school settings part of the department’s work.
We have also launched Tackling Obesity: Empowering Adults and Children to Live Healthier Lives, an overarching campaign to set out measures to get the nation fit and healthy, which will protect against Covid and help the NHS. Noble Lords will be aware that the sugar tax was recently introduced and funds from it have been funding additional PE support in our schools.
I assure the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, and my noble friend Lord Moynihan, who mentioned the office for health promotion, that it will be under the professional leadership of the Chief Medical Officer. It will work systematically to tackle the top preventable risk factors to improve public health and reduce health inequalities.
Another important area raised by my noble friend Lady Wyld is perinatal health. The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment to enable at least 66,000 women with moderate to severe complex perinatal mental health difficulties to access specialist, evidence-based care in the community by 2023-24.
When I sit here in your Lordships’ House, listening to noble Lords, I am working out who has been speaking about what. The most frequently raised issue has been child mental health, mentioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady Morris, Lady Massey, Lady Ritchie and Lady Chakrabarti, the noble Lords, Lord Davies, Lord Winston, Lord Watson, Lord Bichard and Lord Patel, my noble friend Lord Bourne and two noble Lords whose names I cannot read because of my terrible handwriting and who I will write to afterwards.
There has been a particular impact on young people’s mental health so, on 10 May, during Mental Health Awareness Week, we announced £17 million to improve facilities in schools to support mental health. More than 7,800 schools and colleges in England will now be able to train a senior mental health lead from within their staff, and there will be additional funding to local authorities so that they can continue to offer training and advice from mental health experts to schools and build on the Wellbeing for Education Return programme launched last September. Specifically in relation to that programme, the noble Lord, Lord Winston, mentioned teachers’ well-being. That programme was designed not just for pupils but for staff as well.
That sum is in addition to the £79 million announced in March to boost children and young persons’ mental health support in response to the pandemic by increasing the number of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to around 400 schools and colleges. That will cover an estimated 3 million children and young people by 2023. Furthermore, we have a mental health in education action group working within the department, led by my honourable friends the Minister for Children and Families, Vicky Ford, and the Minister for Universities, Michelle Donelan. I was in a school recently where a staggering 70% of the children had had a significant bereavement, so I do not want to underestimate what has been facing our schools as they have gone back. What I have outlined on mental health support is in addition to the NHS long-term plan.
The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, in his impassioned speech outlined the issues to do with inequality. Providing support for vulnerable children and young people is a priority for the Government, which is why the DfE leads a cross-government response to safeguard and protect vulnerable children and young people. It is important in this regard to look at the investment that is going into the early years; we know what can happen if children do not get that good start, as in the Andrea Leadsom review into the first 1,001 critical days. That is why we are screening for language development and development generally between the age of two and two and a half, as the noble Lord, Lord Wyld, outlined. The family hub is catching that, to enable children to be school ready. That is why we are also investing £153 million in the early years workforce and why, in the third lockdown, the early years settings remained open—and all credit to them in the work that they have done.
Of course, families come in all different shapes and sizes. The noble Baroness, Lady Drake, rightly brought to our attention kinship carers. I shall write to her in more detail. We are working to ensure that local services are joined up across government and locally. As the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, noted, there is no single published strategy for vulnerable children. However, through the pandemic the DfE has led across government to support that, and has reported to the Cabinet Office since April 2020. That has cemented cross-government working, including with Ofsted, PHE and NHS England.
Alongside vulnerable children, we are aware that the pandemic has been particularly challenging for children with special educational needs and disabilities,. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, who brought up that important area. We have invested £42 million in that area and resourced the Family Fund with more than £27 million to get that support, by way of a grant, to families on low incomes and to those children who have special educational needs and disabilities.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Blower and Lady Brinton, talked about the pupil premium. For mainstream and special schools, we will now base the pupil premium funding for 2021-22 on October rather than January census data. That does not mean that the pupil premium funding is decreasing; on the contrary, we expect pupil premium funding to increase to more than £2.5 billion a year. As a result of those changes, a typical school will receive an increase in their pupil premium funding for this year.
I am fast running out of time, but I want to respond to the point from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds about young carers. We offered a school place for vulnerable children, but this has been a difficult situation for young carers, with their caring responsibilities often increasing during the pandemic due to their particular circumstances. Obviously, many of them got the free school meal vouchers and many of them would have had a computer, but I shall write to the right reverend Prelate to outline in more detail the specific support for young carers.
The noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, and the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, both spoke powerfully about child poverty. I do not think that anyone here accepts that we should be complacent about that—we are not, and we fully recognise the profound impact that the pandemic has had on many of the poorest families. The noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, highlighted the fact that hunger is a scourge on our society. Obviously, there has been an increase in universal credit. We spend more than £110 billion a year—we did last year—on in-work benefit support, and there was the £500 or so working tax credit support, which was the equivalent of the £20 a week that we gave in additional universal credit support. There was also the £229 million given to local authorities to deal with particular needs, which was ring-fenced mainly for bills and food. So there has been considerable support.
As noble Lords may be aware, figures came out today on free school meals, with 1.7 million pupils now eligible for a school meal, which will save families around £400 a year. In addition, around 1.3 million infants in school will benefit from a free school meal, and, obviously, free school meals were extended to disadvantaged students within the FE sector. Overall—although there were teething problems, we can politely say—the Edenred voucher scheme, whereby we paid the face value of the voucher and not more than that, was worth more than £470 million.
Before I close, I agree wholeheartedly with the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, that period poverty is a societal ill. That is why we have made free period products available for state-funded primary and secondary colleges in England. The scheme is demand-led, which means that schools and colleges can order the products when they need them. I believe—I am going from memory here—that we have also extended the same provision in our prisons to those who need them there.
I thank noble Lords for their contributions. I want to make it clear that the passion, ambition and determination are there in the department. We are collecting the evidence and we know how much children need to catch up, not just academically but on those social skills that many noble Lords outlined. They also need to catch up on those relational skills where they have missed out, and in terms of their physical activity and well-being.
The noble Lord, Lord Bird, spoke about those in temporary accommodation, as many noble Lords have today. I have friends in a two-bedroom flat; there are two adults and three children, with no outside space. When one knows such families, it is shocking to see the decline in the health and well-being of young people when they have not been able to get out. We have always made it clear in the guidance to schools to use outside space as much as they can to improve the health and well-being of their students.
I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed. I have obviously not mentioned all of your Lordships, but I think some of you will be found on my WhatsApp message as somebody who will receive a letter from the department.