Submit Evidence (by 8 Jan 2021)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that people have access to flexible adult learning courses during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Department wants to ensure that a wide range of opportunities are available to adults to meet their future skills needs.

We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), worth £1.34 billion in the 2020-21 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning. Our funding rules allow for flexibility in course delivery, and providers already offer shorter/more flexible courses. More information about the AEB is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-education-budget-aeb-funding-rules-2019-to-2020.

As part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee recently announced by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, the department is launching skills bootcamps, which will be available in 6 areas across the country. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills based on employer demand and are linked to real job opportunities, helping participants to get jobs, and employers to fill much-needed vacancies. The department is planning to expand the bootcamps to more of the country from spring 2021, and we want to extend this model to include other technical skills training. More information about the launch of skills bootcamps is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-expansion-of-post-18-education-and-training-to-level-up-and-prepare-workers-for-post-covid-economy.

In April 2020, the department introduced the Skills Toolkit, an online platform providing free courses to help individuals build the skills that are most sought after by employers. We have recently expanded the platform so that people can now choose from over 70 courses, covering digital, adult numeracy, employability, and work readiness skills, which have been identified as the skills employers need the most. These courses will help people stay in work, or take up new jobs and opportunities. More information about the Skills Toolkit is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-free-online-learning-platform-to-boost-workplace-skills.

Through our lifelong loan entitlement, the department will also make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly. This will allow people to space out their studies across their lifetimes, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the Social Mobility Commission's strategy is for improving social mobility for white working class boys.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Social Mobility Commission is an Arm’s Length Body, whose statutory responsibility is to monitor social mobility in the United Kingdom and promote social mobility in England. They carry out this responsibility by appraising action on social mobility via their annual monitoring report laid in Parliament, making recommendations to the government and conducting other evidence-based research reports they publish throughout the year. The Social Mobility Commission also carry out important work with frontline delivery partners to help drive change, and put evidence on best practice into action alongside employers, local regional leaders, social mobility charities, and reaching out to young people through digital channels.

The Social Mobility Commission’s work has a key focus on understanding the drivers of poor outcomes for individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, as part of an overarching strategy to understand the drivers of poor social mobility through high-quality research.

The Social Mobility Commission also recently contributed to the Education Select Committee inquiry on ‘Left Behind White Pupils from Disadvantaged Backgrounds’. Their written evidence can be found here: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/12557/default.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of children using (a) the 15 hour free early years entitlement for (i) the most disadvantaged two year olds and (ii) parents of three and four year olds and (b) the 30 hour early years entitlement for working parents of three and four year olds in each of the four most recent weeks for which data is available.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is planning to spend more than £3.6 billion on early education entitlements in 2020-21. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, take up of the entitlements was positive with near universal take up of the 15 hours for all 3 and 4 year olds (91% of 3 year olds and 94% of 4 year olds (including reception)) in January 2020.

The department collects data about take up of the entitlements on an annual basis through the Early Years Census. These annual reports are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The next census is due to take place in January 2021.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the department introduced weekly data collection from local authorities to record the number of pre-school aged children attending childcare. This data is published on a weekly basis and the reports are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. In order to minimise the administrative burden on local government during the COVID-19 outbreak, this weekly data collection does not distinguish attendance by age of child or between children taking up entitlements and children whose parents have paid for a childcare place.

It was estimated that 801,000 children were attending early years childcare settings on 12 November 2020, around 61% of the number of children who usually attend childcare in term time. On a typical day in the autumn term attendance is expected to be around 887,000, due to different and part-time patterns of childcare during the week. It is therefore estimated that the 801,000 children currently attending early years settings is approximately 90% of the usual daily level.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing private music lessons to take place in teachers' homes during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on new national restrictions from 5 November, out-of-school activities such as private tuition may continue to operate during the period of national restrictions. However, providers of these activities who are operating out of their own homes or private studios, should ensure they are only being accessed for face-to-face provision by parents if their primary purpose is registered childcare, or where they are providing other activities for children, where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work or search for work, or to undertake training or education; or for the purposes of respite care. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss.

Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education, which could include private tutors, may also continue to operate for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions.

Tutors that continue to operate face-to-face provision during this period should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in the protective measures for holiday clubs and after-school clubs and other out-of-school clubs for children during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak guidance, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Providers operating out of other people’s homes should also implement the guidance on working safely in other people’s homes, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.

All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes and that can offer remote education, should close for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions. This will minimise the amount of mixing between different groups of people and therefore reduce the risk of infection and transmission of the virus.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure that teachers are among those prioritised for a covid-19 vaccine when one becomes available.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine(s) the UK should use and provide advice on who should be offered them.

The JCVI’s current advice is that, once available, the vaccine for COVID-19 should be given to care home residents and staff, followed by people over 80, and health and social workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and risk.

The JCVI have not, as of yet, made any further recommendations on what professions should be prioritised in vaccine roll out.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) procure and (b) deliver (i) laptops and (ii) other home internet access to disadvantaged students in a timely manner during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

As part of over £195 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care, over half a million laptops and tablets are being made available this year to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted.

Since September 2020, over 100,000 of these devices have already been delivered to schools. This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers, which have already been delivered during the summer term.

The Department is also working with mobile network operators to provide temporary access to free additional data, offering families flexibility to access the resources that they need the most. As part of a pilot, disadvantaged families have been able to access a free mobile data uplift for this term.

The Department is now working with mobile operators to provide a national service until the end of the 2020-21 academic year. We will continue to invite a range of mobile providers to support the offer.

These laptops and tablets are the property of the trust, local authority or school, and so will benefit children’s education long after we come out of the measures required to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

More information on deliveries in this term can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929064/Ad-hoc_stats_note_shipped_data_231020_FINAL.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle educational disadvantage amongst white working class boys in (a) St Helens, (b) Merseyside and (c) England.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Educational achievement is at the heart of our commitment to ensure no young person is left behind because of the place or circumstances of their birth. Most pupils now attend Good or Outstanding schools. As of March 2020, 86% of schools are Good or Outstanding compared to just 68% in 2010.

We are aware that pupils of all backgrounds have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and we are providing schools with the resources and tools to address lost education so that all pupils can catch up. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package is providing additional funding so that schools can support pupils who have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of this, the £650 million universal Catch-Up Premium is enabling all schools to identify and prioritise support for pupils to address their needs. This complements the National Tutoring Programme which is targeting £350 million to accelerate the academic progress of disadvantaged pupils by making high quality tutors available to schools in all regions at a greatly reduced rate.

Recognising that disadvantaged children may not have access to the resources they need to learn remotely, we have invested more than £195 million to support access to remote education and online social care. As part of this, we are making more than 340,000 laptops and tablets available this term to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted. This supplements more than 220,000 laptops and tablets and 50,000 4G wireless routers which were delivered during the summer term.

English schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion again this financial year, to enable them to arrange extra personalised support for disadvantaged pupils of all abilities. This year, schools in St Helens are sharing £9.7 million provided through this grant, with schools in the five local authorities in Merseyside sharing £82.4 million.

We founded the Education Endowment Foundation in 2011 to research and disseminate the most effective ways to improve disadvantaged pupil progress. So far, it has conducted 190 trials in 13,000 English schools leading to the publication of a comprehensive range of internationally recognised effective practice. The research shows schools effectively implementing the best evidence-based approaches can make a difference to every pupil’s future.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, steps he is taking to improve understanding of the guidance on the use of personal protective equipment in (a) schools and (b) other educational settings.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

COVID-19 related Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) use is very limited for staff in education, childcare and children’s social care settings, and relates only to:

• when caring for a child or individual who develops symptoms while attending their setting (and only then if a distance of two metres cannot be maintained),
• when a child or individual already has routine intimate care needs that involve the use of PPE, for example when undertaking aerosol generating procedures.

Further guidance on the use of PPE in education and childcare settings is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-working-in-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care/safe-working-in-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings-including-the-use-of-personal-protective-equipment-ppe.

We continue to give schools and others in the education and childcare sectors information about our guidance, and any changes to it, through regular Departmental communications.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on keeping schools open and functioning effectively of the performance of the test and trace system.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Keeping schools and colleges open is one of the Government’s highest priorities. Being at school is vital for the education of children, and for their wellbeing. Time spent out of school is detrimental to the cognitive and academic development of children, particularly for disadvantaged children. It continues to be the Department’s aim that all pupils, in all year groups, remain in school full-time.

Those who have COVID-19 symptoms, or have someone in their household who does, must not attend school. All staff and students who are attending a school or college have access to a test if they display symptoms of COVID-19 and are encouraged to get tested. Guidance on how schools should respond to COVID-19 cases is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

Testing capacity is the highest it has ever been. The UK’s daily COVID-19 testing capacity passed the 500,000 mark on 31 October and continues to expand. In order to support schools further, the Department is also supplying COVID-19 test kits directly to them for both staff and students who develop the symptoms of COVID-19 and face significant barriers to accessing a test through existing routes.

Schools are playing a vital role in supporting the test and trace system. Where someone who has attended tests positive for COVID-19, schools are taking swift action to send home close contacts of the positive case, advising them to self-isolate for 14 days since they were last in close contact with that person when they were infectious. There is a dedicated advice line to help schools, colleges or early years settings to implement the most appropriate public health measures once a case is confirmed. If, following triage, further expert advice is required, the adviser will escalate the school’s call to the Public Health England local health protection team.

The Government is committed to introducing mass asymptomatic testing using new technologies to minimise the risk of infection spread in our communities, and pilots are already underway for using them in schools and colleges. Establishing this testing capability will enable students to continue their studies safely, and ensure staff are able to continue to deliver education and support.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on (a) consultancy services including (i) communications, (ii) advertising, (iii) marketing and (iv) media buying since 1 March 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

From 1 March to 20 November 2020, the Department spent £13.3 million on paid-for communications and campaigns activity, including spend on creative, production, agency fees and paid-for media. Of this, a total of £8.42 million was spent specifically on advertising media buying. It is not possible to break down spend separately by i) communications or iii) marketing as these definitions include several areas of overlapping activity.

Of the £13.3 million spent between 1 March and 20 November 2020, an estimated £526,924 was spent on consultancy services to help plan and deliver communication, advertising, marketing campaigns and to inform media buying. It is not possible to provide separate costs for each category requested as these services inform a range of activity delivered as part of broader campaign strategies.

This activity includes vital work to recruit 30,000 teachers a year and drive the uptake of apprenticeships and the new T level qualification. All our paid-for campaigns are agreed with and regularly assessed by the Cabinet Office to ensure effectiveness.

The Department’s work covers a number of manifesto commitments and is central to my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s levelling up agenda, in addition to the Government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak including the continuity of education as a national priority. With almost a million staff working in state funded schools in England, 66,000 staff in the further education sector, and 4.2 million households across the country with primary school aged children, the Department must explain policy to our key audiences, influence attitudes and change behaviour through targeted external communications, advertising and marketing campaigns to achieve publicly stated policy objectives.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing since 1 March 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

From 1 March to 20 November 2020, the Department spent £13.3 million on paid-for communications and campaigns activity, including spend on creative, production, agency fees and paid-for media. Of this, a total of £8.42 million was spent specifically on advertising media buying. It is not possible to break down spend separately by i) communications or iii) marketing as these definitions include several areas of overlapping activity.

Of the £13.3 million spent between 1 March and 20 November 2020, an estimated £526,924 was spent on consultancy services to help plan and deliver communication, advertising, marketing campaigns and to inform media buying. It is not possible to provide separate costs for each category requested as these services inform a range of activity delivered as part of broader campaign strategies.

This activity includes vital work to recruit 30,000 teachers a year and drive the uptake of apprenticeships and the new T level qualification. All our paid-for campaigns are agreed with and regularly assessed by the Cabinet Office to ensure effectiveness.

The Department’s work covers a number of manifesto commitments and is central to my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s levelling up agenda, in addition to the Government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak including the continuity of education as a national priority. With almost a million staff working in state funded schools in England, 66,000 staff in the further education sector, and 4.2 million households across the country with primary school aged children, the Department must explain policy to our key audiences, influence attitudes and change behaviour through targeted external communications, advertising and marketing campaigns to achieve publicly stated policy objectives.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2020 to Question 76046 and the Answer of 8 October 2020 to Question 98997, what recent discussions he has had with school leaders on providing financial support for expenses incurred during the covid-19 outbreak on (a) additional cleaning, (b) signage, (c) supply staff and (d) other anticipated extra costs that are likely to have been incurred since September 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Ministers and officials continue to engage regularly with school leaders and their representatives on a wide range of issues around COVID-19, including discussions in relation to costs faced by schools at this time.

Getting all children and young people back into school for the new academic year has been a national priority. To support schools with this, they have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. As stated in our guidance, schools should use these existing resources when making arrangements for this term. The full guidance on the reopening of schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many digital devices tailored to children with special educational needs and disabilities his Department has distributed for remote learning since March 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department has invested over £195 million to support remote education and access to online social care. This includes delivering over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers during the summer term. The Department is adding to this support by making over 340,000 additional laptops and tablets available this term to support disadvantaged children in Year 3 to 11 whose face to face education may be disrupted. Disadvantaged children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are included within this offer.

All local authority maintained schools and academy trusts that are required to close can apply for laptops and tablets which they can lend to children in Years 3 to 11.

The Department has also invested a total of £37.3 million in the Family Fund to support over 75,000 families on low incomes raising children with disabilities or serious illnesses. This includes £10 million to specifically address needs arising from the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. This includes specialist content for pupils with SEND.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide additional financial resources to schools to help cover new costs associated with the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Getting all children and young people back into school for the new academic year has been a national priority. To support schools with this, they have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. On average, schools are attracting 4.2% more per pupil in 2020-21, compared to 2019-20. As stated in our guidance, schools should use these existing resources when making arrangements for this term. The full guidance on the reopening of schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

Schools have also been able to claim additional funding for exceptional costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak between March and July 2020, such as additional cleaning required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, and increased premises costs to keep schools open for priority groups during the Easter and summer half-term holidays. The guidance about claiming additional funding for exceptional costs associated with COVID-19 is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the economic merits of the Union Learning Fund.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department wants to ensure that a wide range of opportunities are available to people of all ages to meet their future skills needs.

We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), worth £1.34 billion in the 2020/21 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning. This includes; full funding for learners who need English and maths skills to undertake a range of courses in GCSEs; functional skills and other relevant qualifications from entry level to level 2; and support through courses and qualifications at pre-entry, entry level 1 to 3, level 1 and level 2 for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

More information about the AEB is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-education-budget-aeb-funding-rules-2019-to-2020.

The department has also introduced a number of additional measures this year as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, such as through the Plan for Jobs announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2020, and the Lifetime Skills Guarantee announced by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, in September. More information about the Plan for Jobs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/a-plan-for-jobs-2020.

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee is aimed at eligible adults, including those that have become unemployed. As part of this, adults who do not currently have a level 3 qualification will be fully funded for their first full level 3 course, enabling participants to access the valuable courses that will help them get ahead in the labour market. This offer will be funded from the National Skills Funding, established to help people learn new skills and prepare for the economy of the future. More information about the National Skills Funding, and other measures to help prepare adults for the economy of the future, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-expansion-of-post-18-education-and-training-to-level-up-and-prepare-workers-for-post-covid-economy.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has also announced skills bootcamps, which will be available in 6 areas across the country. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills based on employer demand and are linked to real job opportunities, helping participants to get jobs, and employers to fill much-needed vacancies. We are planning to expand the bootcamps to more of the country from spring 2021, and we want to extend this model to include other technical skills training.

In addition, the recent expansion of The Skills Toolkit means that people can now choose from over 70 courses, covering digital, adult numeracy, employability and work readiness skills, which have been identified as the skills employers need the most. These courses will help people stay in work or take up new jobs and opportunities.

Through our lifelong loan entitlement, we will also make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly. This will allow them to space out their studies across their lifetime, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.

Apprenticeship opportunities will also be increased, with more funding for small and medium sized enterprises taking on apprentices, and greater flexibility in how their training is structured.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, regularly meets with the Chancellor of the Exchequer but has not done so specifically to discuss the Union Learning Fund.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2020 to Question 110928 on Union Learning Fund: Coronavirus, what additional steps his Department is taking to support adults who (a) need to reskill because of the covid-19 outbreak and (b) do not have have essential qualifications.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department wants to ensure that a wide range of opportunities are available to people of all ages to meet their future skills needs.

We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), worth £1.34 billion in the 2020/21 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning. This includes; full funding for learners who need English and maths skills to undertake a range of courses in GCSEs; functional skills and other relevant qualifications from entry level to level 2; and support through courses and qualifications at pre-entry, entry level 1 to 3, level 1 and level 2 for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

More information about the AEB is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-education-budget-aeb-funding-rules-2019-to-2020.

The department has also introduced a number of additional measures this year as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, such as through the Plan for Jobs announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2020, and the Lifetime Skills Guarantee announced by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, in September. More information about the Plan for Jobs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/a-plan-for-jobs-2020.

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee is aimed at eligible adults, including those that have become unemployed. As part of this, adults who do not currently have a level 3 qualification will be fully funded for their first full level 3 course, enabling participants to access the valuable courses that will help them get ahead in the labour market. This offer will be funded from the National Skills Funding, established to help people learn new skills and prepare for the economy of the future. More information about the National Skills Funding, and other measures to help prepare adults for the economy of the future, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-expansion-of-post-18-education-and-training-to-level-up-and-prepare-workers-for-post-covid-economy.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has also announced skills bootcamps, which will be available in 6 areas across the country. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills based on employer demand and are linked to real job opportunities, helping participants to get jobs, and employers to fill much-needed vacancies. We are planning to expand the bootcamps to more of the country from spring 2021, and we want to extend this model to include other technical skills training.

In addition, the recent expansion of The Skills Toolkit means that people can now choose from over 70 courses, covering digital, adult numeracy, employability and work readiness skills, which have been identified as the skills employers need the most. These courses will help people stay in work or take up new jobs and opportunities.

Through our lifelong loan entitlement, we will also make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly. This will allow them to space out their studies across their lifetime, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.

Apprenticeship opportunities will also be increased, with more funding for small and medium sized enterprises taking on apprentices, and greater flexibility in how their training is structured.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, regularly meets with the Chancellor of the Exchequer but has not done so specifically to discuss the Union Learning Fund.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2020 to Question 113060, if he will disaggregate the take-up rate of the period products programme by (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) colleges.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As previously answered in question 113060, on 20 January 2020, the department launched a new scheme which makes free period products available for state-funded primary schools, secondary schools and colleges, in England.

Our delivery partner, phs Group, reported in August, that since the scheme launched, almost 40% of eligible organisations have placed orders for period products and we are continuing to monitor the scheme closely.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide maintained nursery schools with a long-term funding solution based on up-to-date assessments of need.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and provide valuable services, especially in disadvantaged areas. The government announced on 24 August that up to £23 million of supplementary funding will be provided to local authorities, to enable them to continue protecting the funding of maintained nursery schools during the summer term in 2021. This provides maintained nursery schools with certainty about funding for the 2020/21 academic year.

What happens after the 2020/21 academic year will be determined by the Spending Review, in the context of our priorities across early years as a whole.

This government remains committed to the long-term funding of maintained nursery schools, and any reform to the way they are funded will be accompanied by appropriate funding protections.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential rise in the level of demand for children’s services over the Christmas 2020 period.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has been working closely with local authorities to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on children’s services, including any increases in demand, setting up dedicated regional teams that are in frequent contact.

We are monitoring referrals to children’s services via our regional teams and the Vulnerable Children and Young People survey, which collects data fortnightly from local authorities in England. The latest release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vulnerable-children-and-young-people-survey.

Referrals to children’s social care services data do not show spikes in referrals in December in previous years. The data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need.

The government has provided £4.6 billion of additional funding to support local authorities in meeting COVID-19 related pressures, including in children’s services, and we will continue to work closely with local authorities and monitor demand over the Christmas 2020 period.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that deaf children are able to be taught in environments which require the wearing of facemasks.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government continues to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term future of our children and young people and early years settings, schools, colleges and universities remain open.

Some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This includes children and young people who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness, impairment, or disability and people who are speaking, or providing assistance, to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expression to communicate. These exemptions apply in education settings and may be particularly relevant to children and young people with hearing impairments.

We have published guidance on face coverings in education settings, which was updated on 5 November 2020. It includes that face coverings could have a negative impact on teaching and their use in the classroom should currently be avoided. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children the Government has supported through the temporary extension of free school meals eligibility to no recourse to public funds groups.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

We are working with departments across government to evaluate access to free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds. In the meantime, the extension of eligibility will continue with the current income threshold until a decision on long-term eligibility is made.

At present, data is not available regarding the take up of free school meals by no recourse to public funds groups during the temporary extension.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to end the temporary extension of free school meals eligibility to no recourse to public funds groups.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

We are working with departments across government to evaluate access to free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds. In the meantime, the extension of eligibility will continue with the current income threshold until a decision on long-term eligibility is made.

At present, data is not available regarding the take up of free school meals by no recourse to public funds groups during the temporary extension.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to close the gap in (a) educational outcomes and (b) levels of wellbeing between disadvantaged children and their peers.

Answered by Gavin Williamson - Secretary of State for Education

All children have had their education disrupted by the the COVID-19 outbreak. The government has announced a catch up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch up Premium’ worth a total of £650m to support schools to make up for lost teaching time.

To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students and a further school planning guide: 2020 to 2021.

Alongside this universal grant, a National Tutoring Programme worth £350 million will deliver proven, successful interventions to the most disadvantaged young people. Research shows high quality individual and small group tuition can add up to 5 months of progress for disadvantaged pupils.

Schools continue to receive the pupil premium each quarter. As schools’ original pupil premium strategies will not have been delivered since March, and the pupils’ needs will have changed or intensified, we recommend that, as part of the planning for needs-based universal catch up, school leaders review their pupil premium strategy and amend it to reflect the new situation from this term.

We have put in place an unprecedented range of action to help schools to develop whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, including our £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return training; and trials of approaches to promote positive mental wellbeing in schools, which aim to provide evidence on what works in a school setting to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

We recognise that disadvantaged children may not have access to the resources to undertake remote education. That’s why we’ve invested over £195 million to support access to remote education and online social care.

As part of this, we’re making over 340,000 laptops and tablets available this term to support disadvantaged children in year 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted. This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers, which have already been delivered during the summer term. This represents an injection of over half-a-million laptops and tablets by the end of the year.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps his Department has taken to provide financial support to schools for non-covid-19 related emergencies during 2020.

Answered by Gavin Williamson - Secretary of State for Education

During an emergency situation, responsibility and liability for school buildings remains with the responsible body, whether that be the local authority or academy trust. The local authority (no matter the governance of the school(s) impacted) also has the responsibility to ensure that sufficient pupil places are made available for children in the area.

Whilst responsibility sits with those bodies, the Department for Education has a clear interest in the safety of pupils and staff and ensuring that the education system functions appropriately. In emergency situations, the department works with responsible bodies to understand what support or advice is needed on an individual basis.

Responsible bodies will need to contact their own insurers to understand the financial support available to them in the first instance. The department also provides an alternative to commercial insurance via the Risk Protection Arrangement and we have been able to support many schools through this.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish guidance for medical students on placements on (a) how and (b whether they can return home for the Christmas holiday period during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Minister of State (Education)

The government is committed to ensuring that students who wish to return home for the winter break, are able to do so. It is essential that measures are put in place to ensure this can happen as safely as possible for students, staff and the communities that they return to.

On 11 November, the department published guidance for providers on plans for the end of the autumn term. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/student-movement-and-plans-for-the-end-of-autumn-2020-term.

As outlined in the guidance, published on 11 November, many healthcare students who are on placements are considered essential workers and such placements can continue until the end of term. We will shortly be issuing further detailed guidance on how the end of term guidance applies to all students on placements, including courses where placements may continue.

The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education in England, also issued a FAQ for students on going home for the end of term, available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/coronavirus-end-of-term. This will also be updated shortly, to address questions students may have about their placements.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to reduce bureaucracy within the adoption system.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Ensuring the adoption system is effective is a top priority for this government, and I am determined to tackle the bureaucracy and inefficiencies that can prevent children who need a stable, loving forever home from finding one quickly.

I want to make sure that enough adopters are recruited for the children who need them, that they are matched swiftly to children and that they are properly supported as they form their new family.

In 2015, we had 180 different adoption agencies, a system which resulted in inefficiencies and delays for children. Our programme to introduce fewer, more efficient regional adoption agencies (RAAs) has now created 28 RAAs and they are starting to drive change.

For example, the first annual RAA evaluation report identified improvements in recruitment, matching and support. The latest evaluation of the RAA programme shows a 14-day reduction time for children waiting for placement. We have also seen a 35-day reduction for placement for our ‘harder to place’ children.

This year we have invested £1 million into adopter recruitment. RAA leaders, working with voluntary adoption agencies and others in the adoption sector, launched the #YouCanAdopt Campaign in September. The campaign aims to dispel myths and encourage more people from all walks of life to come forward to adopt. You do not need to be married or own your home to be a loving, adoptive parent. Agencies are reporting a large increase in enquiries, including from people from black, asian and minority ethnic communities. I would encourage anyone to look into the YouCanAdopt campaign.

The government has invested significantly in the Adoption Support Fund (ASF), which has provided more than £177 million for therapeutic support to over 62,000 families since it launched in 2015. The support provided to families through the ASF means that families have managed to access more timely therapeutic support for their children/family. Through our ASF COVID-19 scheme, launched in April, we provided £6.5 million to support up to 61,000 adoptive and special guardianship families struggling to cope with the challenges arising from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Question to the Department for Education:

What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on replacing the temporary arrangements for supplementary funding with a new strand of the Early Years National Funding Formula for grant-maintained nursery schools.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

We announced on 24 August 2020 that local authorities will continue to receive supplementary funding for their maintained nursery schools for the whole of the 2020-21 academic year. The department has regular discussions at official and ministerial level about all aspects of the education system for the forthcoming spending review.

We are committed to funding for maintained nursery schools in the longer term. Any reform to the way they are funded in the future will be accompanied by appropriate funding protections. The Government plans to spend more than £3.6 billion on early education entitlements in 2020-21.

Question to the Department for Education:

What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the end of the transition period on (a) further and (b) higher education.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Minister of State (Education)

We are working with both the higher and further education sectors on what steps they need to take as we come to the end of the Transition Period.

This includes questions around participation in EU-funded programmes and future migration arrangements for example.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Health and Social care to deploy lateral flow covid-19 tests in (a) schools and (b) other education settings.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Government is piloting the use of lateral flow tests in education settings. This will help us better understand how this new technology can be operationalised to protect those at high risk, find the virus and help enable us to go back to as normal a way of life as possible. Establishing this mass testing capability, with fast turn-around times, should allow students to continue their studies safely and minimise the risk of virus transmission in our communities.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to increase (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers.

Answered by Gavin Williamson - Secretary of State for Education

Great schools need great teachers. We are transforming the support for teachers to attract more people to teaching and enable them to thrive. We are working with the profession to create the career pathways and development opportunities to make teaching more than a match for other highly-regarded professions.

We have started to roll out the Early Career Framework – the biggest teaching reform in a generation – providing the solid foundations for a successful career in teaching, backed by up to £130 million a year in funding when fully rolled out in 2021. Early roll-out from autumn 2020 is taking place in selected areas (North East, Greater Manchester, Bradford and Doncaster).

We are also launching new National Professional Qualifications, offering high-quality professional development for teachers and school leaders at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice, to those leading multiple schools across trusts.

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to build new schools.

Answered by Gavin Williamson - Secretary of State for Education

Through the free schools programme, this government has funded thousands of high quality new school places across the country.

We have approved 225 applications from groups that we are now working with to establish new free schools. This includes 73 special and 9 alternative provision free schools.

The Priority Schools Building Programme is replacing or refurbishing buildings at 537 schools.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on students' exam performance of their disrupted schooling as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department acknowledges that pupils due to sit examinations next summer have experienced considerable disruption to their education. The Government is determined to do everything possible to ensure that no pupil is prevented from fulfilling their potential due to COVID-19.

The Department has been working closely with Ofqual, the examination boards and groups representing teachers, schools, colleges, and students, to consider its approach to examinations and other assessments for 2021. It is working closely with the sector representatives to identify any risks to examinations at a national, local, and individual pupil level, and consider measures needed to address any potential disruption. The extent of necessary public health restrictions over the year is of course unknown so the Department is planning for every eventuality.

Working jointly with Ofqual, the Department is also considering the approach to grading, to ensure the 2021 cohort is treated fairly compared to previous cohorts. It continues to believe that examinations are the best and fairest way of judging pupils’ performance and the Government is committed to GCSE, AS and A level examinations taking place next year.

More detail will be published later this autumn.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of people undertaking paid apprenticeships in Coventry North East constituency as at 13 November 2020.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department holds and publishes a range of data relating to apprenticeships, using the information collected through the Individualised Learner Record. For example, information on the number of learners starting apprenticeships by geographical area, including by parliamentary constituency, is published on GOV.UK. The table below provides apprenticeship starts for the Coventry North East Consistency in the 2018/19 academic year and in the first three quarters of the 2019/20 academic year, reported to date:

Figures for the full, final 2019/20 academic year are due to be published in our next ‘Apprenticeships and traineeships’ statistics publication, on 26 November 2020 at 09:30.

Notes:

1) Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten.

2) The data source is the Individualised Learner Record and includes full, final year data for 2018/19 and reported to date figures for the first three quarters of the 2019/20 academic year.

3) In this table, numbers are a count of the number of starts. Learners starting more than one apprenticeship will appear more than once.

4) Figures for 2018/19 and 2019/20 are based on the geographic boundaries as of April 2019.

5) Geographical breakdowns are based upon the home postcode of the learner.

This data is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/899753/201920-July_totals-since-may-2010-and-2015.xlsx.

Which can be accessed in the FE data library on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.

All learners starting apprenticeships are paid at least the minimum wage. Additional information on the rules and regulations of employing apprentices is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/employing-an-apprentice.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to provide young care leavers with educational opportunities.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Providing care leavers with the support they need to access educational opportunities that will allow them to reach their potential is one of my main priorities. We have already:

• Launched 3 care leaver social impact bonds (£5 million over 4 years), which use ‘payment by results’ contracts to support care leavers into education, employment or training.
• In August 2018, introduced a £1,000 bursary for care leavers starting an apprenticeship. Local authorities are required to provide a £2,000 bursary for care leavers who go to university; and care leavers are a priority group for the 16-19 bursary (£1,200 a year) if they are studying in further education.
• In 2019, published the care leaver higher education (HE) principles guidance, which identify the areas where care leavers need extra support to access and succeed in HE, with examples of best practice from across the sector.
• In September, my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, wrote to local authority virtual school heads encouraging them to arrange workshops for care leavers, using free resources designed to help young adults prepare for independent student living.
• Launched the care leaver covenant, which provides a way for organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors to show their commitment to care leavers through providing concrete offers of support. There are now 155 organisations and around 60 HE institutions who have signed the care leaver covenant and published their ‘offer’ to care leavers.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, my hon. Friend, the Minister of state for Universities, wrote to universities and other HE providers, to highlight the vulnerability of care leavers and estranged students, and asked them to prioritise these groups for additional support. In addition:

• Care leavers were a priority group for the 220,000 laptops that the department provided to local authorities, for disadvantaged children and young people, so they can access education and social care services remotely. This included care leavers who are studying at university.
• The government has worked closely with the Office for Students (OfS) to clarify that providers can draw upon existing funding to increase hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Providers were able to use OfS Student Premium funding worth around £23 million per month for April to July this year and £256 million, for the academic year 2020/21 starting from August, towards student hardship funds, including the purchase of IT equipment and mental health support, as well as to support providers’ access and participation plans.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to provide continued support to children leaving care upon turning 18 years of age.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I am committed to doing all I can to support our young people leaving care and ensure that turning 18 years old isn’t the ‘cliff edge’ it can be seen as.

Since 2014, local authorities have been under a duty to provide financial support to enable young people in foster care to remain living with their former foster family to age 21 in a Staying Put arrangement. The department is providing funding of over £33 million in the 2020/21 financial year to support implementation, an increase of approximately £10 million (40%) on the 2019/20 financial year.

Since 2018, we have funded 8 Staying Close pilots (£5.8 million over two years) to test an enhanced offer of support, with accommodation and well-being, for young people leaving residential care. In the 2020/21 financial year we are continuing the pilots and have announced our intention to begin national roll-out.

During National Care Leavers’ Week in October 2020, my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, and I contributed to sector-led events, including the ‘Empathy Summit’ staged by Spectra and the Care Leaver Covenant. We now have 155 organisations signed up to the Care Leaver Covenant, businesses, charities, public bodies, and 85 in the process of developing their offer of practical help. I urge others to follow suit and identify what opportunities they can offer to care leavers.

Policies across government impact on care leavers’ lives, such as housing, employment and health. That is why my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has set up a cross-government ministerial care leavers board, to focus on issues facing care leavers.

In summer this year, I launched the latest intake to the Civil Service care leaver internship scheme, which this year has received over 700 applicants to work in a range of paid roles across government. We are now working, with the cross-government ministerial care leavers’ board, to identify similar opportunities in other large public sector employers, such as the NHS, police and the fire service.

Since 2018/19, as part the government’s rough sleeping strategy, we have provided nearly £6 million funding to 47 local authorities with the highest number of care leavers at risk of homelessness/rough sleeping. The funding allows them to employ specialist Personal Advisers to provide intensive support to small caseloads of care leavers most at risk.

During National Care Leavers Week 2020, this department and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published joint guidance to local authorities on establishing positive accommodation pathways for care leavers, including developing joint protocols between local authorities Children’s and Housing Services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve social mobility for children from working class backgrounds.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Social mobility is a top priority across the department. Every child should have the same opportunity to express their talents and make the most of their lives.

Evidence shows that what happens in children’s earliest years, before they start school, can have a huge influence on later outcomes. That is why the department has committed over £60 million to programmes to improve early language and literacy. Over 1 million disadvantaged two-year olds have taken up an early education place since the entitlement began in September 2013. Results show that the proportion of children achieving a ‘good level of development’ at age 5 is improving year on year. The percentage of children receiving free school meals (FSM) and achieving a good level of development was 57% in 2019, compared 36% in 2013.

A world-class education system that works for everyone is the surest way to spread opportunity across the country. That is why we are investing over £7 billion more in our schools by the 2022-23 financial year, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. This means schools around the country can continue to raise standards to give all children the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion again this year, to enable them to arrange extra personalised support for disadvantaged pupils.

Our technical education reforms will also offer a real choice of high-quality training that has parity of esteem with traditional academic routes, so that all young people can follow the path that’s right for them and benefit from more choice in their education journey. The new T Levels will offer young people a high-quality alternative to A Levels. We are providing extensive support for their implementation, particularly around building capacity for industry placements and capital funding for high quality facilities and equipment.

We are making progress on spreading opportunity, with disadvantaged 18-year-olds entering full time higher education at record rates. The latest data shows that there were 24,900 placed English 18-year-old applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds, constituting an entry rate of 23.1%. Both are the highest on record.

Opportunity Areas (OAs) are working to improve outcomes for children and young people in 12 areas with low social mobility. This is at the heart of our work to level up and learn what works best in areas with entrenched social mobility barriers, so that we can roll out successful approaches across the country.

We are investing £90 million in the 12 OAs to tackle barriers preventing children and young people from achieving their potential. The OAs have also benefitted from £22 million through the “Essential Life Skills” programme, focused on developing resilience, wellbeing, and employability.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to assess the efficacy of the incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice against a baseline hiring rate.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow. To help employers offer new apprenticeships, they are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25 before 31 January 2021, in recognition of the particular impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the employment prospects of this group, and £1,500 for new apprentices aged 25 and over. This is in addition to the existing £1,000 payment we already provide for new 16-18-year-old apprentices and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Employers have been able to register to claim the incentive since 1 September. We are monitoring the take-up of the new payments and will assess their impact on apprenticeship starts, including how employers have used the incentive payments to support job creation through apprenticeships.

As part of the in-year apprenticeship statistics release due to be published on 26 November, we will publish data on the number of apprentices for whom employers have submitted claims for incentive payments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's guidance, Incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice, updated on 28 September 2020, what comparative assessment he has made of the effect of the incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice on the (a) number of apprentices hired and (b) timing of hiring decisions.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow. To help employers offer new apprenticeships, they are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25 before 31 January 2021, in recognition of the particular impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the employment prospects of this group, and £1,500 for new apprentices aged 25 and over. This is in addition to the existing £1,000 payment we already provide for new 16-18-year-old apprentices and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Employers have been able to register to claim the incentive since 1 September. We are monitoring the take-up of the new payments and will assess their impact on apprenticeship starts, including how employers have used the incentive payments to support job creation through apprenticeships.

As part of the in-year apprenticeship statistics release due to be published on 26 November, we will publish data on the number of apprentices for whom employers have submitted claims for incentive payments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England were told on 24 October 2020 by his Department that their allocation of laptops for disadvantaged pupils had been reduced.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department has invested £195 million to support remote education and access to online social care. In addition to over 220,000 laptops and tablets being delivered during the summer term for disadvantaged children who would not otherwise have access, we have supplemented this support by making an additional 340,000 laptops and tablets available in the event that face-to-face education is disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Since September 2020, over 100,000 of these have already been delivered to schools. More information about the allocation of laptops to date can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929064/Ad-hoc_stats_note_shipped_data_231020_FINAL.pdf.

The targeting of laptops and tablets through this scheme has continually been reviewed to ensure support is offered in the most effective way, to reflect the numbers of schools that have been disrupted and the number of laptops and tablets available at any time. In the context of significant demand, we have updated our allocation process to more accurately align orders with the number of students typically self-isolating, ensuring as many children as possible benefit from receiving a device this term. On 24 October 2020, the Department communicated this change in allocations to all schools. If schools are experiencing disruption to face-to-face education and believe they have a need for additional devices, they should contact the Department‘s service team via covid.technology@education.gov.uk to request additional laptops or tablets.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 4 November 2020 to Question 109149 on Remote Education: Merton and of 13 November 2020 to Question 109150 on Remote Education: Coronavirus, how many devices (a) had been distributed, (b) had been allocated and (c) were available for allocation to schools by (i) 20 October 2020 and (ii) 24 October 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

As part of over £195 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care, over 340,000 laptops and tablets are being made available this term to support disadvantaged children in year 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted. This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 51,000 4G wireless routers, which have already been delivered during the summer term.

Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, trusts or local authorities who can lend these to the children and young people who need them most and who may experience disruption to face-to-face education due to COVID-19.

Information on the devices provided this term to schools, local authorities and academy trusts as of 23 October 2020 is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929064/Ad-hoc_stats_note_shipped_data_231020_FINAL.pdf

Devices provided as of 27 August 2020 is published here, which includes 547 devices delivered to Merton Council: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912888/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_progress_data_as_of_27_August_2020.pdf

Allocations were originally equivalent to a school’s potential need if it fully closed. Attendance data suggests most schools are not closing fully, but instead are supporting small groups of children that are not able to attend school because they are self-isolating. The Department has changed the number of devices allocated to each school to reflect this. In the context of significant global demand for laptops and tablets, this ensures that as many children as possible can benefit from a device at the point at which their face-to-face education is disrupted. If schools are experiencing disruption to face-to-face education and believe they have a need for additional devices, they should contact the Department’s service team to request additional laptops or tablets.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to prioritise school staff for covid-19 testing.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

All essential workers continue to have access to priority testing via the online booking portal. This includes school staff, including support and teaching staff and specialist education professionals.

The Department is also supplying COVID-19 test kits directly to schools for staff and students who develop COVID-19 symptoms and face significant barriers to accessing a test through other routes. Test kits will help symptomatic staff who test negative and are not close contacts of confirmed cases to get back to work as soon as they feel well enough. It is for schools to determine how to distribute their test kits in order to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on the education of students.

The Government is committed to introducing mass asymptomatic testing using new technologies to minimise the risk of infection spread within communities. Pilots are already underway for using these in schools and colleges.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to announce Additional High Needs funding to March 2024; and whether he plans that funding will be based on an assessment of local need rather than historical spend.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As a part of our major investment in education, the department has announced significant increases to high needs funding. This year, we have already provided an £780 million increase into high needs, which will be followed up by an additional £730 million in the 2021-22 financial year. This means that the high needs budgets will have grown by over £1.5 billion, nearly 25%, in just 2 years.

High needs funding for the 2022-23 financial year will be drawn from the overall core schools budget. As announced last year, the core school budget for the 2022-23 financial year will total £52.2 billion, which is a year-on-year increase of £4.8 billion. We will announce the high needs budget for 2022-23 in due course. Funding for the 2023-24 financial year will be determined in the next Spending Review.

This additional high needs funding will be allocated via the high needs national funding formula. This formula was introduced in the 2018-19 financial year after extensive consultation and was a significant step forward in making the allocation of funding fairer. The formula is based on the population of 2 to 18-year olds in a local authority area, and includes a number of factors which together are intended to reflect the level of need in the area.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children starting primary school in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England had literacy skills below the expected school-ready level in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The table attached shows the number and percentage of children not achieving the expected level in literacy (the reading and/or writing early learning goals) at the end of their reception year. Figures are provided for each of the four requested regions, for the previous five academic years recorded. No data was recorded for 2019/20 due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he is having with university representatives on students who have signed contracts for university accommodation in relation to courses that have no in-person teaching as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Minister of State (Education)

The government is committed to ensuring that students that have been living away from home are able to return home at the end of term, if they choose to do so. Higher education (HE) providers should ensure they have plans for how they support students to return home safely. As part of these plans, HE providers should plan to have moved all teaching online by 9 December, at the very latest, for a short period until the end of the autumn term. We expect providers to stagger the end of face to face provision between 3 to 9 December, both between faculties and universities in the same city (and region if possible).

Anyone who remains at university after 9 December will run the risk of having to undertake a period of isolation of up to 14 days at university, if they contracted COVID-19, or were identified as a contact of someone who had, and would therefore be at risk of not being able to travel home for the end of term break.

The government plays no direct role in the provision of accommodation, whether university or privately owned.

Officials speak regularly with representatives of private and university owned accommodation, as well as sector bodies. The government worked closely with universities to ensure they were well prepared for the return of students, and we have published guidance to help them keep students and staff as safe as possible. Protecting students’ education and wellbeing is vital, so we are supporting universities to continue delivering a blend of online and face-to-face learning where possible in a COVID-secure way. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses.

Libraries and study spaces on campus should remain open to students and staff, for educational purposes, and must continue to maintain COVID-secure measures. This is important to ensure that student learning can continue as planned while the national restrictions are in place.

Students who have an accommodation contract and, because of COVID-19, think it may no longer fit their requirements, should talk directly to their housing provider.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. This guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds.

Students may be entitled to refunds from accommodation providers depending on the terms of their contract and their particular circumstances. If students need help, organisations such as Citizens Advice offer a free service, providing information and support.

If a student thinks that their accommodation provider is treating them unfairly, they can raise a complaint under the accommodation codes of practice, as long as their provider is a code member. The codes can be found at: https://www.thesac.org.uk/; https://www.unipol.org.uk/the-code/how-to-complain and https://www.rla.org.uk/about/nrla-code-of-practice.shtml.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to schools for building improvement programmes in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry in each year since 2010.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department allocates condition funding each year to those responsible for school buildings to improve and maintain the condition of the school estate. Most condition funding allocations are calculated at a responsible body level and cannot be broken down to constituency level, as decisions on investment are often taken at a local level.

Schools and those responsible for school buildings receive condition funding through different routes depending on their size and type. The majority of condition funding is paid to responsible bodies through annual School Condition Allocations (SCA). Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) is also allocated to schools to spend on their own capital priorities.

The Department has allocated over £48 million in condition funding to Coventry local authority since 2011. This includes SCA (and up to the 2019-20 financial year, funding paid via the local authority Voluntary Aided Programme for voluntary aided schools), and DFC. In the 2018-19 financial year, additional funding was also made available through the Healthy Pupils Condition Fund (HPCF), as well as £400 million additional DFC. In the 2020-21 financial year, the Government made an additional £560 million available for essential maintenance and upgrade projects, with Coventry local authority’s share included below. Data for allocations prior to the 2011-12 financial year is not readily available.

For each financial year since 2011, the Department has allocated Coventry local authority the following:

Large multi-academy trusts and from the 2020-21 financial year, large voluntary aided school bodies, also receive SCA funding to invest in schools for which they are responsible. A full breakdown can be found on GOV.UK. Smaller trusts, voluntary aided schools and sixth form colleges that are not eligible for SCA can bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year. Since 2015, the Department has allocated over £19 million to local authorities in Coventry for CIF projects. Data prior to the 2015-16 financial year is not readily available.

In addition, the Department delivers major building programmes centrally, including the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), which is rebuilding or refurbishing school buildings in the poorest condition at over 500 schools. There are 6 PSBP projects in Coventry including two in your constituency. In June, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced plans for a new, ten year school rebuilding programme. Further details will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure elective home education is limited to where it is in the child’s best interests.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Parents are not obliged to register if they are home educating their children and, as a result, there is not a robust basis on which the Department can reliably collect statistics on home education.

Local authorities are responsible for taking action when it appears that the Elective Home Education (EHE) provision made by parents is unsuitable. If the local authority is not satisfied that the provision is suitable, then it can serve a school attendance order to parents. In April 2019, the Department issued new and strengthened guidance to local authorities on how they can exercise these powers.

In relation to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department is working closely with local authorities to encourage a return to full attendance in school and is monitoring the situation. Initial conversations with local authorities indicate that the majority have noticed an increase in enquiries from parents about home education. Where parents are anxious about the safety of their children returning to school, local authorities and school leaders are reinforcing that it is in the best interests of pupils to return to school.

On 20 October 2020, the Department published advice for parents considering EHE. This is designed to be shared with parents, schools, social workers and local authorities, where the option of EHE is raised. The document is intended to make clear implications of withdrawing their child from school and the challenge involved in providing EHE.

At the same time, the Department also produced information for local authorities and those who work with children, setting out how we expect them to ensure children receive a suitable education, and to use their powers to engage with parents considering EHE where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of effect on children's education attainment of elective home education.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Parents are not obliged to register if they are home educating their children and, as a result, there is not a robust basis on which the Department can reliably collect statistics on home education.

Local authorities are responsible for taking action when it appears that the Elective Home Education (EHE) provision made by parents is unsuitable. If the local authority is not satisfied that the provision is suitable, then it can serve a school attendance order to parents. In April 2019, the Department issued new and strengthened guidance to local authorities on how they can exercise these powers.

In relation to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department is working closely with local authorities to encourage a return to full attendance in school and is monitoring the situation. Initial conversations with local authorities indicate that the majority have noticed an increase in enquiries from parents about home education. Where parents are anxious about the safety of their children returning to school, local authorities and school leaders are reinforcing that it is in the best interests of pupils to return to school.

On 20 October 2020, the Department published advice for parents considering EHE. This is designed to be shared with parents, schools, social workers and local authorities, where the option of EHE is raised. The document is intended to make clear implications of withdrawing their child from school and the challenge involved in providing EHE.

At the same time, the Department also produced information for local authorities and those who work with children, setting out how we expect them to ensure children receive a suitable education, and to use their powers to engage with parents considering EHE where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to collect data on the number of pupils in elective home education.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

Parents are not obliged to register if they are home educating their children and, as a result, there is not a robust basis on which the Department can reliably collect statistics on home education.

Local authorities are responsible for taking action when it appears that the Elective Home Education (EHE) provision made by parents is unsuitable. If the local authority is not satisfied that the provision is suitable, then it can serve a school attendance order to parents. In April 2019, the Department issued new and strengthened guidance to local authorities on how they can exercise these powers.

In relation to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department is working closely with local authorities to encourage a return to full attendance in school and is monitoring the situation. Initial conversations with local authorities indicate that the majority have noticed an increase in enquiries from parents about home education. Where parents are anxious about the safety of their children returning to school, local authorities and school leaders are reinforcing that it is in the best interests of pupils to return to school.

On 20 October 2020, the Department published advice for parents considering EHE. This is designed to be shared with parents, schools, social workers and local authorities, where the option of EHE is raised. The document is intended to make clear implications of withdrawing their child from school and the challenge involved in providing EHE.

At the same time, the Department also produced information for local authorities and those who work with children, setting out how we expect them to ensure children receive a suitable education, and to use their powers to engage with parents considering EHE where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to businesses in Coventry to support the recruitment of apprentices in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government does not allocate apprenticeships funding directly to employers. Employers in England who pay the apprenticeship levy can access funds for apprenticeship training via their apprenticeship service accounts. Employers that do not pay the levy can also now access apprenticeships through the service or through a training provider contracted by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to deliver apprenticeships until 31 March 2021, after which all employers will access funding via the service.

Many levy-paying employers operate in more than one location, and they can spend the funds in their accounts on apprenticeship training across England. We cannot, therefore, disaggregate levy drawdown to individual regions as to the proportion that has been spent on apprenticeship recruitment. Providers’ allocated funding to deliver apprenticeships may operate in multiple locations.

Employer demand for apprenticeships has meant that there have been 30,850 apprenticeship starts in the Coventry local authority since May 2010. The table attached provides annual apprenticeship starts in Coventry since the 2010/11 academic year.

Data as reported on the Individualised Learner Record, as published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/899753/201920-July_totals-since-may-2010-and-2015.xlsx

In the financial year 2020/21, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is almost £2.5 billion, double what was spent in financial year 2010/11. This funds the cost of apprenticeship training and assessment, any recruitment costs are incurred by the employer.

Apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow. To help support employers to offer new apprenticeships, employers are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, and £1,500 for those aged 25 and over until 31 January 2021. The new payment means it’s a great time for employers in Coventry to offer new apprenticeship opportunities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide fiscal support for parents with childcare cost liabilities in the event that a family is required to self-isolate as a result of their child awaiting a covid-19 test.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. This is why the department is planning to spend more than £3.6 billion to support our early education entitlements in 2020-21.

We want to provide security to nurseries and childminders who are open for the children who need them. That is why on 20 July we announced our commitment to continue paying local authorities for the childcare places they usually fund, for the autumn term. This means that even if providers are open but caring for fewer children, as a result of low demand from parents or due to public health reasons, they can continue to be funded for the autumn term at broadly the levels they would have expected to see in the 2020 autumn term had there been no coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This gives another term of secure income to nurseries and childminders who are open for the children who need them.

Whilst we do not provide guidance on how providers operate their private businesses, including charges for provision over and above a child’s free hours, we urge all childcare providers to be reasonable and balanced in their dealings with parents, given the great uncertainty they will be facing too.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has established a COVID-19 Taskforce to identify, monitor and respond to competition and consumer problems arising from COVID-19 and the measures taken to contain it. People and businesses who have seen or experienced businesses behaving unfairly during the COVID-19 outbreak can report it to the CMA by using their dedicated online form. Where there is evidence that businesses have breached competition or consumer protection law, the CMA will take enforcement action if warranted. As a result of alleged unfair practices caused by COVID-19 disruptions, the CMA has published an open letter to the early years sector (nurseries and childcare providers). This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-open-letter-to-the-early-years-sector.

If asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace and on a low income, parents who are unable to work from home and will lose income as a result may be entitled to a payment of £500 from their local authority under the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme. For more information, please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme-claiming-financial-support/claiming-financial-support-under-the-test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to minimise the (a) incidences and (b) effect of pupil exclusion from school.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

It is important that all schools should be calm and disciplined environments within which pupils feel happy and able to fulfil their potential, free from low-level disruption.

The Department supports head teachers using exclusion where warranted. It is clear that there is no right number of exclusions, and permanent exclusion should only be used as a last resort. Exclusion from school should not mean exclusion from high quality education.

The Department is pursuing an ambitious programme of work on school behaviour and to rapidly improve the availability of good alternative provision. This will ensure that permanently excluded children, and children at risk of exclusion, receive high-quality education and support suited to their individual needs. This includes a £10 million investment in behaviour hubs, which will enable schools and multi-academy trusts with exemplary behaviour cultures and practices to work in partnership with those that want to improve their behaviour culture. The Department is also working with Ofsted to eliminate off-rolling.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the selection criteria will be for pupils receiving tutoring under the National Tutoring Programme.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) will provide additional, targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the most help to catch-up. It is important that decisions about what support pupils receive are made locally by those who understand their needs.

For the 5-16 programme, the NTP Academic Mentors and Tuition Partners pillars are designed to support disadvantaged pupils as defined by Pupil Premium eligibility. Schools are encouraged to direct NTP support towards Pupil Premium pupils who have been hardest hit by disruption to their education. However, head teachers can exercise their professional judgement to include other disadvantaged and vulnerable children who they feel are most in need of support. In order to maximise the impact of tutoring and to support schools, the Education Endowment Foundation has provided a guide on how to get the best out of tutoring: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/resources/best-tutoring-practice-for-schools. This includes advice on selecting and grouping pupils for tutoring.

The NTP is also supporting an oral language programme for reception-aged children. The Department invited all state-funded schools with a reception class to register their interest in delivering the programme. Schools will be prioritised based on the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, in recognition of the disproportionate impact that time out of early education, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, has had on disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Delivery of this element will begin in January 2021.

Additionally, the 16 to 19 Tuition Fund will be used to deliver small group tuition where education has been disrupted. The Department has asked colleges to prioritise their disadvantaged students but recognise that there are different indicators of disadvantage. We have given colleges flexibility to target the students who are most in need of this support, but asked colleges to note the stipulations regarding eligibility set out in the published guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Bolton South East of 10 July 2020 and 18 September 2020 on concerns from primary school heads about the Government's covid-19 guidance..

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

I can confirm that a response to the letters dated 10 July and 18 September 2020 regarding concerns from primary school heads about the Government's COVID-19 guidance has been sent to the hon. Member for Bolton South East.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are registered as having SEND; how many children with SEND are enrolled in schools; what information his Department holds on attendance rates of children with SEND.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department collects and publishes data on the number of children and young people aged 0 to 25 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan because of their special educational needs (SEN). This data is available at https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/213f4e4b-e441-4996-b3f9-b614a0fd03bf.

The department also publishes data on the number of children enrolled in schools who have SEN, which includes both children with an EHC plan and children receiving SEN support. This data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/5bb4617e-2bd3-4b08-b665-1035fe9c3666.

Additionally, the department collects data on the number of schools that have indicated that they have sent children home due to COVID-19 containment measures, and the department also holds attendance data for schools that have done this. Published information on this is available at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. The latest data available, which is from 5 November 2020, shows that attendance was at 83.3% for pupils with an EHC plan in all state-funded schools.

Normally, in times not affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, the department collects data on the number of sessions missed by pupils and the broad reason for this. The department also publishes data on the absence rates of pupils, including a breakdown by SEN status and whether the absence was authorised by the school or not. This data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/96c0510a-4687-47f7-820d-07e9314fa077.

We know that for children and young people with SEN, attending their educational setting is crucial so that they can receive high-quality teaching and the specialist professional support that they need. It remains our priority to keep education settings open for vulnerable children and young people, including those who have an EHC plan.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of primary school pupils were in receipt of free school meals in (a) Coventry and (b) Coventry North East constituency in each year since 2010.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The number of primary school pupils that were in receipt of free school meals (FSM), in (a) Coventry and (b) Coventry North East constituency, each year since 2010 are given in the table attached. The figures are published in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether applicants to higher education whose families are settled in the UK through the EU Settlement Scheme (pre-settled and settled) will be eligible for (a) home fee status and (b) undergraduate, postgraduate, and advanced learner financial support from Student Finance England for courses starting in the academic year 2021-22.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Minister of State (Education)

Current EU principles of equal treatment will continue to apply for those covered by the citizens’ rights provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement, the European Economic Area-European Free Trade Association (EEA-EFTA) Separation Agreement and the Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement. This means that EEA and Swiss nationals, and their family members, who are covered by the relevant agreements, and who have been granted settled or presettled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, will be eligible for support on broadly the same basis as now, subject to meeting the residency requirements. Close family members living overseas will be able to join an EEA or Swiss citizen resident here after the end of the transition period, where the relationship existed on 31 December 2020 and continues to exist when the person wishes to come to the UK. Children born or adopted after December 2020 are also eligible if their parent is covered by one of the Withdrawal Agreements.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the interest charged on Plan 1 student loans during maternity leave does not cause unfair financial hardship on women.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Minister of State (Education)

The system for setting interest rates on student loans is set out in The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations (2009), as amended. The interest rate on Plan 1 (pre-2012) income-contingent repayment student loans is the Retail Price Index (currently 2.6%), or the Bank of England base rate + 1%, whichever is lower. The current interest rate of 1.1% will remain in place until such time as the Bank of England base rate changes.

The current system protects borrowers, including people on maternity leave and other forms of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the repayment thresholds. Repayments are calculated as a fixed percentage of earnings above the relevant repayment threshold. The annual repayment threshold for Plan 1 borrowers is currently £19,390, rising to £19,895 from 6 April 2021. Any outstanding debt is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.

If, at the end of the year, the borrower’s total income is below the annual threshold, they may reclaim any repayments from the Student Loans Company made during that year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff have been recruited to date through the Wellbeing in Schools Return Fund.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Wellbeing for Education Return is a new £8 million package of training and support for schools and colleges, to help education staff to promote and support children and young people’s wellbeing and mental health recovery, responding to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

It includes:

• A new, nationally developed training package for education staff.
• Grant funding for local authorities to appoint local experts to deliver the training into schools and further education providers during this autumn term, and to provide ongoing advice and support until March 2021.

147 of England’s 151 upper tier local authorities (97%) have taken up the offer of training. This will help them to support local schools and colleges, having received funding and materials from the government in September.

Local areas can decide how to engage with the programme and are taking a range of approaches to deliver training and support into schools and colleges in a way that is most appropriate for them and the demands on their time. It is too early to assess how many education settings have received support through the programme. Plans are in place to monitor delivery of this training and support with local authorities, up to 31 March 2021.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students are planned to receive tuition through the National Tutoring Programme this academic year.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the most help to catch up.

The programme for 5-16 year olds comprises of two pillars to support schools. Tuition Partners offer high quality, subsidised tuition to disadvantaged pupils in schools across the regions, whilst schools in the most disadvantaged areas are being supported to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide tuition to their pupils.

The programme went live on 2 November 2020 with provision to schools increasing over the winter and into the spring term. 32 approved Tuition Partners are ready to offer tuition to schools. The full list of approved Tuition Partners is available here: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-32-providers-selected-to-deliver-the-national-tutoring-programme/.

It is expected that they will support around 250,000 pupils over the academic year. The Department also placed its first 188 mentors with schools to work with pupils that need additional support. We expect to place around 1,000 Academic Mentors, with the remaining mentors starting in schools over the 2021 spring term. Further information about the NTP is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs.

As part of the Department’s £1 billion catch-up support to schools, it will spend up to £350 million on the NTP. To date, the NTP comprises of three elements. Further details about the 5-16 programme are available through the following link: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/news/national-tutoring-programme-launches-in-schools.

Details about small group tutoring via the 16-19 Tuition Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.

Finally, details regarding the oral language support programme for Reception-aged children can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/early-years-support-package-to-help-close-covid-language-gap.

Further information on programmes within the NTP will be set out following the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £350m allocated for the National Tutoring Programme (a) has been spent to date and (b) is projected to be spent this academic year.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the most help to catch up.

The programme for 5-16 year olds comprises of two pillars to support schools. Tuition Partners offer high quality, subsidised tuition to disadvantaged pupils in schools across the regions, whilst schools in the most disadvantaged areas are being supported to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide tuition to their pupils.

The programme went live on 2 November 2020 with provision to schools increasing over the winter and into the spring term. 32 approved Tuition Partners are ready to offer tuition to schools. The full list of approved Tuition Partners is available here: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-32-providers-selected-to-deliver-the-national-tutoring-programme/.

It is expected that they will support around 250,000 pupils over the academic year. The Department also placed its first 188 mentors with schools to work with pupils that need additional support. We expect to place around 1,000 Academic Mentors, with the remaining mentors starting in schools over the 2021 spring term. Further information about the NTP is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs.

As part of the Department’s £1 billion catch-up support to schools, it will spend up to £350 million on the NTP. To date, the NTP comprises of three elements. Further details about the 5-16 programme are available through the following link: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/news/national-tutoring-programme-launches-in-schools.

Details about small group tutoring via the 16-19 Tuition Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.

Finally, details regarding the oral language support programme for Reception-aged children can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/early-years-support-package-to-help-close-covid-language-gap.

Further information on programmes within the NTP will be set out following the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what date the National Tutoring Programme is planned to be fully operational.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the most help to catch up.

The programme for 5-16 year olds comprises of two pillars to support schools. Tuition Partners offer high quality, subsidised tuition to disadvantaged pupils in schools across the regions, whilst schools in the most disadvantaged areas are being supported to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide tuition to their pupils.

The programme went live on 2 November 2020 with provision to schools increasing over the winter and into the spring term. 32 approved Tuition Partners are ready to offer tuition to schools. The full list of approved Tuition Partners is available here: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-32-providers-selected-to-deliver-the-national-tutoring-programme/.

It is expected that they will support around 250,000 pupils over the academic year. The Department also placed its first 188 mentors with schools to work with pupils that need additional support. We expect to place around 1,000 Academic Mentors, with the remaining mentors starting in schools over the 2021 spring term. Further information about the NTP is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs.

As part of the Department’s £1 billion catch-up support to schools, it will spend up to £350 million on the NTP. To date, the NTP comprises of three elements. Further details about the 5-16 programme are available through the following link: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/news/national-tutoring-programme-launches-in-schools.

Details about small group tutoring via the 16-19 Tuition Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.

Finally, details regarding the oral language support programme for Reception-aged children can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/early-years-support-package-to-help-close-covid-language-gap.

Further information on programmes within the NTP will be set out following the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have received tutoring under the National Tutoring Programme to date.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the most help to catch up.

The programme for 5-16 year olds comprises of two pillars to support schools. Tuition Partners offer high quality, subsidised tuition to disadvantaged pupils in schools across the regions, whilst schools in the most disadvantaged areas are being supported to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide tuition to their pupils.

The programme went live on 2 November 2020 with provision to schools increasing over the winter and into the spring term. 32 approved Tuition Partners are ready to offer tuition to schools. The full list of approved Tuition Partners is available here: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-the-32-providers-selected-to-deliver-the-national-tutoring-programme/.

It is expected that they will support around 250,000 pupils over the academic year. The Department also placed its first 188 mentors with schools to work with pupils that need additional support. We expect to place around 1,000 Academic Mentors, with the remaining mentors starting in schools over the 2021 spring term. Further information about the NTP is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/faqs.

As part of the Department’s £1 billion catch-up support to schools, it will spend up to £350 million on the NTP. To date, the NTP comprises of three elements. Further details about the 5-16 programme are available through the following link: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/news/national-tutoring-programme-launches-in-schools.

Details about small group tutoring via the 16-19 Tuition Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.

Finally, details regarding the oral language support programme for Reception-aged children can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/early-years-support-package-to-help-close-covid-language-gap.

Further information on programmes within the NTP will be set out following the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the economic benefits of short breaks for respite for children who need palliative care.

Answered by Vicky Ford - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Palliative care can help children with life limiting or life ending conditions to have a good quality of life where they get treatment, care and support. Regular palliative care can enable parents to work and also can prevent escalation of needs later on.

While the government has not done any recent assessment of the economic benefits of short breaks for respite for children who need palliative care, local authorities have a statutory duty to assess the social care needs of disabled children and young people, and to provide respite care where necessary. Where it is appropriate, local authorities can fund respite care provided by hospices, either as a short-term stay or as a service provided to the child or young person in the family home by the hospice team. Local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups regularly liaise to plan and commission the most appropriate package of respite care for the children and young people with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition in their area.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £650 million universal catch-up premium funding has (a) been given to schools so far and (b) projected to be spent this academic year.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The universal catch-up premium funding, worth £650 million, will be delivered in three payments across the 2020/21 academic year. The first payment (25% of total) has already been made to schools, totalling £159 million. The final allocations will be re-calculated once the October 2020 school census data is available. The second payment of catch-up premium funding will be made in the early new year, and the third payment in the summer term. The Department’s expectation is that all catch-up premium funding received will be spent during the 2020/21 academic year on the additional activities required to support children and young people to catch up.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown academic tutors are permitted to teach their pupils in the pupil's home on a one to one basis, where the (a) age, (b) special educational needs of the child or (c) other factors mean that online lessons are not possible.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on New National Restrictions from 5 November 2020, out-of-school activities such as private tuition may continue to operate during the period of national restrictions. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss. Providers of these activities, regardless of the age of the children they are caring for, should ensure they are only being accessed for face-to-face provision by parents if their primary purpose is registered childcare, or where they are providing other activities for children, where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work or search for work, or to undertake training or education.

Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education (which could include, for example, academic tutors) may also continue to operate face-to-face for the duration of the national restrictions.

Where a child has special educational needs or disabilities or there are other factors which mean that online lessons are not reasonably possible, providers are permitted to offer face-to-face provision in pupils’ homes, where it is necessary for them to continue to work.

Tutors that continue to operate face-to-face during this period should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in the guidance regarding protective measures for holiday clubs and after-school clubs, and other out-of-school clubs for children during the COVID-19 outbreak. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. Providers operating out of other people’s homes should also implement the guidance on working safely in other people’s homes, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.

All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes and that can offer remote education, should close for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions. This will minimise the amount of mixing between different groups of people and therefore reduce the risk of infection and transmission of COVID-19.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) support PGCE candidates and others on teacher training programmes in the event that they cannot secure work placement positions due to the ongoing covid-19 outbreak and (b) promote alternative arrangements for those trainee teachers.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department has been working closely with initial teacher training (ITT) institutions to support trainees, including postgraduates, to secure training placements in schools this academic year. We have encouraged schools to host trainees, confirmed that trainees are critical workers, and relaxed the criteria for the delivery of ITT in the 2020/21 academic year. The Department has supported the ITT sector to share innovative approaches to delivering school placements. Further information about the relaxations of the ITT criteria this academic year can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt

The Department is continuing to work with the sector to identify what further support may be needed to secure and deliver ITT school placements this academic year, including alternative arrangements for trainees whose placements are disrupted for a reason relating to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of enabling parents to remove their children from school without prosecution during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

It is vital that pupils continue to attend school for their education, wellbeing and long-term development. Time spent out of school is detrimental for children’s cognitive and academic development, particularly for disadvantaged children.

Parents have a duty to ensure that any of their children who are of compulsory school age receive a full-time education, either through regular attendance at school or through alternative arrangements, such as home schooling. Where a child is registered at a school, they must attend unless a statutory reason applies (for example, due to sickness, or where a leave of absence has been granted). Where children are not able to attend school as they are following clinical or public health advice related to the COVID-19 outbreak, the absence will not be penalised.

The usual powers to secure high levels of attendance continue to be available to schools and local authorities during the COVID-19 outbreak. These include schools’ and local authorities’ ability to use parental responsibility measures, such as fixed penalty notices, and local authorities’ ability to prosecute as a last resort. Schools should consider concerns from pupils, parents and households who may be reluctant or anxious about attending school, and put the right support in place to address this.

Parents may choose to educate their child at home (elective home education) rather than at a school. If they do so, they must provide a suitable full-time education if the child is of compulsory school age. Where a pupil is withdrawn from school for elective home education, there is no obligation for the school to keep that place open.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on advertising for new recruits for teacher training courses in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The estimated amount spent on advertising for new recruits for teacher training courses in each of the last five years is:

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what resources his Department has made available to secondary schools in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England to enable more trainee teachers to be accommodated on work placement positions during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

The Department has been working to support schools throughout England to host trainee teachers on placements during the COVID-19 outbreak. We have relaxed the criteria for the delivery of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2020/21 academic year to support schools to host trainees in the current operating environment, for example, by suspending the expectation that trainees train to teach in at least two schools. The criteria is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt.

We have also suggested roles that trainee teachers can undertake in schools in 2020/21 in the Department’s guidance on the full opening of schools, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#school-workforce.

For the 2019/20 cohort, we have made funding available for course extensions to enable schools to host trainees for an additional period of time as they work towards qualification.

These measures are intended to support schools throughout England, including secondary schools in St Helens North constituency and the North West, and are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt#trainees-not-recommended-for-qts-in-2019-to-2020.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) Saturday theatre schools and (b) out of school theatre classes are permitted to continue throughout the November 2020 lockdown restrictions.

Answered by Nick Gibb - Minister of State (Education)

On Saturday 31 October, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced New National Restrictions from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December to control the spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday 4 November, the Department published guidance for education and childcare settings on the impact of these restrictions. The guidance can be found here: www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020.

Where educational provision is taking place outside of school, this should only operate where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work, attend education or training, or where the provision is used for the purposes of respite care, including for vulnerable children. This includes provision by supplementary schools offering music or performing arts activities for children on a part-time basis.

Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a full-time education (which can include supplementary schools, tuition centres, or private tutors) may also continue to operate.

All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes, should close for face to face provision, but can offer remote education for the duration of the New National Restrictions.

Congratulations Amber! https://t.co/aeOgXV2hd7 - Tweet Link

Congratulations Bavaani! https://t.co/5Nx6OmdOWH - Tweet Link

Congratulations Rob! https://t.co/sZeyj0cOhv - Tweet Link

Congratulations Bavaani! https://t.co/Ok2CvALsl7 - Tweet Link

Congratulations to Reon, who works at Wembley Primary School for being named as London’s 2020 #ActiveSchoolHero He has been working tirelessly over lockdown to help young children stay fit and active @UKActive Find out more: https://t.co/oeM3SjBLdG https://t.co/QfQIeN4G9H - Tweet Link

Congratulations to @Alex_Bramley3 from @Spirejunior winner of @TeachingAwards Gold Award Primary School Teacher of the Year 2020! @BBCTheOneShow @Mattallwright #ClassroomHeroes https://t.co/ysK057SFE0 - Tweet Link

Read our blog on why closing schools early for Christmas would be unfair to young people https://t.co/cAZs1tqtGG - Tweet Link

Congratulations! https://t.co/5OwntLHs0q - Tweet Link

Congratulations Kerryann! https://t.co/c3lauRwNbY - Tweet Link

Congratulations Mr. Bramley! https://t.co/5tKrv8jxLi - Tweet Link

“I cannot explain to you how wonderful, how magical, teachers and support staff” Thank you, Mrs Vance, and everyone in schools, for working so hard this year. Join us in celebrating our wonderful teachers and the winners of the @TeachingAwards on @BBCTheOneShow tonight at 7pm. https://t.co/GgJlidRMmP - Tweet Link

“I cannot explain to you how wonderful, how magical, teachers and support staff” Thank you, Mrs Vance, and everyone in schools, for working so hard this year. Join us in celebrating our wonderful teachers and the winners of the @TeachingAwards on @BBCTheOneShow tonight at 7pm. https://t.co/bExokhvd0h - Tweet Link

Last night kicked off a week of celebrating teaching and the winners of @TeachingAwards on @BBCTheOneShow Congratulations to Maria Gallagher from @AshmountSchool in Loughborough, Gold Winner of the Teaching Assistant of the Year! #ClassroomHeroes https://t.co/GT1neE3jVD - Tweet Link

As the Prime Minister has made clear, it is a national priority to keep education settings open full-time. Thanks to the dedication of staff, at least 99% of schools have been open each week since the start of term. https://t.co/pwPLfVQa4n - Tweet Link

Nurseries, schools and colleges should not change their Christmas holidays or close early this term. Find out more in the Winter Plan: https://t.co/atq9TsMupC https://t.co/ghDYYp8ZOi - Tweet Link

Prime Minister @BorisJohnson: "We believe education is of huge importance, we want to keep kids in school as much as we can". https://t.co/5gXE5WDFG2 - Tweet Link

Congratulations Maria! https://t.co/9n4LqOaTzr - Tweet Link

Congratulations Stefanie! https://t.co/4bNO6fbxmZ - Tweet Link

Make someone’s day and send a free #ThankATeacher e-card to a headteacher, senior leader, teacher or member of support staff for all they have done to support our young people this year👇https://t.co/Va9J80yDbI @UKThankATeacher #ClassroomHeroes https://t.co/8VXlNRGQKz - Tweet Link

Teachers have gone above and beyond this year to make sure every child keeps learning and growing no matter what. Join us in celebrating them and the winners of the @TeachingAwards every night this week on @BBCTheOneShow Be sure to tune in tonight at 7pm on BBC2! https://t.co/XjgmAd4xTB - Tweet Link

We have purchased over 340,000 laptops this term alone to support disadvantaged children. By Christmas, this will be a total of over half a million since the pandemic hit. https://t.co/241MM4H5Yf - Tweet Link

“Exams are the best and fairest way to ensure that children, especially from disadvantaged and BAME backgrounds, get the best possible grades” - @GavinWilliamson today. He told MPs that a package of extra measures to ensure 2021 exams are fair will soon be announced. https://t.co/JRNqUL52Gq - Tweet Link

.@NickGibbUK in the @HouseofCommons today “There is a broad consensus, including amongst unions and school leaders, that holding exams is the best option for next summer.” #Exams #exams2021 https://t.co/VU2inu61FU - Tweet Link

Teachers have gone above and beyond this year, join us in celebrating them every night this week at 7pm @BBCTheOneShow #ClassroomHeroes https://t.co/1Q2Fia4ouk - Tweet Link

Every weeknight at 7pm, @BBCTheOneShow will be celebrating the achievements of the @TeachingAwards winners – don’t forget to tune in! #ClassroomHeroes #ThankATeacher @UKThankATeacher #TheOneShow https://t.co/fsis23Iy1I - Tweet Link

To celebrate #WorldChildrensDay, Mrs Vance from @OutwoodAdwick has 30 seconds to tell us why she's been blown away by children and young people this year - go! https://t.co/OFeOCdzMyK - Tweet Link

On #WorldChildrensDay, we’re celebrating the great work of our Opportunity Areas to build a better future for young people. https://t.co/H4ryLyryv9 - Tweet Link

To celebrate #WorldChildrensDay, Mrs Vance from @OutwoodAdwick has 30 seconds to tell us why she's been blown away by children and young people this year - go! https://t.co/qZul8elnSX - Tweet Link

To celebrate #WorldChildrensDay, Mrs Vance from @OutwoodAdwick has 30 seconds to tell us why she's been blown away by children and young people this year - go! https://t.co/hT29OyXdCy - Tweet Link

All children should feel safe in school and at home. Education Secretary @GavinWilliamson talks about the importance of protecting our children and young people from bullying. #AntiBullyingWeek https://t.co/eELhmsvm48 - Tweet Link

The protection of children is everyone’s responsibility. This World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, make sure you’re aware of what to look out for, and who to call should you have concerns. Go to https://t.co/ViHZoWjHgI for more information. Let's #tackleabusetogether https://t.co/FGhvjsujOd - Tweet Link

All children should feel safe in school and at home. Education Secretary @GavinWilliamson talks about the importance of protecting our children and young people from bullying. #AntiBullyingWeek https://t.co/HuyXEO2kg4 - Tweet Link

“GCSEs and A levels are a matter of life chances” – why it is important that exams take place next year https://t.co/InF9KlL2ay - Tweet Link

No child should have to experience bullying, in or out of school. Guidance and resources are available for any schools or young people who need help from @ABAonline #AntiBullyingWeek Read more: https://t.co/jrpmXnQwB4 https://t.co/pu19ULbeJM - Tweet Link

.@GavinWilliamson tells BBC’s @branwenjeffreys his proposed changes would mean we would have a much fairer and more efficient admissions system that will benefit both universities and students Find out more: https://t.co/oiIJpcQMJB https://t.co/mwlY9Ba7ch - Tweet Link

A fairer system for university admissions would help more students achieve their full potential, wherever they live and whatever their background. Matching talent with opportunity. Find out more: https://t.co/oiIJpcQMJB https://t.co/6KCzlVotW5 - Tweet Link

Research shows that closing schools would have a negative impact on children and young people’s mental health and development. We are prioritising their education and wellbeing by keeping schools open. https://t.co/ymX7wk31GE https://t.co/cO9TWBkhVu - Tweet Link

“Students being in school is vital. Not only for their education & learning, but also for their wellbeing.” @SmallHeathLA Principal Enass Al-Ani shares why keeping schools open is important for children’s mental health and development. https://t.co/v9QO4knQ1B - Tweet Link

Today @CMO_England and SAGE have published conclusions which support the government's decision to keep schools open. Read more: https://t.co/qWH8MkNiZc https://t.co/ncSquQjJaJ - Tweet Link

When can students go home for Christmas? What is the latest on testing at universities? Our blog answers these questions and more https://t.co/SrVpZpcpJF - Tweet Link

We’ve updated FE guidance with information on risk assessments and social distancing, managing local and national restrictions, and other changes to regulations and programmes. Find out more: https://t.co/w8XOAoRitN https://t.co/iekcDSJadi - Tweet Link

Schools – there are resources available on https://t.co/yuWFRZfKlf to help you plan and deliver remote education, including webinars, best practice guides and example lesson plans. Take a look 👇 https://t.co/X2ciapjw1i https://t.co/gJmyDuK8wt - Tweet Link

@Elphyd Hi Lucas, Students will be able to start to travel home from 3 December, after the national restrictions come to an end, and it’s strongly recommended that you travel home on or before 9 December. [1/4] - Tweet Link

@Elphyd Students should discuss when to travel with their university, who will be making plans to stagger the end of face-to-face teaching. [2/4] - Tweet Link

@Elphyd We are recommending students travel between 3 and 9 December because anyone who remains at university after 9 December and contracts coronavirus (COVID-19) or is contacted by NHS Test and Trace will have to isolate for up to 14 days at their term-time address. [3/4] - Tweet Link

@Elphyd This would increase the risk of students not being able to travel home in time for Christmas Day. Hope this helps, thanks, RW [4/4] - Tweet Link

@AngusJWilkinson Hi Angus, following the end of the period of national restrictions on 2 December, research students will be able to continue in-person research activities if the research cannot reasonably be conducted from home. [1/5] - Tweet Link

@AngusJWilkinson [2/5] However, where possible, research should be carried out at home, or without gathering with others. Like undergraduate students, research students can still travel home at the end of term, provided they do not test positive for coronavirus. - Tweet Link

@AngusJWilkinson [3/5] Students should follow guidance from their university on which days to travel, as they will be working closely with neighbouring universities to ensure all students are not travelling on the same day. - Tweet Link

@AngusJWilkinson [4/5] We are working closely with transport operators to ensure the required services are provided to enable passengers to social distance. Students should also follow the safer travel guidance for passengers here - https://t.co/7DlbMHPkbp - Tweet Link

@AngusJWilkinson [5/5] We are working with universities on how we roll out mass testing for all of the student population as fast as possible. Hope this helps, Thanks, RW - Tweet Link

@psymonbee Hi Simon, only students who test positive for COVID-19 will be required by law to self-isolate at their university accommodation before travelling home at the end-of-term. They will need to self-isolate for a period of 10 days before travelling home. [1/3] - Tweet Link

@psymonbee [2/3] Students who are identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 are permitted to complete their self-isolation period of 14 days at home, travelling home via private transport wherever possible. - Tweet Link

@psymonbee [3/3] Students who exhibit symptoms but are not identified as a contact will be allowed to travel home by any mode of transport and will not have to complete any periods of self-isolation. - Tweet Link

@KatieHullPR Hi Katie, Following the end of term break, our top priority for January will be the welfare of students, staff and the communities around Higher Education providers. [1/2] - Tweet Link

@KatieHullPR [2/2] We are looking to utilise mass testing to make the return to higher education as safe as possible, and will provide further guidance in due course, considering future developments and the relevant scientific advice. Hope this helps! Thanks, RW :) - Tweet Link

@Emily44876964 Students will be able to start to travel home from 3 December, after the national restrictions come to an end, and it’s strongly recommended that you travel home on or before 9 December. - Tweet Link

@Emily44876964 Students should discuss when to travel with their university, who will be making plans to stagger the ending of face-to-face teaching. - Tweet Link

@Prag31 @DHSCgovuk As students studying in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland will not have completed the 4 week period of national restrictions in England, we recommend that these students undertake a period of at least 14 days of reduced contact either before or after returning home. - Tweet Link

@Prag31 @DHSCgovuk We are working closely with the Devolved Administrations and expect to provide further advice shortly. - Tweet Link

We’re really pleased to be among the top ranked organisations in the #SocialMobility Foundation Employer Index 2020. We want to be a place where people find opportunities to achieve their full potential, regardless of their background. #SMFIndex2020 https://t.co/JJQz9PFXXk - Tweet Link

It's been a tough year for students. As @michelledonelan explains, we are delivering on our commitment to get them back to their loved ones as safely as possible for Christmas 📺 @BBCBreakfast https://t.co/GiPV2gqXA1 - Tweet Link

We’ve published guidance for students and universities on allowing students to be with their families at Christmas. https://t.co/GBFREcNPd6 https://t.co/Y7MZsKgeyP - Tweet Link

We’ve published guidance for students and universities on allowing students to be with their families at Christmas. https://t.co/GBFREcNPd6 https://t.co/b80p19Saa7 - Tweet Link

Want to find out more about using EdTech both in the classroom and remotely? 💻 Every day this week you can join in the discussion with industry experts, high-profile speakers, and teachers through #EdTechWeek2020 🌐 Sign up for an event 👇 https://t.co/AxpjtZp5Da https://t.co/jMEBDFNvMD - Tweet Link

There is widespread consensus that exams are the best and fairest way of judging students’ performance. Here we answer your questions on next year’s exams in England: https://t.co/zWJqxtSaAC - Tweet Link

A report from @Ofstednews highlights the impact of the pandemic on pupils and the importance of schools staying open. Read more here: https://t.co/FYhQTSZIU8 - Tweet Link

Have your say on shaping the future of post-16 level 2 and below qualifications so they support more people to progress onto an apprenticeship, further study or employment. Read now: https://t.co/1Wk5JSV51R https://t.co/p6tavnOeuq - Tweet Link

We caught up with Charlie Dawson from Northgate High School who spoke about his online maths resources thanks to @IpswichOA helping pupils become independent learners and improving outcomes in maths➗➕👇 https://t.co/pI1hxtoDRF #MWE20 #MathsWeekEngland @maths_week https://t.co/gjnbsQoT4A - Tweet Link

Found: with the Department for Education, to fulfil this, and to ensure that all signatories will have

Found: the Department for Education. The number of students coming from Peru is currently diminishing. The process

Found: concentrating along with colleagues who support them and give them confidence. What is the Department

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Found: with the Department for Education.</p> <p>Social mobility should not mean having to leave your

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Found: students to help our local hospitals, and that the Department for Education looks at the issue I raised

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether her Department has carried out an equality impact assessment on the potential effect on young people of the proposed removal of Government-funded projects that tackle LGBT+ bullying in schools.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We want to ensure that all children, whoever they are, are kept safe in schools. Since 2016, we have invested £4m to support schools in preventing and addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, reaching 2,250 schools in England. This programme concluded in March 2020 and we are currently evaluating it.

In our 2019 Manifesto, we made clear our commitment to continuing to help teachers tackle bullying, including homophobic bullying, and the Government is continuing to fund anti-bullying projects. The Department for Education announced £750k of funding in June for three charitable organisations, including a project for victims of hate-related bullying.

We consider the Public Sector Equality Duty in everything we do, including the continuing delivery of our anti-bullying work.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what equality impact assessment his Department has undertaken of defunding the Government-backed projects tackling bullying of LGBT+ students in England's schools on young people.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We want to ensure that all children, whoever they are, are kept safe in schools. Since 2016, we have invested £4m to support schools in preventing and addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, reaching 2,250 schools in England. This programme concluded in March 2020 and we are currently evaluating it.

In our 2019 Manifesto, we made clear our commitment to continuing to help teachers tackle bullying, including homophobic bullying, and the Government is continuing to fund anti-bullying projects. The Department for Education announced £750k of funding in June for three charitable organisations, including a project for victims of hate-related bullying.

We consider the Public Sector Equality Duty in everything we do, including the continuing delivery of our anti-bullying work.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Written Statement of 13 October 2020, Official Report HCWS506, Adult Skills and National Retraining Scheme Update, whether the National Skills Fund will be used to invest in prison (a) staff, and (b) in-cell technology.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Education in prison is funded by HMPPS and helps individuals develop the skills they need to unlock their potential, gain employment, and become assets to their communities. My officials continue to work with colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure that prisoners are well prepared to take advantage of community education provision on release.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Written Statement of 13 October 2020, Official Report HCWS506, Adult Skills and National Retraining Scheme Update, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the scope of the National Skills Fund to include prison education.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Education in prison is funded by HMPPS and helps individuals develop the skills they need to unlock their potential, gain employment, and become assets to their communities. My officials continue to work with colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure that prisoners are well prepared to take advantage of community education provision on release.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Oral Statement of 9 November 2020, Official Report, column 636, how much funding is planned to be allocated to each local authority in the North East from (a) the Covid Winter Grant Scheme and (b) the Holiday Activities and Food programme.

Answered by Will Quince - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Local authorities have been informed of their individual allocation of funding for the Covid Winter Grant Scheme and these will be published shortly on Gov.uk. The Holiday Activities and Food programme will be expanded across England next year and the Department for Education will work closely with local authorities to prepare for delivery of the programme to begin at Easter.

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Found: a notionally funded scheme administered by the Department for Education (DfE). There is no fund of assets

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Found: million in the Department for Education to bring technology up to date. This investment reduces

Found: of Justice and £64 million in the Department for Education to bring technology up to date

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Found: Inspector Secretary of State for Education Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith

Found: of State for Education Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street London

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Found: of State for Education Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street

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Found: to the Department for Education and published on Introducti on The Independent Schools Inspectorate

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Found: providing published reports and advice to the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE

Found: are, in general, clearly made and provide good information on regulatory requirements to the Department

Found: are, in general, clearly made and provide good information on regulatory requirements to the Department

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Found: using Department for Education Apprenticeship and levy statistics (August 2020) Page_15b Page 15b

Found: : the Department of Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office, SMC Commissioners, the Department for Education

Found: exclude first year apprentices. Page 15: LPC estimates using Department for Education Apprenticeship

Found: Research (CVER). CVER was launched in March 2015, funded by the Department for Education, to create

Found: the Department for Education change frequently. These changes, often describe d as ‚last minute ™, do

Found: the collection and publication of source data. On the 26 March the Department for Education issued

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Found: a business case to the Regional Schools Commissioner at the Department for Education in February 2020

Found: closed greater priority than other children on the island. 17. The Department for Education database

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Found: for the travel costs. 6 22. I also noted that the Department for Education website showed

Found: , the trust, the local authority and the Department for Education. 6. I have also taken account

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Found: included that the Department for Education should more robustly investigate the reasons for local

Found: and then as permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Employment.Since his retirement

Protect the well-being and mental health of teachers and leaders of education by stopping the release of Department for Education announcements, instructions, and guidelines outside of normal working hours, especially on Friday evenings and immediately before school holidays.

This morning at 11 O’clock there was a very moving and socially distanced time of remembrance at the Department for Education. @educationgovuk #neverforget #weshallrememberthem https://t.co/jXE8j8q1IO - Tweet Link

Education has been an afterthought for this Government. It should have been the priority. If we sent in Ofsted inspectors, the Department for Education would be put into special measures for Williamson and co’s total failure of leadership. https://t.co/82VYrdHHKJ - Tweet Link

I can’t even. What have we come to? DfE tells schools to stock up on long-life products in case of no-deal Brexit | Department for Education | The Guardian https://t.co/xOeYOnoyjp - Tweet Link

Absolutely right @AndrewBowie_MP all because departments change name doesn’t mean an issue disappears or is neglected. We don’t have a Department of Education and Science (as it was called) but we haven’t forgotten science https://t.co/6gKpmqW106 - Tweet Link

The Department for Education would be thrown into special measures if we sent the inspectors in to judge the quality of their leadership during this crisis. Williamson and co. should hang their heads in shame for their dereliction of duty to pupils. https://t.co/NcpVjuBaK7 - Tweet Link

Outdoor education centres provide amazing benefits to young people's physical &amp; mental health. But the Department for Education's ban on school's doing overnight stays at these centres is killing the industry with 6,000 jobs lost. The Government must think again. #SaveOutdoorEd https://t.co/r6ACuKQJ2Q - Tweet Link

Found: colleague in the DfE to write to him specifically about computers.</p> <p>My Lords

Found: with the Government, with the test and trace service and the DfE to mobilising the necessary

Found: a notionally funded scheme administered by the Department for Education (DfE). There is no fund of assets

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Found: , BEIS and DfE. July 2019 N/A 13 c. 25 Face -to-face stakeholder workshop (in -depth s tructured

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Found: with our colleagues in DfE to ensure that the programme has been high quality, well managed

Found: .626.15 The Department for Education (DfE) settlement provides a £2.9 billion cash increase in core

Found: .626.15 The Department for Education (DfE) settlement provides a £2.9 billion cash increase in core

Found: for Education (DfE) under section 162A(1)(b) of the Education Act 2002, as inserted , to inspect schools

Found: in a letter from the Department for Education (DfE) to HMCI on 4 November 2019. The letter states

Found: hampered by the existing commissio ning arrangements. commissioned to do so by the DfE. However

Found: for Education (DfE) . ISI c arried out 415 inspections during the academic year 2016/17

Found: activity commissioned by DfE in 2017/18, Ofsted does not have sufficient evidence to make

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Found: Apprenticeship Training redesign Items for academies Action new DfE furniture framework

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Due to both a lack of knowledge regarding the philosophical aspect of ethical veganism and the absence of clear instruction from the DfE, many Head teachers are still refusing to provide plant-based options for those parents who are entitled to request it. This is discriminatory and noninclusive!

@Nancy_M_K The tweaked guidance from DFE is worrying though. @echrso - Tweet Link

@SimonParkinson6 @tobyperkinsmp @unionlearn @WEAadulted If only @educationgovuk had any interest in the evidence! We know @unionlearn is effective, DfE know it is. This decision is counterproductive and wrong but @GavinWilliamson doesn’t care. - Tweet Link

I can’t even. What have we come to? DfE tells schools to stock up on long-life products in case of no-deal Brexit | Department for Education | The Guardian https://t.co/xOeYOnoyjp - Tweet Link

A very sobering meeting with head teachers from across Blaydon, Jarrow and Gateshead. I am in awe of the resilience, determination and commitment of school leaders and staff. That half their battle is with the DfE is infuriating. Thanks for having me @LizTwistMP @IanMearnsMP. - Tweet Link

DfE knows that schools face serious recruitment and retention challenges, yet they have slashed training bursaries and now the Chancellor has announced a pay freeze. Completely irresponsible and self-defeating. https://t.co/aqVkJ2wTFl - Tweet Link

@AngelaKeane Being as I have now set up the DFE in my front room I will task one of the children to focus on that and get a strategy to me by the morning for approval (one is doing his GCSEs this year so he has skin in the game.) - Tweet Link

Gavin Williamson and Nick Gibb have been asleep at the wheel during this crisis. Before covid hit, they'd taken their eye off the ball as the attainment gap had begun to widen. Schools are showing remarkable leadership. DfE has been missing in action. Lions led by donkeys. /ENDS - Tweet Link

England is on the edge of something dark, guidance from DFE being changed, BBC issuing warning to staff, attacks on minorities. I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came .. - Tweet Link

Head teachers are grappling unprecedented and mounting costs of covid. They need to know they'll get the funding they need for staff cover, PPE, safety measures - temporary classrooms where necessary. Where's the clarity? Where's the urgency? Where's the leadership from DfE? 2/ - Tweet Link

Head teachers are under enormous pressure. I'm very concerned that they're not receiving the support they need from the Government. With supply budgets increasingly stretched, DfE has got to give schools the resources they need to keep pupils learning. Anyone seen Mr Williamson? https://t.co/iVy7dKkI3W - Tweet Link

Many pupils are isolating at home, still lacking the laptops and internet they need to access learning. Schools aren't being given laptops until classes go off. Too late. Where's the clarity? Where's the urgency? Where's the leadership from DfE? 4/ - Tweet Link

Happy to support: Nobody should miss out on school simply because of their period That’s why I’m joining @freeperiods &amp; @redboxproject to celebrate all those that have ordered free period products under the DfE scheme! https://t.co/8DyayVXSc3 - Tweet Link

With everything else going on, it is absurd that schools have been given the added worry of being told by DfE to check their food supply chains and stock up long-life food because the Government hasn’t delivered their ‘oven ready’ Brexit deal. Complete and utter shambles. https://t.co/O1Tv0i3SXi - Tweet Link

Parents, pupils and teachers are really anxious about exams this year. They need to know what the plan is to make sure that they are fair, accessible and recognise lost learning time. Where's the clarity? Where's the urgency? Where's the leadership from DfE? 3/ - Tweet Link

@ZacGoldsmith Well said. Please lend your support to OCR's natural history GCSE, currently being examined by the DfE: https://t.co/P9IUk7O5ng Well done - and OCR know how - it's an exacting science, and we when it comes to nature we need our children to feel a part of it, not apart from it. - Tweet Link

No one in their right mind thinks that Ofsted should resume routine inspections in January. Let's put Ofsted's expertise to better use looking at remote learning, catch-up provision and safeguarding? Where's the clarity? Where's the urgency? Where's the leadership from DfE? 5/ - Tweet Link