Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of school readiness, and how "school readiness" is measured.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Children’s earliest years are crucial to their health, development and life chances. That is why the department has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile assessment by 2028.
The statutory EYFS framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure all children have the best start in life and are prepared for school. It requires that children be assessed against the EYFS Profile in the summer term of the academic year in which they turn five.
The EYFS Profile seeks to measure children’s level of development to support their successful transitions into year 1 and to support parents, carers and early years educators to recognise children’s progress and understand their needs. It comprises an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across seven areas of learning.
Children are defined as having a good level of development at the end of the EYFS if they are at the expected level for the 12 ELGs within the five areas of learning. These relate to communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, literacy and mathematics. This is the definition that will be used to measure progress on school readiness, as set out in the Plan for Change.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools' expenditure was on staff in each of the last three years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Overall core revenue funding for schools totals almost £61.6 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Each school has autonomy to allocate their budgets, including for their staff, to best meet the needs of their pupils to ensure they have the best opportunities in life.
The latest three years of published data for schools’ spending relates to the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. Our estimates in the table below for the proportions of expenditure for teachers and support staff have been compiled by combining published expenditure data sets from academies, which budget by academic year, and local authority maintained schools, which budget by financial year. We have not included cash expenditure data as combining financial and academic year data on school expenditure for different types of schools is less robust for estimating expenditure amounts than it is for estimating proportions. The pattern of expenditure in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 was affected by COVID-19.
Financial year | Primary schools | Secondary schools |
Proportions of expenditure in 2020/21 | Teachers: 50.6% Support staff: 33.0% | Teachers: 59.1% Support staff: 23.8% |
Proportions of expenditure in 2021/22 | Teachers: 49.0% Support staff: 32.8% | Teachers: 57.4% Support staff: 23.8% |
Proportions of expenditure in 2022/23 | Teachers: 48.1% Support staff: 33.1% | Teachers: 55.7% Support staff: 24.0% |
Further data on schools’ expenditure in the years following the 2022/23 financial year will be published in due course.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to offer apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships can support small and medium sized employers (SMEs) to improve their skills base, boost productivity and develop a pipeline of future talent.
To support non-levy paying employers, usually SMEs, to offer apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21 years-old, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 years-old who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. For all other apprentices, employers who do not pay the levy are required to co-invest 5% towards apprentice training costs.
Employers of all sizes can also benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years-old, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 years-old who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. This is in recognition of the additional support that younger apprentices may require when entering employment. Employers can choose how they spend these payments.
Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £967 a week (£50,270 a year).
Employers that need help with employing an apprentice, including accessing funding, can access the employer support GOV.UK page, which is available here: https://help.employersupport.apprenticeships.gov.uk/hc/en-gb.
The apprenticeship ambassador network is a group of employers and former and current apprentices. Around 35%of the employers are SMEs. Their remit is to inspire greater numbers of employers and individuals to connect with apprenticeships.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the primary drivers of children not being school ready.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
As set out in the Plan for Change, antenatal classes, health visitors, parenting support, baby and toddler groups and access to affordable, high quality early education and childcare are all vital to guiding parents, improving the home learning environment and supporting child development.
A strong and stable family environment is the foundation for better health, education and earnings. It is parenting, alongside the home-learning environment, that has a significant influence on these outcomes. The department knows parents struggle to access services and the support they need. Childcare is also too often unaffordable or not available. This lack of support contributes to too many children not being ready to start school.
That is why the department has set a milestone of 75% of five year-olds reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.
To deliver this, we are rolling out expanded government-funded childcare entitlements and creating thousands of school-based nurseries to increase quality childcare, working in partnership with early years providers to drive up standards by reforming training and support for staff and strengthening and joining up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.
The government remains committed to working with the early years sector, teachers, health professionals and families to ensure every child has the best start in life.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the University of Manchester's blog entitled Addressing the UK’s heritage skills crisis: why we must act now, published on 23 January 2025, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) heritage skills and (b) the Sloyd method in the national curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The national curriculum focuses on the key knowledge that must be taught to children aged 5 to 16 years-old in maintained schools. The national curriculum provides a broad framework which ensures schools have flexibility to organise the content and delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of their pupils.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The Review seeks to deliver a curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to thrive.
The Review Group has now published a well-evidenced, clear interim report, which sets out its interim findings and confirms the key areas for further work. This highlights the successes of the current system, making clear that the most trusted and valued aspects of our system will remain, whilst setting a positive vision for the future. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.
The government will consider any changes it wishes to make to curriculum, assessment and qualifications whilst the Review is conducted, and will respond to the final recommendations in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with Ofqual on the timing of the first teaching of the British Sign Language GCSE.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The development of a British Sign Language (BSL) GCSE is an important step toward fostering greater recognition of BSL as a language, and the government is committed to developing a qualification that benefits both students and the wider deaf community.
The department published subject content in December 2023, and Ofqual, the independent qualifications regulator, is in the process of finalising the assessment arrangements. We have worked closely with Ofqual throughout this process, as we do during the development of any new GCSE. Our focus is on ensuring that the BSL GCSE is of the highest quality. It is important that the assessment is fair, rigorous, and reflective of BSL as a language, so that the qualification meets the required standards and serves the needs of both students and the deaf community.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact of informal and disguised employment in the beauty sector on the number of apprenticeship places available in hairdressing and beauty.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are jobs with training, and it is for employers in the hair and beauty sector to decide how they use apprenticeships to meet their skills needs.
The sector has developed several apprenticeship standards, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard. To support smaller employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care.
Employers can benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. Employers can choose how they spend these payments. Employers are also not required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, where they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects the first BSL GCSE course to begin.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The development of a British Sign Language (BSL) GCSE is an important step toward fostering greater recognition of BSL as a language, and the government is committed to developing a qualification that benefits both students and the wider deaf community.
The department published subject content in December 2023, and Ofqual, the independent qualifications regulator, is in the process of finalising the assessment arrangements. We have worked closely with Ofqual throughout this process, as we do during the development of any new GCSE. Our focus is on ensuring that the BSL GCSE is of the highest quality. It is important that the assessment is fair, rigorous, and reflective of BSL as a language, so that the qualification meets the required standards and serves the needs of both students and the deaf community.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the potential cost to the public purse was of funding from her Department to Suffolk County Council to help pay for Tribunal fees for each year between 2019-2023.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not fund local authorities to cover the costs associated with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) first-tier tribunal hearings. Local authorities fund their legal costs from their operational budgets.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding her Department has provided to local authorities for Special Educational Needs and Disability First-tier Tribunal hearings in the past 12 months.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not fund local authorities to cover the costs associated with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) first-tier tribunal hearings. Local authorities fund their legal costs from their operational budgets.