Asked by: Baroness Afshar (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Nash on 6 March, what measures are in place to support minority women who choose atypical professions to embark on such careers and continue them effectively and to deal with public prejudices that prevail about such work not only on grounds of gender, but also colour and creed.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits unlawful discrimination in employment on grounds of gender, race and religion.
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith’s recent report into the issues faced by business in developing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) talent from recruitment through to the executive layer made a number of recommendations for both Government and business.
The Government welcomed Baroness McGregor-Smith’s report and is encouraging businesses to take forward her recommendations. The practicalities of implementation will differ depending on the business in question but we will be working with Business in the Community in supporting companies to make these changes. These include developing a simple guide on how to discuss race in the workplace, an online portal of best practice and celebrating success through a list of the top 100 BME employers.
Dame Louise’s Casey’s review of integration and opportunity, published in December 2016, also highlights the employment prospects and English language proficiency among certain groups, including minority women. The Government is currently reviewing its findings and will respond in the coming months.
Ensuring the labour market provides equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, religion or gender, will require a joint effort with Government working with the private sector and organisations like Business in the Community to deliver the lasting change needed.
Asked by: Baroness Afshar (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Nash on 11 January about the risk to children in unrecognised school settings or receiving home education, what specific measures are taken to help children who come from households where English is not spoken.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government supports children from homes where English is not spoken in a number of ways. At present, it is up to local authorities to decide whether to include English as an Additional Language (EAL) as a factor in the local formulae for funding schools. 136 used an EAL factor in the current year, with per pupil values ranging from below £100 to over £3000. However, in our proposals for the National Funding Formula, currently under consultation, we have proposed that all children with EAL will attract an additional £515 (primary) or £1385 (secondary) to their school, for the first 3 years after they enter the state system, wherever they are in the country. This is proposed to come in from 2018-19.
Where children are educating at home instead of in school, parents who educate a child at home must provide a full-time education suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitudes, and it is likely that such an education would need to include lessons in English to meet that requirement.
The Government also supports training for adults in English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL): to enable unemployed people on benefits to get the skills they need to get into and stay in work; to support the integration of long-standing migrant communities and particularly those individuals most at risk of isolation from services and wider society; and to support refugees, especially Syrians, to resettle in the UK. DfE funds ESOL training through the Adult Education Budget, which is allocated to providers annually by the Skills Funding Agency. In 2015-16 just under £100m was devoted to ESOL provision.
Asked by: Baroness Afshar (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the long-term impact of the introduction of SAT exams on vulnerable children.
Answered by Lord Nash
SATs, now called national curriculum tests, were first introduced in 1991. In determining primary assessment policy, the Department considers the impact of testing on all children as a matter of course, which includes drawing on evidence from this country’s past national tests.
As part of our Public Sector Equality Duty, we also consider the impact of Government policy on different groups of pupils, including – but not limited to – those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. Vulnerable children, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds who qualify for free school meals, looked-after children who attract pupil premium plus funding, or those with special educational needs.
The Government believes that rigorous and appropriate assessment is in all pupils’ interests. National curriculum tests help teachers to understand how pupils are doing in relation to national expectations and identify where additional support is needed. They also hold schools to account for how well they support their pupils, which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development concludes is particularly important for the least advantaged. The tests should not put undue pressure on any pupil and we trust teachers to approach them in a proportionate manner. Schools are also required to provide continuous and appropriate support for the wellbeing and resilience of all pupils.
For this year, we have introduced updated tests to align with the new National Curriculum which was introduced in 2014. In developing the curriculum we have been mindful of the possible impact on equalities and based on a wide range of evidence we have conducted a full equalities impact assessment. This paper has been attached to this answer.
The new tests will assess pupils’ attainment against the National Curriculum. In developing these tests, the Department has considered carefully their impact upon all pupils and we will continue to do so as they are introduced in schools.
Asked by: Baroness Afshar (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the claim by the Secretary of State for Education that those studying solely arts and humanities subjects will be "held back" on students who are, or are considering, studying those subjects.
Answered by Lord Nash
The government wants all young people to benefit from a broad and balanced education that equips them with the knowledge, skills and character they need to thrive in modern Britain and realise their full potential. Arts and humanities subjects form part of a broad and balanced curriculum. Our expectation is that every child should experience a high quality arts and humanities education. That is why the national curriculum sets the expectation that pupils study these subjects in key stages 1 to 3.
At key stage 4, the government wants to increase the number of pupils who take GCSEs in the EBacc subjects of English, maths, science, history or geography and a language. These are the subjects that give young people the most options in their futures and will help to secure a place at university or in employment.
As the EBacc is a specific, limited measure consisting of five subject pillars and up to eight GCSEs, there is time in the curriculum for most pupils to study other valuable subjects. The proportion of pupils in state-funded schools taking at least one GCSE in an arts subject has increased since the EBacc was first introduced, rising from 46% in 2011 to 50% in 2015.