Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms they have to monitor the number of children at risk in unregistered religious settings.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are legally responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their areas, regardless of the educational setting they attend.
Where local authorities have safeguarding concerns, the department expects their services to intervene. There are a range of powers held by local agencies which can be utilised where concerns have been identified, for example, around health and safety, premises regulations and general safeguarding.
Where local authorities believe that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, they have a legal duty to investigate where necessary.
The department consulted in 2020 on widening the registration requirement to settings that operate full time but only offer a very narrow curriculum, which would include a number of full-time religious settings that are currently allowed to operate without having to register. The department will respond to this consultation soon, setting out next steps.
The department has also committed to taking forward measures to make it easier to investigate and prosecute unregistered schools, working with Ofsted and the Crown Prosecution Service. The department intends to take forward these measures when a suitable legislative opportunity arises.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how, and (2) when, they plan to respond to the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Child protection in religious organisations and settings: Investigation Report, published in September; and in particular the recommendations that they should (a) “change the definition of full-time education and bring any setting that is a pupil’s primary place of education within the scope of a registered educational setting”, and (b) “provide Ofsted with sufficient powers to examine the quality of child protection when it undertakes inspections of suspected unregistered institutions".
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is considering the recommendations made by the report on 'Child Protection in Religious Organisations' from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The government is already committed to legislating on both matters. We expect to provide the Inquiry with our response within the standard 6 month timeframe.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that businesses continue to have access to a workforce with sufficient creative and design-linked skills.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Our reforms to professional and technical education and apprenticeships are aimed at ensuring that people of all ages get access to the education and training that businesses across the sectors need.
Both apprenticeships and T levels, when they are introduced, can be a valuable way of developing skills for the creative and design sectors.
Employer-designed T levels will give students the skills needed to enter work or higher level technical study, helping young people to get a head-start in their potential careers. The first 3 T levels will be delivered in 2020, and we will confirm the timetable for the rollout of courses in creative and design before the end of this year.
New apprenticeship standards across all levels are being designed and driven by industry – creating higher quality training that will lead to a more skilled and productive economy. There are 23 Creative and Design Apprenticeship Standards approved for delivery with 6 standards currently in development.
The National College for Creative Industries, opened in September 2016, is one of 4 national colleges which we are establishing to set new standards for higher-level technical training.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide funding for additional rounds of the new capital scheme for voluntary-aided schools; and if so, how often they intend to do so.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department launched the capital scheme for voluntary-aided schools on the 15 November 2018 and the bidding round closed on 1 February 2019. We plan to launch a second bidding round in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith will have on religious integration.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Many schools with faith-based admissions have diverse intakes, and many schools that don’t have faith based admissions have homogenous school populations. While faith schools are allowed to give priority to children of their faith, some choose to allocate only a certain percentage of their places with reference to faith in order to open up places to other children regardless of faith, and many do not have faith admissions criteria at all. Where there are sufficient places, faith schools must offer a place to every applicant regardless of faith.
The department undertook an extensive series of activities as part of the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation to understand the variety of opinions relating to faith schools. Having considered the views of respondents, and those of a range of other stakeholders, the department decided to establish the voluntary-aided capital scheme alongside retaining the 50% cap in faith admissions in faith designated free schools.
An analysis of how the voluntary-aided schools capital scheme will affect specific protected groups (equalities impact assessment) is attached and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/voluntary-aided-schools-capital-scheme-equalities-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure that local objections to proposals for new voluntary-aided faith schools with the legal power to select all of their pupils based on faith are adequately taken into account by local authority decision-makers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Alongside the launch of the capital scheme for new voluntary-aided schools, the department published the updated and attached statutory guidance for proposers and decision-makers on opening and closing maintained schools.
The guidance explains that proposers are required to consult prior to publishing statutory proposals for a new school and hold a four-week representation period once the statutory proposals have been published. In deciding proposals, decision-makers (usually the local authority) must take any comments received during the representation period into account.
The statutory guidance sets out the department’s expectations on how the consultations are carried out, including the Cabinet Office guidance on consultation principles.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing measures to promote social integration in all schools, in the same manner that has been done for voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Schools play a vital role in promoting integration and encouraging greater community cohesion and this includes faith schools.
The Integrated Communities Strategy made clear the important role schools play in knitting communities together. All state funded schools, whatever their type, have a legal obligation to promote community cohesion and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and are under a duty to foster good relations between different groups. They are also required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Their effectiveness in doing so is inspected by Ofsted.
Many existing faith schools have a strong record on promoting integration and the department encourages them, as well as all new schools, to engage in programmes such as school linking, that promote social mixing within and across schools. The department is taking forward over 20 measures across its portfolio to support the sector to promote integration, as set out in the Integrated Communities Action Plan. This can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-communities-action-plan.
This document is also attached.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to ensure that measures designed to prevent voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith from having a detrimental impact on social cohesion, such as school linking programmes and religious diversity on governing bodies, are implemented and maintained once those schools have opened.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Schools play a vital role in promoting integration and encouraging greater community cohesion and this includes faith schools.
The Integrated Communities Strategy made clear the important role schools play in knitting communities together. All state funded schools, whatever their type, have a legal obligation to promote community cohesion and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and are under a duty to foster good relations between different groups. They are also required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Their effectiveness in doing so is inspected by Ofsted.
Many existing faith schools have a strong record on promoting integration and the department encourages them, as well as all new schools, to engage in programmes such as school linking, that promote social mixing within and across schools. The department is taking forward over 20 measures across its portfolio to support the sector to promote integration, as set out in the Integrated Communities Action Plan. This can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-communities-action-plan.
This document is also attached.