Asked by: Baroness Donaghy (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider allocating initial teacher training (ITT) places for a period of more than one year to facilitate forward planning by ITT providers; and if not why not.
Answered by Lord Nash
It is not our intention to allocate initial teacher training places for more than one year for a number of reasons; principally that the market is evolving in response to expansion of school-led provision and we require flexibility to respond to these circumstances.
Asked by: Baroness Donaghy (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what account will be taken of sustaining existing high quality initial teacher training (ITT) provision when allocating ITT places for September 2016.
Answered by Lord Nash
We will publish the methodology for our allocation of initial teacher training places for the 2016/17 academic year in due course. This will include information about how we will take the quality of provision into account.
Asked by: Baroness Donaghy (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any local authorities have been instructed to privatise social work services; and if so, by which Department.
Answered by Lord Nash
No local authorities have been instructed to privatise social work. Where a local authority is judged to be failing in its provision and delivery of children’s services, the Secretary of State has a discretionary power to intervene under the Education Act 1996, as applied by section 50 of the Children Act 2004. This may include directing the local authority to review its children’s services operations and commissioning procedures, and this may include the delivery of specified functions by another body.
The powers under Part 1 of the 2008 Children and Young Persons Act and associated regulations are quite different and provide for local authorities to delegate children’s social care functions to third parties on a voluntary basis. We have not instructed any local authorities to delegate their functions under these provisions.