Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many students wanting to study medicine have been turned down because of a lack of places at universities in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Medicine is a hugely competitive course, and consistently has far more applicants than there are places available.
The department has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England – a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. In addition, we temporarily lifted the cap on medical and dental school places for students who completed A levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine or dentistry, subject to their grades.
My right hon. Friend, the former Secretary of State for Education, and my hon. Friend, the former Minister for Health, have made clear to all medicine and dental schools, in joint letters in October 2021 and again in March 2022, that there is no room for flexibility this year, and it is the department's firm expectation that all schools will only recruit up to the maximum number of students as set in the Office for Students’ intake targets.
We are confident that providers will make fair decisions around admissions and students who are unable to secure a place in medicine will have a number of other high-quality options, either within higher education or through other post-18 pathways.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Review.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department published the special educational needs and disabilities review on 29 March 2022.
We have also launched a full, accessible 16-week consultation so that everyone can have their say and the department is keen to hear from a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties. We are making sure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents can respond, as well as people working in education, health and care, and charities and other experts.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Action for Children Too little, too late: early help and early intervention spending in England, published on 28 February.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The ‘Too Little, Too Late’ report recommends an increase in funding for a range of early intervention services. This year, the government announced a £500 million package to give families effective support earlier by creating a network of family hubs in half of the council areas in England and helping up to 300,000 more vulnerable families through the Support Families programme.
The report’s other recommendations include a legal duty for early help and additional data collection on early help. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has now set out its final recommendations, and we will consider those relevant to early help to inform any next steps.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to improve and roll out (1) training of specialist physical educational teachers, and (2) physical literacy in primary schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
We are determined to ensure all children receive high quality physical education (PE) in order to keep fit, active and healthy, whilst also developing a lifelong participation in physical activity and sport.
PE is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum. The programme of study sets the expectation that schools should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way that supports their health and fitness. Through the primary PE and sport premium, primary schools have already received over £450million of ring-fenced funding to provide additional and sustainable improvements to their PE and sport provision. In an independent evaluation, 84% of schools reported an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.
Since the introduction of the primary PE and sport premium there has been an increase in the number of schools with a specialist PE teacher from 30% before the premium to 46% in 2014/15. Eighty-one per cent of schools also reported that the funding was used to up-skill and train existing staff in 2014/15. From September 2017, the funding will be doubled to £320million per year and schools will continue to have the freedom to spend the funding based on the needs of their pupils.
The Government does not prescribe specific subject content for initial teacher training (ITT). All ITT courses must be designed so that teacher trainees can demonstrate by the end of their training that they meet all of the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes demonstrating good subject and curriculum knowledge by having a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas.
To improve the quality and consistency of initial teacher training, in July 2016, the Government published a new framework of core content for ITT. The new framework emphasise the need for all ITT providers to audit trainees’ subject knowledge early in their training and make provision to ensure that trainees have sufficient subject knowledge to satisfy the standard by the end of their training.
In the new Sport Strategy, the government has committed to support children and young people to develop the confidence and skills to take part and to be positive about sport and activity. As part of this work, we will be exploring how to increase physical literacy standards in primary schools.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of fitness testing of children in school.
Answered by Lord Nash
We want all pupils to be healthy and more physically active, with the Government’s recent Childhood Obesity Plan setting out an ambition that young people should be active for at least 60 minutes every day, as recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.
Since 2013, the Government has provided over £450million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to PE and Sport. We know this funding is making a difference, with 87% of primary schools reporting that the quality of PE teaching has increased since the introduction of the premium. The majority of schools have also introduced new sports in both curricular PE (74%) and extra-curricular sport (77%) since the premium was introduced. But we know there is more to do, which is why revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320million a year from September 2017.
Through the Sport Strategy, we have also extended the remit of Sport England, to cover children aged 5 and above, outside of school. Sport England's new strategy 'Towards an Active Nation' sets out a new £40million investment into projects that offer opportunities for families with children to get active and play sport together outside of school.
In relation to fitness testing, it is up to schools to determine how best they deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum. We are considering how we can track levels of physical activity in schools to help support children to have healthy and active lives and will be providing schools with further guidance and best practice examples to help deliver this.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to encourage children to take up physical activity, in particular activity additional to school sport.
Answered by Lord Nash
We want all pupils to be healthy and more physically active, with the Government’s recent Childhood Obesity Plan setting out an ambition that young people should be active for at least 60 minutes every day, as recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.
Since 2013, the Government has provided over £450million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to PE and Sport. We know this funding is making a difference, with 87% of primary schools reporting that the quality of PE teaching has increased since the introduction of the premium. The majority of schools have also introduced new sports in both curricular PE (74%) and extra-curricular sport (77%) since the premium was introduced. But we know there is more to do, which is why revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320million a year from September 2017.
Through the Sport Strategy, we have also extended the remit of Sport England, to cover children aged 5 and above, outside of school. Sport England's new strategy 'Towards an Active Nation' sets out a new £40million investment into projects that offer opportunities for families with children to get active and play sport together outside of school.
In relation to fitness testing, it is up to schools to determine how best they deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum. We are considering how we can track levels of physical activity in schools to help support children to have healthy and active lives and will be providing schools with further guidance and best practice examples to help deliver this.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the educational resources available to (1) teachers, and (2) parents, to encourage healthier living among children and young people.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government wants all children to lead healthy and active lives and schools have a key role to play in teaching children about healthy lifestyles. Schools have the flexibility to choose which educational resources they use to support their teaching and there are opportunities across the curriculum for pupils to be taught the knowledge and skills they need to support heathy living.
The national curriculum is compulsory in state maintained schools and sets the expectation that across a variety of subjects, pupils are taught about the importance of leading a healthy active lifestyle. Physical education (PE) is compulsory at all four key stages in the national curriculum and should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way that supports their health and fitness. Across science and design and technology, pupils are taught about the importance of healthy eating and nutrition.
Change4Life is the Government’s flagship social marketing programme aimed at inspiring everyone to eat well, move more and live longer. In 2015 more than 385,000 families signed up to the “10 Minute Shake up” campaign, which are designed as fun activities for children to squeeze short 10-minute bursts of activity into their day. In January 2016, Change4Life launched the Food Detective campaign. Developed by educational experts, these curriculum-linked resources encouraged pupils to become Food Detectives and to learn more about sugar and 5 a day to support a healthy and balanced diet.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of the school curriculum in educating children and young people about health promotion and preventing avoidable chronic disease in later life.
Answered by Lord Nash
All schools are required to teach a broadly balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for adult life.
The national curriculum focuses on the essential knowledge children need so that teachers can design a wider school curriculum that is responsive to the needs of their pupils. This teaching can include a range of topics, including lessons about health and chronic disease. These topics can fall under Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. We have made it clear in the introduction to the national curriculum that all schools should make provision for high quality; age appropriate PSHE.
To help schools plan their provision, the PSHE Association has produced a suggested programme of study for schools to follow, which includes content about ‘Health and Wellbeing’.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to implement health education as a compulsory part of the PSHE curriculum, inspected by Ofsted, from age five to 18, in the light of the recommendation from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health's <i>Inquiry Report into NHS England's Five Year Forward View: Behaviour Change, Information and Signposting</i> published in March 2016.
Answered by Lord Nash
All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for adult life.
The national curriculum focuses on the essential knowledge children need so that teachers can design a wider school curriculum that is responsive to the needs of their pupils. This teaching can include a range of topics that fall under PSHE, such as health education and health awareness.
To help schools plan their provision, the PSHE Association has produced a suggested programme of study for schools to follow, which includes content about ‘Health and Wellbeing’.
Ofsted do not inspect individual curriculum subjects. Instead, the framework enables important aspects of PSHE to be considered in a proportionate and integrated way, linked to the core inspection areas.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of reports that two HIV positive children were excluded from a school in the United Kingdom last year on the basis of their HIV status, what steps they are taking to prevent the stigmatisation of schoolchildren with HIV.
Answered by Lord Nash
Children and young people with medical conditions should receive the support they need to enable them to participate in a full education. The Government has introduced a new duty at Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 under which school governing bodies must make arrangements to support such pupils. All exclusions must be for a disciplinary reason and follow the legal exclusion process. No pupil should be excluded from school because of their HIV status.
Schools may wish to teach about HIV through subjects such as personal, social health and economic education (PSHE), or in relation to particular events. The statutory Sex and Relationship Guidance includes the requirement to teach about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted infections are also covered as part of the national curriculum for science at key stage 3.
All schools must have behaviour policies to tackle bullying and the Department for Education is providing charitable organisations with £4 million (2013-15) to tackle all forms of bullying.