Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations contained in the Barnardo's and Co-op report A recipe for success: How do children and young people want to access food in their communities?, published in September, (1) to extend eligibility of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme to all households in receipt of Universal Credit, and (2) to improve uptake among teenagers.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my noble Friend to the answer of 21 October 2024 to Question HL1266.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide certainty to schools and local authorities about the future of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme after the scheme ends in March 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme beyond the 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the department will communicate the outcome of that process in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address holiday hunger after the Holidays Activities and Food Programme ends in March 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the outcome of the review will be communicated in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce mandatory Children’s Rights and wellbeing impact assessments for all policy development and decision-making across Government to promote the needs and best interests of children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to adopt a cross-Government strategy and outcomes framework to drive improvements for children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they take to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policies across Government.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to address the gaps in learning for disabled children who need to be absent from school more often than their peers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision of education for disabled children who have long periods of absence from schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Children’s Commissioner report Beyond the labels: A SEND system which works for every child, every time, published in November 2022, which found that “children with SEND are overrepresented in terms of low attendance at school”, what plans they have to reform approaches to school attendance to incorporate the needs of disabled children.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative work and pay conditions of employees (1) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and (2) without SEND.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The post-16 education and labour market activities, pathways and outcomes report, published in May 2021, uses the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) administrative data set to explore the pattern and nature of the pathways that people take from completing school, through their education and into the labour market. This is broken down by a number of key characteristics including special education need. The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-education-and-labour-market-activities-pathways-and-outcomes-leo, and the dashboard can be found here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/leo-post16education-labourmarket/.
The dashboard provides information on educational and labour market activities, including earnings, employment rates and out-of-work benefits uptake, for up to 15 years after leaving school.