Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to establish joint commissioning arrangements between the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that there are a sufficient number of occupational therapists to deliver the Experts at Hand SEND service set out in the Every child achieving and thriving white paper.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support the delivery of the Experts at Hand offer, strengthening joint planning and commissioning at a local level between education and health partners.
Over the next three years, £1.8 billion will be made available to local area partnerships to develop and roll out the Experts at Hand offer.
Local area partnerships will design and implement their own Experts at Hand models, tailored to local population needs, existing workforce capacity, and the specific challenges each area faces. As a result, workforce requirements, including for occupational therapists, will vary across the country.
The department recognises that continuing to build the occupational therapy workforce pipeline is essential and is working with DHSC and NHS England to support workforce planning and improve access to community health services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including occupational therapy input, as part of longer‑term system planning, including through the development of the NHS England 10‑year workforce plan.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are enough English for Speakers of Other Languages classes throughout the country to meet demand, and whether those classes are free for asylum seekers and refugees.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department supports adults aged 19+ in England to access English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, funded through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), subject to the eligibility requirements laid out in the ASF. This allows learners to develop the English language skills they need for everyday life, work or further learning.
Adults who are granted refugee status or humanitarian protection by the Home Office, and asylum seekers whose cases have been pending for six months or longer, are eligible for the same skills funding as any other English resident and are not subject to the normal three year qualifying period to access ASF funding.
Currently, approximately 60% of the ASF is devolved to nine mayoral strategic authorities and delegated to the Mayor of London acting through the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of adult education and allocation of the ASF in their local areas.
The department is responsible for the remaining ASF in non-devolved areas where colleges and training providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their ASF to meet the specific needs of their communities.
In non-devolved ASF areas, adults eligible for ASF funding, including those granted humanitarian protection and asylum seekers whose cases have been pending for six months or more, can be fully funded or co-funded to study ESOL, depending on their employment status and salary.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to keep the Muslim community informed on the progress of talks towards a Sharia-compliant agreement on alternative student finance, other than through the Gov.uk website.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has convened an expert working group, made up of representatives from the Muslim community and Islamic finance sector, to keep the Muslim community informed on progress towards introducing an alternative student finance product, compatible with Islamic finance principles.
As part of the department’s engagement with the working group, we are seeking their expert advice and drawing on their feedback to develop our community and stakeholder engagement plans.
It is important that the Muslim community is kept informed on the certification of the alternative student finance product as compatible with Islamic finance principles. We have appointed Islamic finance advisers, the Islamic Finance Council UK, to oversee this work and will provide further updates as the work progresses.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making towards Sharia-compliant student loans.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The government is committed to delivering an Alternative Student Finance (ASF) product compatible with Islamic finance principles as quickly as operationally possible. To support the delivery of an ASF product, the government took new powers in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 to enable my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to provide alternative payments for students to pay for tuition fees, in addition to grants and loans. The department has also carried out work with specialist advisers, the Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC), on the design of an ASF model.
The government is introducing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), which will significantly change the ways students can access learning and financial support. In response to the LLE consultation, published on 7 March 2023, the department set out aims to ensure that students will be able to access ASF as soon as possible after the introduction of the LLE.
Work is underway to assess how ASF can be delivered as a product. The Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC) has been reappointed to support work on ASF. Furthermore, the department is also working with the Student Loans Company (SLC) to better understand timescales for delivering an ASF product.
Further information about how to develop the ASF product can be found in a blog post on ASF, and a further update on ASF will be provided later this month. The blog is available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/21/alternative-student-finance-how-were-making-student-finance-accessible-to-everyone/.