Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to attract recruits into early years provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Employers in the early years sector are responsible for recruiting and setting the pay and conditions for their employees, within the statutory requirements set by government (for example, the national minimum wage).
Early years employers that do not pay the apprenticeship levy can receive up to 95% co-investment from the government towards the cost of apprenticeship training. Trailblazer groups of employers, supported by the Institute for Apprenticeships, are also developing new standards for early years at levels 2, 5 and 6.
In March 2017, the department published the early years workforce strategy which outlined government's plans to support employers to attract, retain and develop early years staff to deliver high quality provision. The strategy is attached.
As a result of the strategy we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new more robust level 2 qualifications, as well as developing new career pathways information to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development. The new career pathways map is attached.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the turnover of staff in early years provision has been in each of the last five years in England, Wales and Scotland.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested on the turnover of staff in early years provision is not held centrally. Early years policy is a devolved matter and data collection is determined by the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons can be learned from the recruitment of teachers and social workers for the recruitment of staff to early years provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The challenges for recruitment and retention, and the appropriate response to these, will differ between sectors. The department has worked with the sector to develop an early years workforce strategy, published in March 2017 and attached. This set out how government will support employers to attract, retain and develop high quality early years staff.
Since then we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new more robust level 2 qualifications, awarded a grant to take forward activity to promote gender diversity in the early years workforce, and created a new career progression document to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development. The early years careers progression map is attached.
We are also supporting employer trailblazer groups to develop new apprenticeship standards for the early years workforce and investing £20m in in-service professional development and training for early years practitioners in pre-reception settings in disadvantaged areas.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many care leavers were placed in supported accommodation at the age of 16 or 17 in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, and (4) 2018–19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of care leavers aged 17 living in supported or semi-supported accommodation[1][2][3] for years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018 is shown in the table below.
Coverage: England | |
2015-16 | 180 |
2016-17 | 90 |
2017-18 | 80 |
Information on the number of looked after children by age living in supported or semi-supported accommodation since 2016 is shown in the table attached.
Information for the reporting year 2018-19 will not be available until December.
The department does not collect information on the number of children who leave care aged 16.
[1] Includes semi-independent transitional accommodation, supported and unsupported lodgings, and foyers and similar supported accommodation for care leavers.
[2] Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
[3] Information on 17-year-olds care leavers has been collected as experimental statistics since 2015-16.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many young people in local authority care were placed in supported accommodation at the age of 16 or 17 in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, and (4) 2018–19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of care leavers aged 17 living in supported or semi-supported accommodation[1][2][3] for years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018 is shown in the table below.
Coverage: England | |
2015-16 | 180 |
2016-17 | 90 |
2017-18 | 80 |
Information on the number of looked after children by age living in supported or semi-supported accommodation since 2016 is shown in the table attached.
Information for the reporting year 2018-19 will not be available until December.
The department does not collect information on the number of children who leave care aged 16.
[1] Includes semi-independent transitional accommodation, supported and unsupported lodgings, and foyers and similar supported accommodation for care leavers.
[2] Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
[3] Information on 17-year-olds care leavers has been collected as experimental statistics since 2015-16.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in local authority care were placed in supported accommodation while under the age of 16 in (1) 2015–16, (2) 2016–17, (3) 2017–18, and (4) 2018–19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of care leavers aged 17 living in supported or semi-supported accommodation[1][2][3] for years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018 is shown in the table below.
Coverage: England | |
2015-16 | 180 |
2016-17 | 90 |
2017-18 | 80 |
Information on the number of looked after children by age living in supported or semi-supported accommodation since 2016 is shown in the table attached.
Information for the reporting year 2018-19 will not be available until December.
The department does not collect information on the number of children who leave care aged 16.
[1] Includes semi-independent transitional accommodation, supported and unsupported lodgings, and foyers and similar supported accommodation for care leavers.
[2] Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
[3] Information on 17-year-olds care leavers has been collected as experimental statistics since 2015-16.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enhance opportunities for development and career progression for those employed in the early years education sector.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In March 2017, we published the attached early years workforce strategy which outlined the government's plans to support employers to attract, retain and develop early years staff to deliver high quality provision: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy.
As a result of the strategy we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new, more robust level 2 qualifications (to be delivered from September 2019), as well as developing new career pathways information to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development. The career progression map is attached and can be found at: https://www.cache.org.uk/media/1417/dfe-career-pathway-map-v17.pdf.
Supported by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, a trailblazer group of employers has just completed a new level 3 apprenticeship standard and another is developing apprenticeships at levels 5 and 6 to provide progression. We remain committed to ensuring there are routes to graduate level qualifications for the early years sector and we support graduates into the sector through our funding of the early years initial teacher training programme, including bursaries and employer incentives.
We are also supporting the workforce through an early years professional development programme, which is a £20 million investment in training for the pre-reception early years workforce, to raise quality in settings, targeted to benefit disadvantaged children.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of those leading early years groups had a relevant graduate qualification in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, and (4) 2018.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Data on the number of graduates in the workforce is collected and published every 2 years as part of the ‘Childcare and early years providers survey’. In the period requested we have data for 2016 and 2018:
Childcare and early years providers survey: 2018, table 15 and attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2018.
Childcare and early years providers survey: 2016, table 10 and attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2016.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many early years professionals with a relevant graduate qualification were working in early years education in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, and (4) 2018.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Data on the number of graduates in the workforce is collected and published every 2 years as part of the ‘Childcare and early years providers survey’. In the period requested we have data for 2016 and 2018:
Childcare and early years providers survey: 2018, table 15 and attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2018.
Childcare and early years providers survey: 2016, table 10 and attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2016.
Asked by: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much it costs to maintain a child in local authority care for a year.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The annual cost to maintain a child in local authority care in the period 2016 to 2017 was £178,360[1] for residential care and £29,900 for fostering services.
[1]The results are based on unit costs included in the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) Department for Education, GOV.UK. Last updated on 6 June 2018. Accessed from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.
The figures in the LAIT are recorded as weekly. For the annual cost, the methodology simply involved multiplying the figures by 52 weeks.
Please note that the original LAIT figures were rounded to the nearest £5, so actual annual costs may vary slightly.
For the weekly fostering services that were originally included in the LAIT, the calculation was based on the section 251 Outturn data. This records the total spend (gross) on fostering services. This figure was then divided by the number of children in fostering placements as of 31 March 2017, which was published in the ‘Children Looked After in England data, SFR50’. This figure was then divided by 365 days to give a daily cost. It was then multiplied by seven to give the weekly cost.
For the calculation of weekly residential care, the LAIT also referred to the section 251 for total spend on residential care. This figure was then divided by the number of days that residential care was provided for children nationally, which is collected as part of the Children Looked after return. This figure was then multiplied by seven for the weekly cost.
Section 251 documents, Education Funding Agency and Education and Skills Funding Agency. Accessed from: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/section-251-materials.
‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2016 to 2017’, Department for Education. Accessed from:
‘Children Looked after return SSDA903’, Department for Education. Accessed from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-return-2016-to-2017-guide.