Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are able to make a pay award to teachers in maintained schools outside the review conducted by the Schools Teachers’ Review Body.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
A pay award to teachers in maintained schools outside a review conducted by the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) is possible via an order under section 122 of the Education Act 2022, giving effect to a modified School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the proposed reduction in training hours for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators by 525 hours, whether the resources previously allocated to training will be used to provide more specialist support in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
In March 2022, the Department published the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper. This included the proposal to replace the current mandatory qualification for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), the National Award for SEN Co-ordination (NASENCO), with a new leadership level National Professional Qualification (NPQ). The NASENCO is a Level 7 postgraduate qualification funded from school budgets, typically equivalent to a third of a full Masters’ degree, taking approximately 225 hours to complete. The time commitment required for leadership NPQs varies between courses and providers.
The proposal seeks to improve the level of expertise and leadership amongst SENCOs and ensure they have the knowledge and skills for the role at the earliest opportunity, enabling them to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. NPQs are underpinned by the latest and best evidence. This would bring the SENCO qualification in line with wider teacher development reforms, with content and delivery quality assured by the Education Endowment Foundation and Ofsted.
The Department is now carefully considering the feedback received through the 16-week consultation period. The Department is committed to publishing a full response to the SEND and AP Green Paper, including the proposals on SENCOs, in an Improvement Plan early in the new year. If the proposed SENCO NPQ is to be introduced, the Department will communicate the arrangements around the funding for NPQs in due course.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the advantage for pupils of moving from the current qualification for a Special Educational Needs Coordinator requiring 600 hours training and a Masters qualification, to the proposed 75 hour National Professional Qualification.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
In March 2022, the Department published the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper. This included the proposal to replace the current mandatory qualification for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), the National Award for SEN Co-ordination (NASENCO), with a new leadership level National Professional Qualification (NPQ). The NASENCO is a Level 7 postgraduate qualification funded from school budgets, typically equivalent to a third of a full Masters’ degree, taking approximately 225 hours to complete. The time commitment required for leadership NPQs varies between courses and providers.
The proposal seeks to improve the level of expertise and leadership amongst SENCOs and ensure they have the knowledge and skills for the role at the earliest opportunity, enabling them to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. NPQs are underpinned by the latest and best evidence. This would bring the SENCO qualification in line with wider teacher development reforms, with content and delivery quality assured by the Education Endowment Foundation and Ofsted.
The Department is now carefully considering the feedback received through the 16-week consultation period. The Department is committed to publishing a full response to the SEND and AP Green Paper, including the proposals on SENCOs, in an Improvement Plan early in the new year. If the proposed SENCO NPQ is to be introduced, the Department will communicate the arrangements around the funding for NPQs in due course.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what facility has been created to assist any competing country at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games to ensure that their (1) athletes, (2) potential athletes, and (3) support staff, are vaccinated against COVID-19 before the start of the games.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
The Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee has been in regular contact with Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) through monthly briefings and the recent Chefs de Mission seminar and will soon meet each association’s Chief Medical Officer to discuss all aspects of Covid-19 planning for the Games.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any Commonwealth countries sending competitors to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games have asked for assistance with vaccinating their (1) competitors, and (2) officials, against COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS and the UK Health Security Agency are working closely with the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee and Commonwealth Games Federation on Covid planning. To date, we are not aware of any Commonwealth Games Associations asking for assistance with vaccinations.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any campaign encouraging COVID-19 vaccination has been linked to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
While there are no current plans for a specific campaign linked to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, we will keep this under review.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide (1) Olympic athletes, and (2) Olympic officials, of any nation with COVID-19 vaccines after all vulnerable groups in the UK have been offered the vaccine.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have no plans to do so.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide surplus COVID-19 vaccines to athletes from Commonwealth countries to ensure that they are vaccinated in time for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have no plans to do so.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support the funding through UK Sport of UK athletes who were due to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and who have lost their funding due to restrictions on activity resulting from the COVID-19 emergency.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The government remains committed to supporting our elite athletes and we will continue to work with UK Sport in ensuring that our athletes are assisted through this difficult period. Olympic and Paralympic sport is not immune from the impact of Covid-19 and the postponement of Tokyo 2020 has significant financial implications for our high performance system. UK Sport is working hard to identify the wide ranging impacts and scenarios and is in close contact with the Government to establish how best to support our summer Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes to be ready for the Tokyo Games when they do take place.
UK Sport is also guaranteeing that Athlete Performance Awards (APA) will continue to be paid and is taking a flexible approach to NGB investments within their grant awards. UK Sport is working closely with sports to be able to manage this approach.
Team GB’s historic medal haul in Rio was an amazing achievement and our athletes made the country incredibly proud. I am confident that this success will continue through to Tokyo next summer.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ask UK Sport to provide financial support for rugby sevens teams ahead of the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after their RFU funding expires in August.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Decisions on elite Olympic and Paralympic funding allocations are for UK Sport. Having delivered our greatest Olympic performance in a century at Rio in 2016, It is crucial that funding is invested strategically in the right sports, the right athletes and the right support programmes.
We continue to work with UK Sport and sports bodies to support our athletes and sports in the run-up to the Tokyo Games in 2021. We want the Tokyo Games to be a success and will work alongside everyone involved to help achieve this.
The Chancellor announced a host of measures to help businesses, with £330 billion worth of government backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses across the UK. In addition, Sport England, has also announced £210 million of funding to help sport and physical activity organisations deal with the short and long term effects of the pandemic.