Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include (1) social, (2) emotional, and (3) spiritual development, in the help being offered to primary school children to catch up on missed education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We want to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe, to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society. As a result, all schools must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
The statutory relationships and health education curriculum includes teaching about mental wellbeing. The topic covers how to talk about emotions accurately and sensitively, the benefits and importance of physical exercise and community activities on mental wellbeing and happiness, and where and how to seek support if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing. A significant contribution towards developing primary school children’s social, emotional and spiritual development is also made by school ethos, effective relationships throughout the school.
The department has committed £1.7 billion additional funding to date to help pupils recover from the recent disruption they have experienced: £1 billion in June 2020, including a £650 million premium for schools, and a further £700 million in February 2021 to provide additional funding through a Recovery Premium, summer schools, expansion of tutoring programmes and early language support.
This new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools, building on the Pupil Premium, will be provided to schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged pupils. To help schools use this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up and a further school planning guide, which are available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/#nav-covid-19-support-guide-for-schools1 and https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/guide-to-supporting-schools-planning/.
The guidance is clear that interventions, including those focused on aspects of education such as behaviour or pupils’ social and emotional needs, are likely to be important to support those who have fallen furthest behind. Summer schools can also be effective in improving wellbeing, including through providing a mix of enrichment activities alongside academic content.
We have commissioned a mixed-methods research study that will examine schools’ recovery approaches to lost time in education as a result of COVID-19. This research will deliver an understanding of how schools are assessing the scale of any attainment loss, how the catch-up funding is being used, and the approaches schools are taking to catch pupils up – alongside any barriers/success factors to these approaches. The study will also assess how schools are helping pupils recover from any wellbeing or behavioural loss that may have occurred as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
To provide further support during the autumn and spring terms, the department has worked with our partners, the Department of Health and Social Care, Health Education England, Public Health England and key voluntary sector organisations, to launch Wellbeing for Education Return. This project, backed by £8 million, will train local experts to provide additional training, advice and resources to schools and colleges to help support pupil and student wellbeing, resilience and recovery.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) short-, and (2) long-term, financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on early years childcare providers in receipt of local authority funding who have restricted access to the Job Retention Scheme. [T]
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Our immediate objective is to ensure that critical workers have the childcare that they need to do their jobs during this crisis and that vulnerable children have access to early years provision.
Maintaining a healthy childcare market in the longer term is also crucially important, which is why the government will continue to pay for free early years entitlement places from the Dedicated Schools Grant, as well as ensuring early years providers have access to other government support schemes for businesses whose operations have been severely affected by COVID-19.
Further information on the support available is included in the guidance ‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus outbreak’ which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to launch the new national strategy for English Language learning announced this autumn; and whether that strategy will include an assessment of the efficacy of English for Speakers of Other Languages as an English language learning programme.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government has committed to developing a new strategy for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in 2019. This strategy will provide a shared vision and common aims for all publicly funded ESOL.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 23 July (HL Deb, cols 668–70), what plans they have to review access to free school meals for children who are affected by having no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
As per the response provided by my noble Friend, Baroness Williams of Trafford, during the debate on 23 July, decisions around recourse to public funds are made by the Home Office.
Free school meals are available to disadvantaged families in receipt of certain qualifying benefits, including children of immigrants and refugees who are receiving support under Part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act (1999).
The Home Office is able to exercise discretion to grant recourse to public funds where the family would otherwise be destitute. Where this entitles the family to receive certain benefits, they may also be able to claim free school meals.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Education Policy Institute The early years workforce in England, published on 17 January; and what steps they intend to take in response to that report in particular the need to ensure increased (1) skills, (2) diversity, and (3) pay levels in the early education workforce.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We have noted the findings of the report published by the Education Policy Institute. We are already working with the sector on a number of the issues highlighted in their report. In March 2017, we published the attached early years workforce strategy, 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, considered how the gender diversity of the workforce can be improved, as well as developing new career pathways information to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development: https://www.cache.org.uk/media/1417/dfe-career-pathway-map-v17.pdf. The career pathways map is attached.
We are supporting employer trailblazer groups to develop new apprenticeship standards for the early years workforce and have announced a £20 million investment in professional development and training for early years practitioners in pre-reception settings in disadvantaged areas.
Employers in the early years sector are responsible for setting the pay and conditions for their employees, within the statutory requirements set by government (for example, national minimum wage).
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs and benefits of extending the 30 hours free childcare for three and four year olds to families where parents are in training to prepare for work.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government has commissioned an independent evaluation of the first year of delivery, which will be published in summer 2018. As with the evaluations of early implementation and early rollout, we will use the evidence from this report to inform future delivery.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answers by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 26 February (HL Deb, cols 425–28), what measures they plan to take to ensure that all children living in poverty over the age of seven can receive a healthy meal at lunch time, as part of combatting child obesity and poor levels of nutrition.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at lunchtime and other times during the school day, including that available through breakfast clubs, tuck shops, mid-morning breaks, vending machines and after school clubs. The standards severely restrict the consumption of foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality re-formed or re-constituted foods.
The continuing provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from households that are out of work or on low incomes is of the utmost importance to the government. FSM mean these children receive a healthy, nutritious meal, which their families may not otherwise be able to afford, and help to ensure they are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits, and can concentrate and learn in school. The department’s new criteria for FSM eligibility, will increase the number of children eligible for this vital benefit.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to consider the funding and provision of holiday programmes that would provide free meals and activities for children who would otherwise not have access to such arrangements.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is currently considering the School Holidays (Meals and Activities) Bill, which addresses this issue, and will be responding in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish (1) the results of the national fostering stocktake, and (2) their response to the stocktake.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The National Fostering Stocktake report will be published in the New Year.
The department expects to publish the government’s response to the National Fostering Stocktake in Spring 2018.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current status of the proposed reform of technical education in the North East.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government is committed to creating a world class technical education system and we are making progress on delivering the recommendations made by the Independent Panel on Technical Education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury.
In October, we published the attached ‘Post-16 technical education reforms: T level action plan – October 2017’, in which we outlined in more detail our plans for implementation. We announced the introduction of T levels in three routes in 2020 – Digital, Construction and Education & Childcare – with the remaining eight routes launched in two waves in September 2021 and 2022. We expect the first T levels to be delivered by a small number of providers initially and we will begin engaging with providers later this year.
We want every student studying a T level to undertake a substantial work placement. In September 2017 we launched a work placement pilot scheme to test different models and approaches to delivering T level placements. 21 providers are piloting these in academic year 2017/18, working with a range of employers and approximately 2500 students. This includes a pilot scheme in the North East at Sunderland College, information of which can be found on their website: http://sunderlandcollege.ac.uk/2017/10/college-pilots-government-project/.
We will launch a public consultation on T levels later this year.