Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which elements of the £600 million investment in construction skills they announced on 23 March have previously been announced or committed to, and which are new and in addition to previous commitments.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced an additional £625 million of funding to support construction skills training, with the detail set out in the Spring Statement 2025. This additional support had not previously been announced or committed. This is expected to deliver up to 60,000 additional skilled construction workers this Parliament.
The measures will support the expansion of existing skills programmes, including Skills Bootcamps and apprenticeships, as well as help deliver new initiatives such as establishing ten Technical Excellence Colleges specialised in construction in every region in England.
Additional detail on these measures is available from page 29 of the Spring Statement 2025 document, which is attached and can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ecff55239fa04d411fc3/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Text_PRINT_.pdf.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Armed Forces Covenant Legal Duty as it applies to schools; and whether they plan to update the school admissions code (1) to give priority to children of Service families, and (2) to provide for siblings, where appropriate, to attend the same school.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has policies in place to support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duty to give due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant. This includes in specific areas of education provision, including school admissions.
The school admissions code already contains a number of measures to support service children in relation to school admissions.
These measures include requiring admission authorities to allocate school places in advance of a service family moving into the area, where a place is available, provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a re-location date. Children of UK service personnel can also be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit if they move outside the normal admission round.
Furthermore, admission authorities are able to give priority in their oversubscription criteria to children in receipt of the Service Pupil Premium, and publicly funded boarding schools must give service children who qualify for Ministry of Defence financial assistance with the cost of boarding fees priority after looked after and previously looked after children.
Admission authorities are already able to give priority to siblings in their admissions criteria where they feel that is appropriate to their local circumstances, although they are not required to do so.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill, this government is taking further steps to ensure a more robust safety net for children who struggle to secure a school place via the usual in-year admissions processes, by giving local authorities the levers they need to secure places for children more quickly and efficiently, when the usual in-year admissions processes fall short.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide military families with priority for school admissions when parents are transferred from one place to another.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has policies in place to support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duty to give due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant. This includes in specific areas of education provision, including school admissions.
The school admissions code already contains a number of measures to support service children in relation to school admissions.
These measures include requiring admission authorities to allocate school places in advance of a service family moving into the area, where a place is available, provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a re-location date. Children of UK service personnel can also be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit if they move outside the normal admission round.
Furthermore, admission authorities are able to give priority in their oversubscription criteria to children in receipt of the Service Pupil Premium, and publicly funded boarding schools must give service children who qualify for Ministry of Defence financial assistance with the cost of boarding fees priority after looked after and previously looked after children.
Admission authorities are already able to give priority to siblings in their admissions criteria where they feel that is appropriate to their local circumstances, although they are not required to do so.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill, this government is taking further steps to ensure a more robust safety net for children who struggle to secure a school place via the usual in-year admissions processes, by giving local authorities the levers they need to secure places for children more quickly and efficiently, when the usual in-year admissions processes fall short.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have calculated how many full and part-time staff will be required to continue the current work of Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education following the transfer of responsibilities to the Department under the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The department has calculated that the number of staff transferring from Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) into Skills England will ensure core IfATE functions continue. These roles will make up a portion of the total workforce of Skills England. There will be additional staff from the department supporting on Skills England’s broader remit of work.
This continuity in resource levels will support qualification and apprenticeships development, including working with employers, to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of service. A full list of IfATE staff can be found here: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/c4b0d784-19a0-4027-84fd-4721cb83281f/organogram-of-staff-roles-and-salaries-for-ifate-september-2024.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the annual breakdown, beginning with the academic year 2020–21, of the number of secondary school trainee teachers aged 40 and over working in (1) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and (2) non-STEM, subjects who began training but were not working as a qualified teacher in a state school two years later; and what was total annual cost of training bursaries and scholarships paid to those same trainees.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
In the attachment, table 1 shows the total numbers of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) trainees aged 40 and above with course outcomes for the academic years 2020/21 to 2022/23 and for each secondary subject. The table also shows the number of such trainees who did not go on to teach in a state-funded school within 16 months of the end of the academic year.
Information on the outcomes of trainees in receipt of bursaries and/or scholarships is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, postgraduate salaried trainees are ineligible for bursaries and scholarships and the number of undergraduate fee-funded trainees over 40 who are eligible for bursaries is negligible.
In the attachment, table 2 shows, as a proportion of ITT trainees on postgraduate fee-funded ITT routes only, the number that were aged 40 and over and did not go on to teach in a state-funded school within 16 months of the end of the academic year. These proportions are applied to total bursary and scholarship spend, for each academic year and secondary subject. A small minority of trainees are ineligible for a bursary or scholarship, so this assumes that those over 40 who did not teach in a state-funded school within 16 months were as likely to be eligible for a bursary or scholarship as the overall trainee cohort in each year.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that mainstream schools overseen by multi-academy trusts fulfil the requirement set out in guidance to teach a minimum of 190 days a year, with an indicative 32.5 hours including breaks per week.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The length and structure of the school year in academies is a matter for the academy trust.
Non-statutory guidance is in place which sets out the expectation that all mainstream, state-funded schools, including academies, should deliver a minimum school week of 32.5 hours by September 2024. As with all government policies we will keep this approach under review.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total value of the Department for Education’s apprenticeships budget in each financial year since 2017–18.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department’s apprenticeships budget is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in apprenticeship levy and non-levy paying employers to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers.
The table below provides the total value of the department’s apprenticeship budget for England for each financial year since 2017/18.
Financial Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
DfE Apprenticeships Budget (£ million) | 2,010 | 2,231 | 2,469 | 2,467 | 2,466 | 2,554 | 2,585 | 2,729 |
The budget figure for the 2024/25 financial year reflects the Spending Review 2021 settlement, as well as additional funding that has recently been announced to support apprenticeships, including the growth pilot announced at the Autumn Statement, and the additional funding the Prime Minister announced in March to boost apprenticeships for young people in smaller business and meet overall increased demand for apprenticeships.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of apprentice levy-paying employers have transferred the maximum 25 per cent of their levy contributions to other employers in each financial year since 2017–18.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Levy paying employers have been able to transfer a proportion of their annual funds to other employers since April 2018, when the maximum transfer allowance was 10%. This was increased to 25% in April 2019 and from 22 April 2024, the department has doubled the levy transfer allowance to 50%.
The table below shows the percentage of levy-paying employers who spent all of their transfer allowance in each financial year from 2018/19 to 2023/24.
Financial year in which funds were transferred | Percentage of total levy-paying employers who used all their transfer allowance |
2018/19 | 0.0% |
2019/20 | 0.4% |
2020/21 | 1.0% |
2021/22 | 1.6% |
2022/23 | 2.0% |
2023/24 | 2.0% |
Transfers provide levy paying employers with more flexibility about how they spend the funds available to them, including supporting other businesses such as smaller employers, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities to help meet local and sector-specific needs. The department has improved the transfer system, introducing a pledge and match service on GOV.UK, to make it easier to find other employers who wish to take on apprentices with transferred funds. Since the service was introduced in September 2021, over 500 employers have pledged to transfer over £37 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes, as of 9 February 2024.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which organisations (1) receiving funding through the Department for Education, or (2) holding contracts related to the work of the Department, between 1 January and 22 April have been notified of either (a) a reduction in, or (b) the cancellation of, their funding, broken down by category; which of those organisations will have funding withdrawn (i) in the current financial year, or (ii) over the next two financial years; and what is the total amount that will be withdrawn for such organisations over those periods.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government of the 9,800 students who have enrolled on the T Level foundation year since its inception, what percentage (1) progressed onto A Levels, (2) progressed onto T levels, (3) embarked onto an apprenticeship, (4) progressed onto BTECs and/or other Applied General Qualifications, or (5) have no known progression data.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.