Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to advertise the National Tutoring Programme to disadvantaged pupils.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate pupil progress, and we want to extend this opportunity to disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils.
We are committed to ensuring that there is a strong take-up of the programme. We have undertaken a range of communications and engagement activities to ensure that schools are aware of the support offered by the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). Our activities include offering school-focused webinars throughout the academic year and working with a range of key stakeholders to increase awareness and interest in the programme in areas that need it most, for example, through opportunity areas, multi academy trusts and regional schools commissioners. In addition, we have also been communicating with local authority groups, networks, and teaching unions.
The NTP is providing regular newsletters and blogs direct to schools, alongside targeted social media activity. Since the programme went live in November 2020, we have continued to share case studies and good practice to show how tuition can support pupils effectively, including a guide of how to make the most out of tutoring during the most recent lockdown period. We will continue to monitor take-up throughout the course of this academic year and ensure further communication is directed towards areas of low take-up.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote opportunities for UK companies to offer online tuition in (1) the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Department’s £350 million National Tutoring Programme (NTP) will engage around 15,000 tutors to support 250,000 pupils across England, with the majority of our tuition partners providing online support. Through our EdTech grant funding partnership, Nesta are supporting some tuition partners to strengthen their digital and online offering and capabilities. For example, adapting online content to better meet the needs of students with special educational needs, developing lower-bandwidth platforms, and embedding impact measurement into online provision. The NTP for 5 to 16 year olds has been extended for another year and more information will be available in due course.
More broadly, businesses in England can access free support and guidance on finding the right finance to grow or scale up from the network of local growth hubs and the freephone Business Support Helpline. Information and advice on scaling and growing a business can also be be found on gov.uk. Firms based in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can access business support through their Governments.
The Government’s International Education Strategy commits to promoting overseas opportunities for UK companies. We proactively identify opportunities in global markets and to support the sector in maximising its supply capabilities to meet this demand. We promote opportunities via the Exporting Is GREAT website and work closely with British Educational Suppliers Association, the trade association for UK EdTech, and the sector to maximise exposure to opportunities for online education providers.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote the wearing of face masks in secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department has published comprehensive guidance on the use of face coverings in schools, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.
At each stage of its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has listened to and acted on the latest medical and scientific advice, and if we think that the guidance should be revised based on further evidence then we will not hesitate to act swiftly and decisively.
When an area moves to the local restriction tier 2: ‘high’, 3: ‘very high’ or 4: ‘stay at home’, in schools where year 7 and above are taught, face coverings should be worn by adults and pupils when moving around indoors, outside of classrooms, for example in corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.
As the guidance outlines, based on current evidence, and in light of the mitigation measures that schools have put in place, face coverings are not necessary in the classroom. Schools and colleges that are in local restriction tier 1: ‘medium’ will have the discretion to require the use of face coverings in indoor communal areas, outside of classrooms, where social distancing cannot be safely managed, if they believe that it is appropriate in their particular circumstances.
We continue to provide information to schools and other education and childcare settings on our guidance, and any changes to it, through regular departmental communications.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect apprentices whose employment has ceased as a consequence of COVID-19.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are committed to supporting apprentices who have been made redundant as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, including enabling them wherever possible to continue and complete their apprenticeships.
We launched the Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices which provides clear, accessible advice and guidance to individuals, as well as a vacancy sharing scheme to help apprentices find new opportunities with employers. Over 1,000 employers have submitted opportunities to the vacancy sharing service for redundant apprentices.
We have also amended legislation to enable more apprentices to complete their apprenticeship in the event of redundancy. In addition to funding an apprentice’s training to completion if they have less than six months of their apprenticeship remaining at the point of redundancy, we have extended this provision to include any apprentice who has completed 75% or more of their apprenticeship at the point of redundancy.
Apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow. In the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years, we are making available £2.5 billion for apprenticeships in England, double that spent in the 2010-11 financial year. To help employers offer new apprenticeships, including to those that have been made redundant, employers are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, and £1,500 for those 25 and over, until 31 March 2021. We are extending the incentive payments available to employers taking on new apprentices until the end of this financial year, boosting job creation and supporting employers to invest in skills as the economy recovers.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the Confederation of British Industry, and (2) Trades Union Congress, about apprenticeships.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We meet regularly with employers, providers, and other stakeholders to explore how we can best support businesses to use apprenticeships to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, meets with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and other business representative organisations each quarter to discuss various aspects of apprenticeships and skills policy.
Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a member of the department’s Apprenticeships Stakeholder Board, a diverse group of apprenticeship employers, providers, business representative organisations, and other stakeholders. Through this forum, the TUC provides constructive feedback on the impact of apprenticeship policy and discusses the future strategy of the programme.
We continue to listen to and work with the CBI, the TUC and other stakeholders on all aspects of apprenticeship policy and delivery to ensure the programme continues to deliver for employers of all sizes.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help pupils from low income backgrounds who have missed out on schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The closure of schools to all but our most vulnerable children, and those from keyworker families, was a regrettable but necessary measure. Now it is a national priority for all pupils to enjoy full-time education at school as this is the best place to improve their well-being and development. We have put in place a range of measures to help schools address the time lost; this is especially important for disadvantaged pupils who have been affected most by time away from school.
Our £100 million support for remote education distributed 220,000 laptops and 57,000 internet connections to disadvantaged pupils, to enable them to continue learning at home, as well as supporting the foundation of the popular Oak Academy. The £1 billion COVID catch-up package, announced in June, includes the National Tutoring Programme. This will provide up to £350 million of targeted support for disadvantaged pupils who are most at risk of falling further behind. From November, this investment will give schools in all regions access to subsidised tuition supplied by approved tuition partners. The programme will support schools in the most deprived areas to use in-house academic mentors to give small groups intensive catch-up tuition, small group tuition for 16-19-year olds and the improvement of early language skills in reception classes.
To complement the National Tutoring Programme, our £650million catch-up premium is enabling schools to target funding at specific pupil needs. The £1 billion package helps schools take immediate action to address the lost learning pupils are facing as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and is in addition to the £14.4 billion 3-year investment for schools announced last year.
We continue to provide pupil premium funding, worth £2.4 billion, that allows school leaders to design support reflecting their disadvantaged pupils’ changing needs.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they had with devolved authorities about co-ordinating the approach to the awarding of A-levels and equivalent qualifications in the summer of 2020; and what plans they have to publish details of those discussions.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Ministers have had discussions throughout the year with their counterparts from the devolved administrations about the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including about summer 2020 grading. In addition, officials and regulators have been in regular contact to discuss co-ordination of approaches on grading, taking into account the differing features of the educational systems across the UK. There are no plans to publish details of these discussions. The department will continue to work with the devolved administrations on plans for examinations in summer 2021.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with universities regarding accommodating the demand for places on courses following the withdrawal of A-level results based on algorithms; and what additional resources are being made available to universities as a result of the change of policy.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
My hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, has written directly to all Vice Chancellors and has set up a Higher Education Taskforce so that the government can work with the sector to build capacity, harness expert views and tackle challenges. Together, we have agreed that all students who achieved the required grades will be offered a place at their first-choice university, wherever possible.
We have taken a number of steps to support this commitment. We have announced that, subject to parliamentary approval, we will completely remove temporary student number controls to help ensure there are no additional barriers to students being able to progress to higher education.
We have announced that we will lift caps on domestic medicine and dentistry courses in the next academic year. We will support providers to offer places to as many students who have met the grades for their current offer as they have capacity for, and where there are clinical placements available, through additional grant funding to support the costs of this provision.
We will also provide additional teaching grant funding to increase capacity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and other high-cost subjects, which are vital to the country’s social needs and economy. The Office for Students (OfS) will consult the sector on the details of how the allocations are made.
Providers will also be eligible to bid for a share of up to £10 million in funding to support capital expenditure. This funding will be used to support the infrastructure required to accommodate additional students recruited as a result of the changes to policy on A level grades.
The fund will be administered by the OfS, and providers will be eligible to bid for projects that support expansion in 2020/21.
We will continue to monitor the situation and to consider the effects that deferrals will have on future years. Funding decisions for future years will be taken at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that children, in particular those from low-income families, are not negatively affected by missed schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic and can catch-up on lessons.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Education recovery lies at the heart of our national mission as we emerge from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. On 19 June we announced a £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time.
£650 million will be shared across state primary, secondary and special schools over the 2020/21 academic year. This one-off grant to support pupils recognises that all young people have lost time in education as a result of the outbreak, regardless of their income or background.? School leaders will have discretion over how to use the funding, but we expect it to focus on the most effective approaches. The Education Endowment Foundation has published guidance to help schools make good decisions about how to use the money effectively.
Separately, a National Tutoring Programme worth £350 million will increase access to high-quality tuition for children and young people from deprived backgrounds. This will help to accelerate their academic progress and tackle the attainment gap between them and their peers.??We published guidance on both parts of the package on 20 July, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium.
This £1 billion package is on top of the £14.4 billion core funding increase over three years announced last year, and the £2.4 billion pupil premium funding which schools continue to receive to support their disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the higher education sector concerning the next academic year, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department engages regularly with representative bodies covering all types of higher education provider, encompassing all locations, as well as receiving representations in person and by correspondence from individual providers on a range of issues including the next academic year 2020-21.
The government announced a package of measures in May to protect students and the higher education sector from the impact of COVID-19. This has been discussed extensively with the sector, including through ministerial roundtables and letters. The package included a range of measures for next academic year. To ensure a fair, structured distribution of students across providers, temporary student number controls have been put in place for full-time, undergraduate domestic and EU students for academic year 2020/21 (with certain specific exemptions). The Government has also pulled forward tuition fee payments, expected to be worth £2.6 billion, for providers so that they receive more cash in the first term of academic year 2020/21. Through the proposals from the government and the sector, students will also benefit from a new proactive and personalised UCAS Clearing process this summer.
The government is working with higher education (HE) providers to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies to the best of their abilities this academic year and next.
Whilst recognising universities are autonomous institutions, we will shortly publish guidance to support them to make informed decisions on making university buildings and campuses accessible again, while minimising risks to students and staff
Furthermore, the HE sector is already working hard to prepare learning materials for the autumn term. This includes the government working with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, professional bodies and the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, to ensure students continue to leave university with qualifications that have real value. The OfS has published guidance for registered providers about how the OfS will approach the regulation of quality and standards during the COVID-19 outbreak. This guidance is clear that standards must be maintained - further details are available at https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/guidance-for-providers-about-quality-and-standards-during-coronavirus-pandemic/. Actions that providers are taking now may continue to be required in the 2020- 21 academic year if the disruption as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak is prolonged.