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Written Question
Educational Institutions: Sexual Harassment
Monday 28th June 2021

Asked by: Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges by Ofsted, published on 10 June, what steps they are taking to discourage sexual harassment of young people in schools and colleges.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

The department has already introduced the new compulsory Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum. From next term we expect the RSHE curriculum to be implemented in full. School leaders have been asked to dedicate time from INSET days to consider how best to do this.

The department is updating statutory guidance for Keeping Children Safe in Education for this September. This will ensure schools have even clearer guidance on how to deal with reports of sexual abuse. It will support teachers and other school staff to spot the signs of abuse and to respond quickly, sensitively, and appropriately to children and young people.

We will also be investing additional money to further test the impact of support and supervision models for designated safeguarding leads in up to 500 more schools.


Written Question
Remote Education
Wednesday 17th June 2020

Asked by: Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of home schooling made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

Our latest guidance on remote education during COVID-19 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19

The department is continuing to assess the impact of school closures on children and young people’s education. We are working closely with educational providers, sector organisations, international institutions and across government to understand the risks to education attainment and wellbeing, and identify how best to support children and young people make up for time spent out of school.

We are committed to ensuring that all children can continue to learn remotely in a number of ways during these very difficult circumstances, and are supporting sector-led initiatives such as the Oak National Academy. This brand-new enterprise has been created by 40 teachers from schools across England and is providing 180 free video lessons each week, across a broad range of subjects for every year group from Reception through to year 10. By 24 May, over 2.3 million users had visited the Oak Academy site and over 8.6 million lessons had been accessed.

Additionally, the Government has committed over £100 million to boost remote education, including by providing devices and internet access for those who need it most, ensuring every school that wants it has access to free, expert technical support to get set up on Google for Education or Microsoft’s Office 365 Education, and offering peer support from schools and colleges leading the way with the use of education technology.

It is up to each school to determine how to deliver education to its pupils and we recognise that many schools have been working hard to share resources – both online and printed resources – for children who are at home.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.


Written Question
Children: Coronavirus
Tuesday 12th May 2020

Asked by: Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that vulnerable children attend school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

As my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have both made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by Covid-19.

Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children is set out below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

Attending school is a strong protective factor for many vulnerable children and young people and educational establishments remain open for them. We are closely monitoring the attendance of vulnerable children and are encouraging attendance where that would be in their best interests. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has written to leaders of all education settings and directors of children’s services in England to encourage attendance for these children.

69,000 vulnerable children were attending educational settings on Thursday 7 May, compared to 58,000 on Thursday 30 April.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has also stressed the need for schools, local authorities and social workers to maintain contact and support services for vulnerable children and young people throughout this period. Officials from the department, and re-deployed Ofsted inspection teams, are working with local authorities directly to ensure that the systems and processes for maintaining contact with vulnerable children are robust in every local authority in England. We have also issued detailed guidance for education settings on how they can support vulnerable children, including how to monitor and encourage attendance.

These are rapidly developing circumstances and we will continue to keep the situation under review and to keep Parliament updated accordingly.