Schools: Exam-year Pupils

Lord Goddard of Stockport Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, some of the solutions that have been outlined by noble Lords, such as extending the school day, are possible for schools now. Many schools use certain tools that the department has made available so that they can deploy their workforce most efficiently and extend the school day—but of course there are also contractual implications if we were to require more from a teaching workforce that is flat out. Yes, we are planning, which is why we are focusing on summer schools at the moment because we can deliver that. The national tutoring programme has shown its flexibility as well, in that most of the providers could move online straightaway. We are looking at the more structural solutions as well as more immediate catch-up solutions.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

With the exception of three weeks of relative respite last July, Greater Manchester has known some of the tightest restrictions in the country for more than 10 months, resulting in significantly greater disruption to young people’s learning, which will impact on not only this exam cohort but next year’s. The differential regional Covid and Covid restrictions have been mitigated with a differentiated regional policy. This consultation must ensure that children and young people are not disadvantaged by the lost learning time that they have experienced in comparison with their peers nationally.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, one of the matters in the consultation was around teacher assessment, which is why this year, for these exceptional circumstances, some form of teacher assessment will assess the performance of students. However, we are aware of the differential impact of Covid and are trying our best to train and support the teaching workforce to be able to deliver a fair qualification for students this year, for GCSEs, A-levels and technical qualifications as well.

Children in Care

Lord Goddard of Stockport Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, I can assure noble Lords that this is a minimal change to the procedural requirements in relation to children’s social care. The Coronavirus Act has not been used in this regard; we did not take powers under that Act because it was clear that the secondary legislation could be amended to ensure that there was limited use of the extensive powers granted by Parliament in the emergency legislation. The legislation is under review. The regulations will fall on 25 September if they are not renewed by Parliament. There is scrutiny in the Commons as well as in the Lords in relation to the new regulations.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

The Newlife foundation provides specialist equipment for 22,500 disabled children and spends £3 million a year. Unfortunately, because it provides statutory services supplementing those carried out by local authorities, it does not qualify for UK charities funding from the likes of Comic Relief or Children in Need. Will the Minister undertake to ask the Chancellor to widen the criteria for eligibility for emergency funding to include the Newlife foundation charity to help it protect the most vulnerable children in society, the severely disabled and the terminally ill?

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, I can assure noble Lords that there will be detailed guidance in relation to the regulations around special educational needs and disabilities tomorrow. If the matter raised by the noble Lord is not covered in that information, I shall undertake to look at it. For the sake of completeness, I can assure noble Lords that the detailed guidance on these regulations will be published next week.