Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, given the finding by Action for Children in its report, Above and Beyond: How teachers fill gaps in the system to keep children learning, that teachers are supporting 3.3 million children who face barriers to their education because of issues outside of school, what plans they have to make schools the fourth statutory safeguarding partner.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises that education needs to play a greater role in local safeguarding arrangements. This reflects the part schools, colleges, early years and other education settings play in the lives of children and families, and their safeguarding responsibilities.
In 2023, the department consulted on and strengthened its statutory guidance, titled ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, which clarified the roles and responsibilities of education settings, both strategically and operationally, in local safeguarding arrangements.
As outlined in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department is exploring how it can increase the role of education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential (1) social, and (2) economic, benefits of expanding the School Milk Subsidy Scheme to provide a free one third of a pint portion of milk to all primary school age children each day attending school.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Milk is an excellent food for children’s growth and development. This is why, as part of the School Food Standards, schools are already required to ensure milk is available to all pupils who want it during school hours. The National School Milk Subsidy Scheme can be used by primary schools to reduce the cost of milk for all their pupils.
Thanks to Universal Infant Free School Meals, pupils under seven years old are already eligible for free milk when it is offered as part of their school lunch. Older pupils entitled to benefits related free school meals are also eligible for free milk when made available during the school day. This is in addition to the free milk provided for children under five-years-old thanks to the Nursery Milk Scheme.
As with free school meals, the department believes it is important to support those most in need and to ensure policy remains affordable and deliverable for schools. The department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 26 October (HL10658), whether they will undertake to publish the finalised annual version of Keeping Children Safe in Education in the school summer term in future, given that even minor changes can cause issues with planning.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department currently has no plans to alter the established publication timings for ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. The department publishes a near final version of the guidance in late spring or early summer.
Schools and colleges are familiar with the department’s approach which ensures that schools and colleges have sufficient time to digest revisions and to plan any necessary training, ahead of implementation in the next school year.
It is rare for material changes to be made between the ‘for information’ version and the final publication in September. Where this does occur, changes are strictly limited to reflect vital information in response to unexpected or emerging issues and are made to support schools and colleges to better safeguard children.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to confirming final updates to their statutory guidance Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges, in the summer term of the academic year with effect from 1 September of the next academic year to enable schools (1) to update their safeguarding policies, and (2) implement staff training, in readiness for 1 September when the statutory guidance becomes effective.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), is updated annually in the summer term, for information to enable schools and colleges to plan for the commencement of the guidance in September.
For 2023, KCSIE was published for information on 6 June 2023, with a final version with only minor changes published on 1 September 2023.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from the Secretary of State for Education to all members of the House of Lords on 24 August where she stated that "we’ve also seen some really encouraging trends in the subjects that pupils are choosing to study, with more students opting to take core academic subjects this year", how they define core "academic subjects"; and why they are so encouraged by the uptake of those subjects.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Core academic subjects are defined as those that are included within the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). The EBacc is made up of English language and literature, mathematics, the sciences, including computer science, either history or geography, and a modern or ancient language.
The department is encouraged by the increased uptake in these core academic subjects because they are essential for many degrees, and they provide a sound basis for a variety of careers beyond the age of 16. In particular, they can enable pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to follow a curriculum which will give them similar post-16 options as their non-disadvantaged peers, fostering greater social mobility.
The EBacc’s core academic subjects provide a strong foundation for all pupils regardless of whether that want to take an academic, technical, or vocational route post-16.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the burden on school staff caused by subject access requests.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In February 2023, the department updated the Data Protection in Schools guidance, which provides advice covering Subject Access Requests (SARs). The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/data-protection-in-schools.
The department is developing the Education Privacy Assurance Scheme, which will provide targeted training, guidance, and templates on a range of data protection subjects. The department is prioritising responding to SARs as the first release in the next 12 months. This will help provide a consistent approach that is adopted by schools across the sector.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage Ofqual to adopt the stance of Dr Matthew Glanville, Head of Assessment Principles and Practice at the International Baccalaureate, that the use of artificial intelligence by pupils should be "embraced" as "an extraordinary opportunity".
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ofqual is the independent regulator of qualifications and assessments for England and is accountable to Parliament and not to Ministers. Ofqual has statutory objectives to maintain standards and promote public confidence in qualifications.
As part of this remit, we know Ofqual is working closely with awarding organisations to consider the implications of pupils’ use of artificial intelligence (AI), including the opportunities and risks it may bring. We will continue to work closely with them on this going forward.
The International Baccalaureate Organisation has confirmed it will not allow pupils to pass off AI-generated work as their own in their assessments. Ofqual’s rules, to which they are subject, require that grades must accurately reflect pupils’ attainment.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to bring back a student loan forgiveness scheme for teachers, similar to that trialled between 2002 and 2004, in which 10 per cent of a new teacher’s total student loan was paid off each year that they stayed in the profession.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department has piloted two schemes in recent years which were designed to attract and retain teachers by repaying their student loans. The Repayment of Teachers’ Loans (RTL) scheme was trialled in the mid-2000s and an evaluation was completed by University of Durham in 2004. This indicated that RTL influenced 11% of participating teachers’ decisions to stay in teaching.
In 2017, the Department introduced the Teacher Student Loan Reimbursement (TSLR) scheme for science and languages teachers in 26 Local Authorities, which allows these teachers to claim back the student loan repayments they have made. The evaluation by CFE Research was published in January 2023, and found that TSLR exerts some influence on both retaining teachers and the areas where they choose to teach.
Both the RTL and TSLR evaluations found that offering bursaries for trainee teachers exerts the strongest influence on teacher recruitment. This is why the Department is offering increased bursaries worth £27,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Barran on 19 January (HL Deb col 1920), what were the outcome of talks with Ofqual about the use of AI in secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ofqual has confirmed that exam boards are aware of the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence (AI) to qualifications, and work is ongoing in this area, including with the devolved regulators.
There are already strict rules in place, set by exam boards, to ensure pupils’ work, including non-exam assessment, is their own. Sanctions for cheating are serious and include being disqualified from a qualification, if necessary.