Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, given the findings by Action for Children in its report, Above and Beyond: How teachers fill gaps in the system to keep children learning, that (1) nine children in an average class of 25 face challenges outside of school which hinder their ability to learn, and (2) teachers are struggling to support them and their families, what action they are taking to encourage schools to employ family liaison officers to support struggling families.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The government recognises the pivotal role teachers and education settings play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable children and families.
The department’s 2023 updated statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ confirms that staff working in education settings play an important role in building relationships, identifying concerns and providing direct support to children.
At the last Spending Review, the department announced over £1 billion for programmes to improve early help services from birth to adulthood, including delivering on Family Hubs and helping families facing multiple disadvantages through the Supporting Families Programme and the holiday activities and food programme. Local authorities working with their partners can decide to use this funding to employ family liaison officers or other professionals to support families within education settings.
The department’s ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love: strategy and consultation’, announced plans to build on the strengths of these vital early help services through the implementation of family help. In the Families First for Children Pathfinder, the department is testing how it can increase the role of education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and how local areas can provide targeted support to help children and families overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity. The Pathfinder is running in ten local authority areas across two ‘waves’: Dorset, Lincolnshire and Wolverhampton (wave one announced July 2023) and Lewisham, Luton, Redbridge, Walsall, Warrington, Warwickshire and Wirral (wave two announced April 2024).
The department is also making the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance statutory from September 2024. This sets out how schools, local authorities and other services need to work together to support pupils at risk of poor attendance and ensure support provided to these families is consistent across the country.
The department’s package of wide-ranging reforms designed to support schools to improve attendance means that there were 440,000 fewer children persistently absent or not attending in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22.
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 - Shadow Minister (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 - Shadow Minister (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 Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to form an independent crash investigation unit for bus safety incidents where serious injury or death has or might have occurred, based on the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and Marine Accident Investigation Branch.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
We have no plans to form an independent investigation unit specifically for bus safety incidents. However, as Lord Hampton is aware, the Automated Vehicles Bill includes measures for the Secretary of State to appoint ‘inspectors of automated vehicle incidents’. These inspectors will have the necessary powers to conduct safety investigation on self-driving vehicles to ultimately increase road safety across the transport mode. If it was the case that a self-driving vehicle was involved in an incident with a bus, or the bus was self-driving, then these inspectors could investigate it.
More widely, our National Bus Strategy, published in 2021, made clear that the bus sector must strive for the highest safety standards, upheld by the Traffic Commissioners. The Strategy required all Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) to publish a local Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). The Department was clear that BSIPs should include plans on how LTAs and local bus operators will work together to ensure that bus services are safe and perceived to be safe by all. This may include measures such as appropriate passenger safety training for bus drivers to deal with emergency situations on or off the bus, and encouraging bus operators to liaise with local police and other stakeholders to address safety concerns.
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 - Shadow Minister (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 - Shadow Minister (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 - Shadow Minister (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 - Shadow Minister (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 Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Penn Elcom Global Parcel Theft Report 2022, published in October 2022, what action they expect Ofcom to take in response to parcel theft, and when.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
Ofcom is the designated, independent regulator for the postal sector. The Government has no role in its regulatory decisions.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, it is the seller’s responsibility to ensure items ordered are delivered and Ofcom requires postal operators to take all reasonable steps to minimise exposure of postal packets to risk of loss, theft, damage or interference in terms of an essential requirement.
In its 2022 review of postal regulation, Ofcom recognised that the safety and security of parcels remains a key consumer concern and will continue to monitor the issue.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the finding by Citizens Advice in 2021 that 5.5 million people had a parcel lost or stolen in the 12 months leading up to 31 July 2021, what plans they have to persuade courier companies to include parcel tracking in their base level of service.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
It is for retailers to determine the delivery services they make available to their customers and the Government has no plans to ask courier companies to provide tracking as standard.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, it is the seller’s responsibility to ensure items ordered are delivered and Ofcom, as the independent regulator for the postal sector, has imposed an ‘Essential Condition’ requiring relevant parcel delivery companies to take all reasonable steps to minimise exposure of postal packets to risk of loss, theft, damage or interference.