Education Recovery

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, as I said, the tutoring and support for teaching that I outlined were part of Sir Kevan’s plan. More than £1 billion is going into tutoring for young people. That should pay for 100 million hours for children and young people across England by 2024. Those are disadvantaged young people. Using a “per pupil” analysis is not accurate when certain pots of money have been targeted at, for instance, tutoring disadvantaged children and summer schools are available to secondary schools only.

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, in many families, the main breadwinner has died as a result of Covid-19, leaving their spouse a widow or widower suffering not only the grief of bereavement and poor mental health but facing immense financial pressure at a very uncertain time. What special steps will the Government take to assist and support the children of such new widows or widowers in catching up on learning lost during the pandemic?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord raises an important and tragic consequence of the pandemic. I visited a school about two weeks ago where 70% of the students were close bereaved. In this regard, the task of schools is immense. The money that I have outlined—the universal catch-up money, the £650 million which is in schools’ banks now—can be spent on additional pastoral support. We announced during Mental Health Awareness Week that we have invested £17 million to train up mental health support leads in more than 7,800 schools. I note that bereavement is not a mental health need, but it may be that that workforce also does bereavement support.

International Women’s Day

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, today’s debate on International Women’s Day is important and timely. I want to focus on women who have lost their loved ones achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world.

As I look back, 2020 was an unprecedented, unpredictable and unforgettable year. The Covid-19 pandemic has killed many thousands of people and destroyed economies all over the world. It has spared no country. Sadly, more than 120,000 people have died in the UK as a result of Covid-19. I suspect that more than 50% of those left behind are women, as Covid widows. They are now lonely, insecure and victims of bereavement grief.

The dreadful coronavirus has killed more people from BAME backgrounds. They are poor and face a double burden that is likely to burden their and their children’s lives for years to come. They need financial help and support for their bereavement grief and their unique stories deserve to be heard. It is our moral duty, particularly at this moment when so many women need empowerment and championing. The former UN Secretary-General, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, has said:

“Despite the many difficulties widows face, many make valuable contributions to their countries and communities … we can reduce the suffering that widows endure by raising their status and helping them in their hour of need. This will contribute to promoting the full and equal participation of all women in society.”


Our Government have left no stone unturned to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. They have invested billions of pounds to support the NHS and research for the vaccine to save lives. The Government have also spent billions more to save jobs and the economy, through furlough for millions of people and through grants to numerous businesses. The vaccine rollout is an exemplary achievement, as more than 20 million people have already received their first dose.

I urge the UK Government to set up a Covid-19 widows support group to provide financial support and practical help to overcome their bereavement grief. By setting up such group, the UK Government will be not only setting an example for other countries to follow, but commemorating International Women’s Day in its truest sense.

Schools: Exam-year Pupils

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend outlines one of the implications. We are also expecting a population bulge through secondary schools, which will be another consideration, as well as the fact that any repetition of a year when children in England transition at 16 would have implications for FE, while, at 18, it would have implications for higher education. This is not a simple proposal to consider.

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, we are aware that children suffered greatly last year due to the school closures that were necessary to contain Covid-19. However, it is likely to have increased further the educational divide between children of richer and educated parents, who are likely to have had better-quality home schooling, and children in deprived areas. What steps are the Government taking to help these unfortunate children catch up before the next school year?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have given some £650 million to the national tutoring programme, which is for disadvantaged pupils. Within that, for the cohorts of the most disadvantaged pupils and schools in the most disadvantaged areas, Teach First is leading on academic mentors—that is, a full-time employee for the school. Some 700 of the 1,000 mentors that we are anticipating are now in schools, supporting catch-up provision.

Free School Meals: Food Parcels

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I applaud the example that the noble Lord has given, and I have outlined why it is important that these three options are open to schools. As I have said, schools can re-register this week for the national voucher system and reactivate their accounts, and vouchers will be redeemable and available from Monday. Also, of course, where there is a free school meal entitlement for those who also qualify for the breakfast club, that food should also be provided. This has been stood up as soon as we can. In the last phase of the pandemic we distributed more than £380 million through a national voucher scheme. Noble Lords made it clear that there were downsides to that, because it meant that the business was given only to supermarkets. So it is important that we use the food and do food parcels, local vouchers and national vouchers.

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I commend the Government’s decision to provide lunches to school- children. However, sadly, due to the carelessness of caterers, there has been a great deal of variation in the contents of the food parcels. What steps are the Government taking to tighten this up and be more specific, to stop this happening again? Alternatively, would they consider a voucher scheme again? That would go some way to alleviating this problem, as some schools still prefer to use their own caterers, which also helps save jobs.

[Baroness Berridge (Con) [V]]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for outlining the role that school caterers have at the moment. Some of them obviously want to be involved in the delivery of free school meals to qualifying children who are at home. It is clear that the standard of food that should be provided is based on a statutory requirement. The association of school food and caterers was part of putting that together. The provision of food should obviously be sensitive to dietary requirements and allergies, and to religious and cultural sensitivities, so that the food provided, whether in school or by way of delivery, is appropriate for the children.

Higher Education (Fee Limits and Student Support) (England) (Coronavirus) (Revocation) Regulations 2020

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, it is right that the Government alter course where necessary, especially where original regulations, introduced in haste, are no longer fit for purpose. With universities initially offering more student places to offset an anticipated reduction in numbers due to the pandemic, those regulations sought to control the amount of money that universities would receive in the next academic year from English-domiciled students to ensure fairness. What do the Government propose to do to ensure that this type of situation does not occur in future if we are still in the same position next year or something else causes a similar situation to arise?

This issue needs also to be addressed across the devolved nations. The original legislation permitted the English student loans finance system to curtail the amount of funding available for English-domiciled students proposing to study in the devolved nations if universities there exceeded their student control number quotas. What discussions have been had with the devolved nations to ensure that in future, if English universities offer more places to students from the devolved nations to gain a financial benefit, they will not be prevented from doing so?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

After the next speaker, the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, I shall call the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett.

International Women’s Day

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Loomba (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Berridge and Lady Sugg, for the opportunity to speak today on a very important issue that does not lessen with time: equality for women and girls worldwide. It is an issue that has been at the forefront of Governments’ agendas for decades, yet progress is disappointingly slow. Women do not have equality or parity with their male colleagues, relatives, friends and acquaintances.

One of the key ways to improve gender equality is by ensuring that women and girls have the right skills, education, training and access to capital to allow them to realise their potential, start up businesses, create successful companies and add to the national and global economy. This is the 21st century, yet statistics tell a story of undeniable gaps in pay for women across the globe. There are women who manage to carve out careers and input into the economy, but, on the other hand, women and girls all over the world suffer through discrimination, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, trafficking, prostitution and so on.

Unfortunately, the fate of a woman is even worse as and when she loses her husband. According to UN Women, there are 285 million widows around the world and, sadly, their number is increasing due to poverty, disease and conflict. Many of them are living below the poverty line. They are uneducated and cannot get a job. Therefore, they are dependent on their family members. Without going into too much detail, I can tell noble Lords that they are living a life of modern slavery. I declare an interest as founder and chairman trustee of the Loomba Foundation. My noble friend Lord Bilimoria has been a big supporter of the Loomba Foundation from the beginning and I thank him.

One of the main aims of the Loomba Foundation is to help widows establish economic stability for themselves and their family by providing skills training so that they can support themselves. The training we do, such as supporting women to learn sewing skills so that they can start their own business, empowers them. It allows them, sometimes for the first time, to educate their children and provide for their families without fear of going hungry through reliance on others. The foundation also provides funding for the education of the children of widows, so they can ensure that their family misfortunes will not continue to the next generation by breaking the shackles of poverty.

The United Nations has called for action to mobilise economic justice and rights for all, gender equality and feminist leadership. These can be brought about by ensuring that all women, including widows, have access to education, the right skills training, and capital to allow them to start and grow businesses. Imagine a world with more females at the helm, in business and in government—it is something we should all strive to facilitate.

Widows are most vulnerable, as you just heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross. They are victims of double discrimination as women and widows. The Loomba Foundation brought their plight to the attention of the United Nations. At its 65th General Assembly in 2010, the UN adopted 23 June as the United Nations International Widows Day. It is a day of effective action to raise awareness of the plight of widows around the world. It is a significant day, if I may say so, because on this very day my mother became a widow in India in 1954. 1 was 10 years old and saw first-hand the discrimination and suffering my mother faced. It was not her fault—she did not kill my father—yet she suffered at the hands of the community for the rest of her life until she passed away in 1992.

I would like to ask the Minister whether the Government have any plans to help unfortunate widows and unmarried girls in developing countries, through education and skills training, which the Loomba Foundation considers vital and most important. It would not only make them self-reliant but change the mindset of people around them, letting them live a decent and dignified life.