Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the financial benefits of an institution converting from a sixth form college to a 16–19 academy; and if so, what are those benefits.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2018, 3 sixth form colleges converted into 16-19 academies.
The government set out the benefits for sixth form colleges of becoming academies in the guidance for post-16 area reviews in March 2016, which is attached. Academisation enables colleges to build closer partnerships with schools which build on their strengths. It also allows them to realise educational and financial benefits from sharing resources, expertise and administration.
There are some direct financial benefits, notably the ability to reclaim VAT.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many sixth-form colleges in England were converted into 16–19 academies in 2018.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2018, 3 sixth form colleges converted into 16-19 academies.
The government set out the benefits for sixth form colleges of becoming academies in the guidance for post-16 area reviews in March 2016, which is attached. Academisation enables colleges to build closer partnerships with schools which build on their strengths. It also allows them to realise educational and financial benefits from sharing resources, expertise and administration.
There are some direct financial benefits, notably the ability to reclaim VAT.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current state of sixth form education and the future financial prospects of sixth form colleges.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Sixth form education in England has real strengths, offering a wide range of both academic and technical education for young people. The newly reformed A levels and the T levels that are now being developed are strengthening the 16-19 offer. 89% of sixth form colleges and 79% of state-funded school sixth forms were graded as good or outstanding by Ofsted at their most recent inspection as of 31 March 2019.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year old students up until 2020, and we will be investing an additional £500 million per year in the delivery of T levels, once fully rolled out, and have launched a £38 million capital fund to support the initial roll-out.
However, we do recognise that all types of institutions providing sixth form education face financial challenges, and we will be considering future needs in the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help improve the educational attainment of asylum-seeking unaccompanied minors at (1) Key Stage 4 level, and (2) all other key stages.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are ‘looked-after children’ and local authorities have a duty under the Children Act to promote their education. The government’s statutory guidance ‘Promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked-after children’ attached makes clear that local authorities should have procedures in place to promote and monitor their educational progress. This includes the statutory requirement for local authorities to appoint a Virtual School Head (VSH) to discharge their duty to promote the educational achievement of all looked-after children. The statutory guidance also stresses the importance of providing stability and continuity in education, particularly at Key Stage 4. Looked-after children are one of the groups of pupils that attract Pupil Premium Plus funding. This is additional funding provided to schools to help improve the attainment of looked-after children and close the attainment gap between them and their peers. The VSH monitors how this funding is spent.
The Department for Education has also contributed £1.3 million through the Government’s Controlling Migration Fund over two years, to enable six local authorities to address the education needs of unaccompanied children so that their specific needs can be addressed through their Personal Education Plan. The local authorities are also developing tools and resources to share with all other local authorities through the National Association of Virtual School Headteachers.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what data they monitor and assess on students studying English as an additional language.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department monitors and publishes various sets of data relating to pupils in state-funded primary and secondary schools in England who are classed as having English as an additional language (EAL). The most recent statistics on the number of EAL pupils, as identified through the January 2018 school census, are included in the “Schools, pupils and their characteristics” statistical publication, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018.
Published statistics also show the academic performance of pupils whose first language is other than English in national assessments during year 1 and at the end of key stage 1, which are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/phonics-screening-check-and-key-stage-1-assessments-england-2018.
Published statistics collected at the end of key stage 2 are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-curriculum-assessments-key-stage-2-2017-revised.
Published statistics collected at the end of key stage 4 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017.
In addition, data on pupil entries to qualifications in English for speakers of other languages are included in the key stage 4 qualification data that can be downloaded from the school performance tables webpages here: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data.
The department also publishes data on the number of adults who are accessing English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses, based on Individualised Learner Record data supplied by further education providers and can be found in table 6 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-november-2017.
The data sets and analysis found at the above links contain many tables and documents that we are, therefore, unable to attach.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote character education in schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
World-class education is not only about having the highest standards in academic and technical education, it also means ensuring that education builds character. The government wants children and young people to believe that they can achieve; to have the tenacity to persevere with a task; to be able to recover from adversity; and to link their efforts with uncertain or distant rewards. Developing these character traits means children and young people are more likely to have positive education and labour market outcomes. The department supports young people to participate in a range of activities that can help develop character, such as the National Citizen Service, the Cadet Expansion Programme, and competitive sport.
Almost 500,000 young people have taken part in the National Citizen Service since it was launched in 2011 and we want all young people to have the opportunity to take part in this life changing programme. The Cadet Expansion Programme was launched in June 2012 with the aim to deliver 100 new Cadet units in English state‐funded schools by September 2015. This target was achieved ahead of schedule, with 100 approvals by March 2015, and led to a commitment to grow the total number of cadet units parading in schools to a total of 500 units across the UK by April 2020. We are on track to meet this target and there are currently 471 approved units.
Additionally, we are investing £22 million in an Essential Life Skills programme in the 12 Opportunity Areas to enable disadvantaged children and young people living in some of the most deprived parts of the country to participate in regular extra-curricular activities and develop their character and to further drive social mobility.
Ofsted is currently developing proposals for new education inspection arrangements, and plans to consult on these in January 2019. This will include a proposal for a graded judgement on pupils’ personal development. The department is engaging with Ofsted as it develops its proposals, including in relation to coverage of pupil character.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Careers Strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, published on 4 December 2017.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Working closely with the Careers & Enterprise Company and the National Careers Service, we are making good progress in delivering the commitments in the careers strategy.
We have created 20 new Careers Hubs, each with a Hub Lead and central hub fund, the majority of which are coordinated by the Local Enterprise Partnership or Combined Authority. We recently announced that we will create a further 20 Careers Hubs, bringing the total to 40. We have also brought in a requirement for all maintained schools to publish information about their careers programme on their website, including the name and contact details of the Careers Leader. Additionally, we have selected 14 high quality training providers to deliver Careers Leaders training. We have offered the first 500 training bursaries to fund Careers Leaders to attend this training and we recently announced new investment to increase our offer to approximately 1400 training bursaries for schools and colleges.
We have also launched a £2.5 million investment fund to invest in personal guidance for young people and Continuing Professional Development for careers guidance professionals. We have procured a new National Careers Service, which will provide high quality bespoke support for those who need it most, including people with low qualification levels and those with learning difficulties and special educational needs and disabilities.
The Careers & Enterprise Company recently published their ‘State of the Nation’ report which measures school and college careers programmes in relation to the eight Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. This evaluation mentioned that Compass is a free online tool for schools and colleges in England to self-assess against the Gatsby Benchmarks. For the 946 schools that have completed Compass more than once, the average number of benchmarks achieved has increased from 1.9 to 2.9. Approximately 600 schools matched with an Enterprise Adviser and completed Compass in both the period of 2016 to 2017 and the period of 2017 to 2018. For these schools, performance against Benchmark 5 (employer encounters) has increased from approximately 40% to approximately 55%.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the Careers Strategy pilot scheme for routes into careers for vulnerable groups.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
To target more support on those who need it most, the government has invested £5 million during 2018 in a new round of the Careers & Enterprise Company’s funding. This will help disadvantaged pupils to receive the additional support that they need to prepare for work, including opportunities for mentoring and personal guidance from a qualified careers professional. We have also established 20 Careers Hubs focused on groups of young people and areas most in need of targeted support and we have announced a further 20 Careers Hubs for 2019.
The government is also providing funding of £1.7 million to test new approaches and produce resources to improve careers information, advice and guidance for individuals who are disadvantaged or vulnerable. We want to broaden aspirations and raise awareness of pathways into training and work for young people with special educational needs and disabilities; looked after children and care leavers; and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Organisations have been recruited and work with these groups will start in January 2019.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of those undertaking apprenticeships are from isolated communities, as defined in the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper, published on 14 March.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
A definition for ‘isolated communities’ is not available in the Communities Strategy green paper, and as such a percentage of apprenticeship starts for this cohort cannot be provided. However, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has set an action which builds on the proposal set out in March’s green paper to “use targeted local communications and community ambassadors, including employers, to ensure minority ethnic groups are applying, getting and completing apprenticeships, and that local employers are recruiting apprentices.” The government will respond to the consultation on the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper later this year.
The department does publish apprenticeship data on under-represented groups, and we have provided apprenticeship starts by a breakdown of detailed ethnicity to provide an alternative categorisation of cohorts which may fall under the ‘isolated communities’ definition. The table below provides apprenticeship starts broken down by detailed ethnicity from August 2017 to April 2018 as first reported for the 2017/18 academic year:
Detailed Ethnicity | Starts | Percentage of total |
African | 4,530 | 1.6% |
Any other Asian Background | 2,830 | 1.0% |
Any other Black/African/Caribbean Background | 1,760 | 0.6% |
Any other ethnic group | 2,000 | 0.7% |
Any other Mixed / multiple ethnic background | 2,020 | 0.7% |
Any Other White Background | 12,850 | 4.4% |
Arab | 320 | * |
Bangladeshi | 1,930 | 0.7% |
Caribbean | 2,760 | 1.0% |
Chinese | 440 | * |
English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British | 239,480 | 82.4% |
Gypsy or Irish Traveller | 130 | * |
Indian | 4,000 | 1.4% |
Irish | 1,090 | * |
Not Provided | 5,070 | 1.7% |
Pakistani | 4,080 | 1.4% |
White and Asian | 1,430 | 0.5% |
White and Black African | 900 | * |
White and Black Caribbean | 2,870 | 1.0% |
Totals | 290,470 | 100.0% |
1) Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten, whilst ‘*’ indicates a percentage of less that 0.5.
2) The data source is the Individualised Learner Record (ILR).
These figures are published and are available in the further education data library: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fe-data-library.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 4 January (HL4280), what meetings they have had about the development of the assurace and compliance process for the future delivery of chaplaincies in prisons; and which faith leaders have been involved in any such discussions.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The future of the Assurance and Compliance process for Chaplaincy will be discussed with those Faith Advisers who sit on Chaplaincy Council at the joint meeting with the Chaplaincy HQ Team on the 12th June 2018. This will be followed by an invitation for those Faith Advisers not present at the meeting to comment by post or email.
We recognise the importance of faith and the positive impact that it can have on the lives of offenders, which is why there are multi-faith chaplaincy teams in every prison.