Became Member: 26th June 2001
Left House: 24th May 2019 (Retired)
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Lord Ouseley has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Ouseley has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent body, and its report “Is Britain Fairer?” covers a five-year period spanning the Labour and Coalition governments. We welcome the positive areas of progress and note the key challenges to which it refers. The information in the report will be used by the EHRC to help develop its next strategic plan, covering the period 2016-19.
Giving young people the skills that businesses need is important. That is why our work to ensure 3 million apprenticeship starts in England over this Parliament is crucial.
According to London Economics, the lifetime benefits associated with the acquisition of Apprenticeships at Level 2 and 3 are very significant, standing at between £48,000 and £74,000 for Level 2 and between £77,000 and £117,000 for Level 3 Apprenticeships.
The latest data shows that 89% of apprentices are satisfied with their apprenticeship; 85% of apprentices said their ability to do the job had improved, and 83% of apprentices said their career prospects had improved.
HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and responds to every complaint it receives. It also conducts programmes of targeted enforcement in sectors of the economy which have a high risk of non-compliance with the NMW. The Government increased HMRC’s budget for enforcing the NMW by £4m for 2015/16 to £13.2m.
The Government announced in September an increase in HMRC’s enforcement funding for 2016/17, following the introduction of the National Living Wage in April 2016. The Government also announced a package of measures to strengthen NMW enforcement: increasing penalties from 100% to 200% of the arrears that employers owe; the setting up of a dedicated team in HMRC focused on tackling the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance; and the creation of a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation.
BIS constantly review occupancy costs through effective data management utilising best in class market advisors to provide current market rental evidence. London particularly has seen an increase in office rental values driven in part by the demand for alternative residential use. BIS have adopted strategies to mitigate the costs resulting in a cost per person and space utilisation being lower in London than regions.
A BIS 2020 Estate strategy is currently being developed to maximise the efficient use of office space across the office portfolio. The new estates strategy will drive significant reductions in floor space and coupled with greater emphasis on online working will deliver substantial savings over the spending review period.
The qualifying period for unfair dismissal was increased to two years in 2012. From initial analysis we cannot see any clear signs that this has had a negative impact on employment. ONS Labour Market Statistics show a decreasing trend in unemployment figures and according to the CBI/Accenture employment trends survey 2014, half of employers (50%) expect their workforce to be larger in 12 months’ time.
The Ministry of Justice has initiated a review of the impact of employment tribunal fees. We will consider the outcome of this review in due course.
The Government is committed to driving up standards at all levels of education to help improve employability and the OECD’s report underlines the need for our rigorous new curriculum that focuses on the basics, so that children from a young age have a strong foundation on which to build. We would want higher education institutions to continue to play their part in helping to address the weak basic skills exhibited by a small proportion of graduates. However, surveys of employers currently show very high levels of satisfaction with the skills of UK graduates.
Contracts are never awarded lightly; each has an agreed and robust process. Government has always been compliant with public procurement regulations and follows these diligently when assessing the suitability of suppliers to deliver a particular contract
The various contracting authorities, such as individual Government Departments, manage their contracts with Interserve and monitor performance against each contract. I am unable to comment on specifics as this information remains commercially sensitive
The Cabinet Office also monitors the overall financial health and performance of all of our strategic suppliers, including Interserve, and has regular discussions with the company’s management.
Outsourcing is an important component in a “mixed economy” of government service provision which includes in-house and the voluntary sector. Research commissioned by the previous government has shown that outsourcing can deliver savings of some twenty to thirty percent.
Decisions on whether to outsource any particular service are made on a case by case basis according to Treasury guidance and the newly published Outsourcing Playbook. This guidance aims to ensure government makes well evidenced assessments when deciding whether to outsource a public service and helps government and industry work better together to deliver high quality public services.
The Government has made a commitment to explain or change key ethnic disparities highlighted by the Race Disparity Audit in the Ethnicity facts and figures website.
The Government has launched an initial programme of work to tackle some of the disparities highlighted, including targeted action in employment areas, a review of school exclusions and a commitment to take forward a number of recommendations in the recent Lammy Review of the criminal justice system.
Detailed analytical work and engagement with external partners is underway across Departments to bring forward further data driven policies to tackle disparities highlighted by the Audit and will be announced in due course.
The Race Disparity Unit in the Cabinet Office is responsible for coordinating and monitoring the progress of the Government’s response to the Audit overseen by the Cabinet Office and the Race Disparity Inter-Ministerial Group.
I refer the noble Lord to the Prime Minister's written Ministerial statement of 29 June 2017.
I am aware of the letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which addresses important issues. As the Prime Minister has made clear, hate crime of any kind, directed against any community, race or religion has absolutely no place in British society.
As the Equality and Human Rights Commission recognises, it is for political parties to monitor the content of their campaigns and challenge that of others, as part of free political debate.
The wellbeing of the young people previously supported by Kids Company continues to be our top priority. Since the closure, Local Authorities have been reviewing the cases handed to them by Kids Company to determine the support services the young people require. Funding is being made available to local authorities to support the transition of Kids Company young people to other services.
We’ve been talking to hundreds of businesses, and other bodies including the CBI, since we announced the apprenticeship levy in last summer’s budget and these conversations have played a major part in shaping how the apprenticeship levy will work.
Businesses across the country can only grow and compete on the world stage if they have the right people with the right skills. Alongside employer led apprenticeship standards and the new Institute for Apprenticeships, the levy will boost the quality and quantity of apprenticeships - something employers agree is needed for a productive UK workforce.
We know businesses want to understand how the levy will work for them, that’s why we published a detailed guide last month that is already being used by tens of thousands of employers.
The Government is undertaking a range of activities to support skills in the infrastructure and home building sectors. These include the reform of the apprenticeship system, the new apprenticeship levy, and the National Colleges Programme - which includes the National College for High Speed Rail. From April 2015 all government procurers of construction and infrastructure projects over £10 million are to include measures in pre-qualification and contract delivery to encourage skills development.
The Construction Leadership Council and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have separately undertaken work to encourage more people into the construction sector, including the launch of the GO-Construct website and work with the National Careers Service and Construction Ambassadors for schools. The CITB has also been working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Armed Forces resettlement service and Local Enterprise Partnerships to encourage experienced individuals into the sector. In total, £42 million was invested by CITB, supporting 18,500 construction apprentices in 2015.
In addition, the Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy, produced under the oversight of Terry Morgan, Chair of Crossrail, will set out further actions to be taken specifically to ensure the supply of skills to deliver transport infrastructure.
Assessments of demand for construction skills include the National Infrastructure Plan for Skills, which estimates that 250,000 construction and 150,000 engineering construction workers will be required to meet demand in the infrastructure sector by 2020. The CITB estimate that 224,000 new construction jobs are set to be created in the UK over the next five years.
Government recognises that the causes of youth crime are complex and are often tied to local factors. Local authorities allocate funding and deliver youth services in line with local need. The Government has made over £200bn available to local authorities to spend on local services over this Spending Review.
The Government is committed to making sure young people have opportunities to develop their skills and benefit from youth services, which are an important partner in the strategy to tackle the root causes of serious violence.
My department will continue to work closely with the Home Office on the implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy.
The decision to fund local youth services lies with Local Authorities, not with central government. NCS is a universal offer funded by central government, that is accessible to all young people and is designed to support, and not cut across other services. It is delivered via a network of over 100 local delivery partners, many of which are local youth organisations. As such, we have made no specific assessment of the impact of the creation of NCS on the funding available for youth services.
NCS is a programme that successfully reaches young people from all backgrounds. We have made no specific assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of NCS in meeting the needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities, but we do know that participants from vulnerable and minority groups are overrepresented on the programme. In 2018, 16% of participants were eligible for Free School Meals, 31% were from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and 5% had Special Educational Needs* compared to 12%, 25% and 2% of the comparative population respectively.
Work is ongoing to reach the most marginalised young people. The NCS Trust has established strong links with Local Authorities to support the hardest to reach young people in accessing the programme; provide specialist support during the programme; and help young people access opportunities after NCS. The NCS Trust has also introduced a central inclusion fund, so that its network partners can apply for funding to support young people with additional needs to access the NCS programme.
* The final 2018 participation figures are still subject to ongoing compliance checks.
The Government's forthcoming Online Harms White Paper will set out plans for legislative measures to ensure platforms take adequate steps to protect their users, particularly children, from online harms.
To date, around 485,000 young people have taken part in NCS, and during the time period in which they were eligible to participate in NCS, 16% of the cohort who enter Year 13 this September will have done NCS, or 1 in 6 of the eligible population.
Consecutive, independent evaluations have demonstrated the positive impacts that NCS delivers both to its participants and their communities. Government money spent on NCS supports not only the programme but also the organisations it partners with which include over 100 local councils, schools and sports clubs, of which 50 are charities and social enterprises primarily from the youth sector.
Local authorities are primarily responsible for allocating public funding to youth services in their area. We believe they are best placed to know what their communities require.
However, Government recognises the transformational impact open access youth work can have especially for young people facing multiple barriers of disadvantage, that is why we have invested £40m in The Youth Investment Fund to boost open access youth services in 6 disadvantaged areas and expect over 300,000 young people to benefit. This is one of a number of Government programmes designed to enable young people to develop skills and participate in their communities.
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Non-executive members of the Channel 4 Corporation board are appointed by Ofcom with the approval of the Secretary of State. The selection panel are responsible for interviewing candidates and identifying those who are appointable. Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience and the Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they best met the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.
Non-executive members of the Channel 4 Corporation board are appointed by Ofcom with the approval of the Secretary of State. Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience. The Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they met the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.
Non-executive members of the Channel 4 Corporation board are appointed by Ofcom with the approval of the Secretary of State. Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience. The Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they met the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.
From 1st April 2016 to 31st December 2016, there were 131 new starters in the department. Of these:
On 1st February 2017, the proportion of people actively declaring as each of the following protected characteristics was:
a) Female: 51%
b) BAME: 13%
c) Disabled: 5%
The figures above include permanent and fixed term employees as well as loans/secondments in to the department and employees on paid maternity leave.
* It should be noted that among the 131 new starters there is an ethnicity declaration rate of 47%. That is, of the 61 DCMS starters who have actively declared their ethnicity, 13 were from a BAME background.
Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience. The Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they met the skills and experience set out the advertised job descriptions. The government is committed to ensuring diversity within public appointments. The Cabinet Office aspiration is for 50% of new appointments made by each Government Department to go to female candidates, and 10% to candidates from a BAME background. This target is also contained within the DCMS Departmental Plan, and, in the first three quarters of 2016/17, 56% of new DCMS appointments went to women and 16% to BAME candidates.
The Cabinet Office Centre for Public Appointments, which works across Whitehall, as well as with the private sector and different stakeholder groups, has modernised recruitment practices and attracted a more diverse field of candidates from an ever-wider range of social and professional backgrounds by:
· Placing an emphasis on ability, rather than prior experience, ensuring key roles in public bodies are open to those with skills required
· Increasing awareness of public appointments through a central online advertising website, events and social media
· Simplifying the application process to just require a CV and cover letter
· Assessing every job advert to ensure they are fit for purpose and are open to a wider number of applicants to ensure a diverse pool of candidates.
In 2013 the Government published its strategy for Increasing Diversity in Public Appointments. The Cabinet Office will be publishing an update to this strategy later this year.
The government is committed to ensuring diversity within public appointments. The Cabinet Office aspiration is for 50% of new appointments made by each Government Department to go to female candidates, and 10% to candidates from a BAME background. This target is also contained within the DCMS Departmental Plan, and, in the first three quarters of 2016/17, 56% of new DCMS appointments went to women and 16% to BAME candidates.
Non-executive members of the Channel 4 Corporation board are appointed by Ofcom with the approval of the Secretary of State. Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience. The Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they met the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.
In 2014, 57,789 young people took part in NCS throughout England. The number of young people who took part in the programme in 2015 will be released as part of the independent evaluation of the 2015 programme in due course.
Information on annual NCS expenditure can be found in the published NCS Trust accounts, which are available online through Companies House.
All recruitment is the responsibility of the NCS Trust, the independent organisation which delivers NCS. Recruitment is carried out through the NCS supply chain which includes more than 200 delivery organisations. NCS recruitment primarily takes place in schools, but young people can also sign up through the NCS website.
A range of other local channels support NCS recruitment, including partnerships with local authorities, youth groups, community and voluntary organisations, as well as NCS graduates.
NCS was created to help build a more responsible, more cohesive, more engaged society. The government is committed to providing a place on NCS for every young person who wants one.
Social mix is at the core of National Citizen Service and all young people, regardless of background, are supported to take part in the programme.
In 2014, 17% of NCS participants were eligible for free school meals, compared with around 8% of young people of the same age in the general population.
The national picture of NCS shows that young people from disadvantaged and minority ethnic backgrounds are well represented. The latest evaluation showed that 30% of NCS participants were from Black, Mixed or Asian backgrounds compared with 19% of the general population.
The 2014 evaluation demonstrates that NCS graduates are more confident leaders and decision-makers. 7 in 10 NCS graduates felt more confident about getting a job, and more than 9 in 10 graduates felt NCS helped them develop useful skills for the future. Data from the summer 2014 programme showed that participants who were eligible for free school meals generally showed larger increases in personal resilience than others.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to decide how to allocate funding for youth services and as part of this, youth service staff posts, according to local need. There is an existing statutory duty on local authorities through Education Act 2006 (Section 507B) to secure, as far as is practicable, sufficient services and activities to improve the wellbeing of young people. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on any changes there have been to the number of youth service staff posts in their local area.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to decide how to allocate funding for youth services, according to local need. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on any changes there have been to the number of youth centres in their local area.
Participation in sport by children in schools is a key part of the sporting legacy from the 2012 Games. Since the 2013/14 academic year, a ring-fenced primary school sports fund of over £150m per year has been in place. This fund, the PE and School Sport Premium, is paid direct to every primary school headteacher in England and is ring-fenced. Government has committed to funding the PE and Primary School Sport premium throughout this Parliament. Two independent reports, by Ofsted and research company NatCen, have found that the premium is being used effectively.
Another element of the sporting legacy from London 2012 is the School Games. The School Games were established in 2011 and consist of competition over four levels (intra-school, inter-school, county and national finals) for schoolchildren aged 5 to under-19. They were designed to build on the 2012 Games and enable every child to participate in competitive sport, including disabled children. 19,000 schools have signed up to the School Games and over 7,000,000 young people have taken part in the Games since their inception. School Games alumni are making their presence felt in elite sporting competition: 150 competitors in last year's Glasgow Commonwealth Games had previously competed at the School Games.
Other elements of the sporting legacy include:
· 1.4 million more people playing sport once a week than when we won the bid in 2005
· more than £1bn over 5 years invested in youth and community sport
· a 13% increase in funding for elite sport for the four years leading to Rio 2016 (a 7% increase for Olympic athletes and a 45% increase for Paralympians)
· more than 12,000 visits to schools and communities by 1,477 GB Olympic and Paralymipc athletes since London 2012.
The sporting legacy benefits from London 2012 are being felt across England.
Information on playing fields that have been disposed of for other uses since 2005 is not available. Sport England does, however, monitor the number of planning applications concerning playing fields in its role as statutory consultee and objects where it believes local sports provision may be diminished.
Since 2004/2005, 10,901 concluded planning applications out of 11,422 have resulted in improved or safeguarded sports provision (95%).
Sport England has data on sports and leisure facility provision from 2010 onwards. Since 2010, there has been a net increase of 3,130 sport and leisure facilities in England.
Government remains committed to supporting young people’s participation in sport and to ensuring that they can access sporting opportunities, regardless of their background. Sport England research shows that the most frequently stated reasons for young people doing more or less sport is not necessarily cost, but actually whether the ‘offer’ is right, injury/illness and also time-related pressures. Government is committed to ensuring that barriers to participation are broken down. Between 2012 and 2017 Sport England is investing almost £450 million to get more young people playing sport, with a focus on making sure that sport is delivered at the right place, at the right time and in the right style.
Government is committed to helping people to get more active through sport, leisure and recreation. Over £1 billion is being invested in youth and community sport through Sport England over the five years to 2017 to help more people develop a sporting habit for life. There are now 1.4 million more people playing sport once a week than when we won the bid for the 2012 Games back in 2005.
In schools the Government is supporting the School Games to encourage competitive sport in and between schools. 19,000 schools have signed up to the School Games and over seven million young people have taken part in the Games since their inception in 2011/12. In addition the government has provided over £150m per year of ring-fenced funding to support PE and sport in primary schools, with funding going direct to every primary headteacher in England. Government has pledged to maintain this funding throughout the 2015-2020 Parliament.
Government and the Mayor of London launched "Moving More, Living More" in February 2014, setting out its intention to tackle physical inactivity as a part of the legacy from London 2012, including though sport and recreation. Public Health England's 'Everybody Active Every Day' report, providing guidance to local authorities and others on how to promote physical activity, was published last October.
The Government will be consulting on a new sports strategy over the summer and will publish the new approach later this year.
The Government acknowledges and welcomes the important role of FIFA's sponsors in pushing for reform of FIFA. To date, the Government has not had any discussions with FIFA sponsors about the management of FIFA. FIFA's sponsors will be aware of Government's views that urgent reform of FIFA is needed, however it remains a decision for them as to how they now choose to work with FIFA following Sepp Blatter’s resignation.
Social mobility is a top priority, and the department is taking action to remove barriers to opportunity at every stage of the education system. The department has set out a 10 year ambition to boost children’s early reading and communication skills. We have invested more than £15 billion in the pupil premium to support the most disadvantaged pupils and we are reforming technical education. The evidence shows we are closing the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and others, as measured by the disadvantage gap index, by around 13 % at key stage 2 and 9.5 % at key stage 4 since 2011. As well as increasing the proportion of disadvantaged 18 year olds entering full-time higher education from 13.3% in 2009 to 20.2% in 2018.
The department has invested over £137 million in the Education Endowment Foundation to help schools use the pupil premium in ways that are proven to have a positive impact.
We are committed to tackling the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and we are making good progress. Nationally, there are now over a million fewer workless households, and around 665,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010.
Following positive feedback on the proposal made in the 2017 primary assessment consultation, we committed to introducing the reception baseline assessment (RBA) at the beginning of the reception year to form the baseline for primary school progress measures. The consultation received 4,165 responses including representations from headteachers, teachers, teaching unions and sector experts. A majority of responses demonstrated clear support for moving the baseline assessment to reception. It is important to note the RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception. The full consultation response is attached and can also be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644871/Primary_assessment_consultation_response.pdf.
The reception baseline assessment (RBA) will enable us to create school-level progress measures for primary schools which show the progress pupils make from reception until the end of key stage 2. Progress is an important measure - it will give schools credit for the important work they do with their pupils between reception and year 2 and will give parents better information about which schools may help their children to make the most progress. The RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception.
We have worked closely with early years practitioners, schools and other education experts to develop the RBA, and continue to do so. All aspects of the assessment’s development have been informed by an extensive evidence base of early years research.
The law is clear that a pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.
State-funded schools can exclude pupils, either permanently or for a fixed period, for disciplinary reasons, and the department supports schools in using exclusion where this is warranted. Exclusion on any grounds other than discipline is unlawful. Where a pupil is asked to leave the school, the formal exclusions process set out in the school exclusion guidance must be followed. Schools may not exclude pupils because of their academic attainment or ability.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, and for other pupils who – because of illness or other reasons – would not receive suitable education without such provision. Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), like all schools and colleges, have a legal duty to safeguard children. Ofsted inspects PRUs under the same inspection framework as mainstream state-funded schools.
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) figures show that school funding was protected in real terms per pupil between 2010-11 and 2015-16, and protected in real terms overall between 2015-16 and 2017-18. The department is committed to protecting funding in real terms per pupil across 2018-19 and 2019-20, with core funding for schools and high needs rising from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £43.5 billion in 2019-20. The IFS figures also show that real terms per pupil funding for 5 to 16 year olds in 2020 will be more than 50% higher than it was in 2000 and more than 70% higher than in 1990.
The department have also introduced the national funding formula to distribute this funding more fairly. Since 2017, the national funding formula has given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school, while allocating the biggest increases to the schools that have been the most underfunded.
Primary school children achieved their highest ever score in the most recent international reading tests in 2016. As at August 2018, 86% of schools have been rated good or outstanding, compared to 68% in 2010.
Despite prioritising spending on schools and making the distribution of that funding fairer across the country, the department recognises that budgets remain tight. That is why the department is supporting schools and head teachers to make the most of their budgets and reduce costs on expenditures like energy, water bills and materials.
Evidence from the department’s Study of Early Education and Development and the Study of Effective Primary, Pre-school and Secondary Education is clear that good-quality early education at the age of two has a variety of very positive benefits for children. Both studies are attached.
All children have access to 15 hours early years education from the term after their third birthday. In addition the most disadvantaged children already have access to 15 hours a week free early education from the age of 2.
A public consultation was held by the Department for Education from 14 March to 2 June 2018 on proposed guidance on the independent school standards, including those relating to the promotion of respect for other people. Responses to the consultation are still being considered.
The finalised version of the guidance will be published soon. The draft guidance issued with the consultation included advice that schools’ anti-bullying policies should refer to prejudice-based bullying.
Our reforms over the last 8 years show that autonomy and freedom in the hands of excellent leaders and outstanding teachers can deliver a world-class education. Academy status leads to a more dynamic and responsive education system by allowing schools to make decisions based on local need and the interests of their pupils. It allows high performing schools to consolidate success and share their good practice across their local area. This includes over 550,000 children studying in sponsored primary and secondary academies that are now rated good or outstanding, which typically replaced underperforming schools and that is, in part, down to our reforms.
There is no single performance measure that adequately captures the scale, breadth and challenge within the roles of academy chain heads. Many of the highest paid trust chief executives work in some of the most challenging areas of the country and cover a number of schools, and have been able to achieve significant improvements for the children in their trust.
We are clear that high pay in academy trusts must be justified with evidence of robust processes for setting salaries and reductions where appropriate. That is why we have already challenged 213 trusts paying either one person more than £150,000 or 2 or more people more than £100,000. Since this work began, 45 trusts have reduced salaries in their latest accounts return and this month I have written to 28 of the 213 trusts challenged in the previous round of high pay activity to further challenge where salaries have not been reduced. We remain fully committed to continuing and developing this challenge process.