Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidelines the Department for Education (1) has, and (2) follows, for the time taken in responding to communications from members of the House of Lords.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, ministers within the department aim to respond to hon. and right hon. Members of the House of Lords within 18 working days to a piece of written correspondence, written parliamentary questions within 14 days of receipt, and commitments in the House to write to hon. and right hon. Members within 10 working days or as soon as possible.
As you will understand, the department has been dealing with unprecedented volumes of correspondence due to the impact of COVID-19. The department ensures that urgent cases raised by hon. and right hon. Members are prioritised wherever possible and is taking steps to provide substantive responses in as short a time as possible.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), what percentage of contracts for the training of apprentices, by number and by value, has been awarded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to organisations which subcontract such training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is in the process of collating subcontractor data from providers awarded apprenticeship contracts. The ESFA will publish in due course an updated list of subcontractors on the GOV.UK website that are contracted to deliver over £100,000 of adult education and training per year by the providers it funds.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), who were the recipients of Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts for the training of apprentices; what was the value of each such contract; and which awardees subcontract such training, either wholly or partially.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) does not currently monitor or collect information on the size of employers supported by contracts awarded for apprenticeship training by these contracts.
The ESFA is currently reviewing the scope of information collected, with a view to including information about employers supported by contracts in future data collection.
The ESFA currently contracts with 713 training providers for an overall value of £562 million. Further details of these training providers is attached. These contracts run from January 2018 to March 2019, and support apprenticeship delivery for 16 to 18 year olds and adult learners.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), why they do not monitor or collect information on the size of employers supported by contracts awarded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for apprentice training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) does not currently monitor or collect information on the size of employers supported by contracts awarded for apprenticeship training by these contracts.
The ESFA is currently reviewing the scope of information collected, with a view to including information about employers supported by contracts in future data collection.
The ESFA currently contracts with 713 training providers for an overall value of £562 million. Further details of these training providers is attached. These contracts run from January 2018 to March 2019, and support apprenticeship delivery for 16 to 18 year olds and adult learners.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), why they do not collect information on what percentage of the value of Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts for the training of apprentices is retained by awardee organisations which subcontract such training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) does not hold information to indicate the percentage of funding retained by a provider when subcontracting these particular contracts. Instead, awardee organisations are required through the ESFA’s funding rules to have an up-to-date written agreement in place with each employer that sets out the apprenticeship training that the provider will directly deliver and the amount of funding the provider will retain for this delivery. In addition, the agreement must outline the apprenticeship training that each subcontractor will contribute to the employer’s apprenticeship programme and the amount of funding the provider will pay to the subcontractor for this delivery.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), what mechanisms they use or intend to use to ensure that subcontractors to awardees of Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts for the training of apprentices are capable of delivering training of the appropriate quality and do deliver such training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We understand this question to refer to non-levy apprenticeship procured contracts. Under these contracts delivery started from 1 January 2018.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) requires all providers that subcontract to comply with its apprenticeship funding rules (attached). These rules include that providers must carry out due diligence checks on potential subcontractors. In addition, they must not use the delivery subcontractor that they assess is unsuitable, or whose quality of delivery is demonstrably inadequate.
Providers must manage and monitor all of their subcontractors to make sure that high quality delivery is taking place which meets the funding rules. This includes carrying out a regular and substantial programme of quality-assurance checks on the apprenticeship training and on-programme assessment provided by subcontractors.
The ESFA also requires all subcontractors with aggregate apprenticeship delivery of over £100,000 per year to successfully apply to its register of apprenticeship training providers.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), how they assess the suitability for Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts for the training of apprentices of organisations which subcontract all or part of such training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The procurement of contracts for the delivery of non-levy apprenticeship training was conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Contracts were awarded on the basis of an Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) assessment of information supplied by providers against a defined set of criteria set out in the invitation to tender.
The ESFA, through its funding rules, requires awarded organisations to directly deliver some of the apprenticeship training associated with the apprenticeship programme of each employer they are working with. The volume of training that the awarded organisation delivers must have some substance and not be a token amount.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many contracts for the training of apprentices for small and medium-sized employers who do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy have been awarded by the Education and Skills Agency to date; what is the total value of those contracts; how many of the awardees do not have the facilities to provide such training and sub-contract; and what percentage of those contracts’ value is typically retained by an awardee who subcontracts training.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) currently contracts with 713 training providers for an overall value of £562 million. These contracts run from January 2018 to March 2019 and support apprenticeship delivery for 16-18 and adult learners. The ESFA does not monitor or collect information on the size of the employers supported by these contracts.
The ESFA require apprenticeship training providers to declare details of their subcontracting relationships. The first subcontractor declaration for these particular contracts is in progress and will close on 25 July 2018. A summary of providers’ subcontracting relationships will be published by the ESFA on GOV.UK in August 2018 in a document named ‘List of declared subcontractors’. The ESFA does not hold information to indicate the percentage of funding retained by a provider when subcontracting these particular contracts.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for the poor performance of Isle of Wight secondary schools, and in particular the level of fixed-term exclusions, as reported in the latest Ofsted Annual Report; and what measures are being taken to increase the rate of improvement in those schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
Secondary schools on the Isle of Wight face a range of complex and longstanding challenges similar to those faced by schools in other coastal areas. For example, they face difficulties in recruiting high quality teachers, particularly at senior levels. Inadequate school improvement support provided by the local authority in the past compounded further the difficulties faced by schools on the island.
The Department for Education’s latest data (2013/14) shows that the main specific reasons for fixed term exclusions in secondary schools on the Isle of Wight are: persistent disruptive behaviour; verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against an adult; and physical assault against a pupil.
This government has acted decisively to improve educational performance on the island. In July 2013 the Department for Education directed the Isle of Wight Council to enter into a five year strategic partnership with Hampshire County Council which has a sound track record of educational performance. Under this arrangement the proportion of pupils achieving five A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics has increased at two maintained secondary schools since 2014.
To help bring talented new teachers onto the island, Teach First has commenced a pilot in three secondary schools on the Isle of Wight which they intend to expand next year.
The Regional Schools Commissioner for the South East and South London is working to support and challenge the island’s academies and academy sponsors, particularly the Academies Enterprise Trust, to ensure improvements in their performance continue, and that recent changes in school leadership lead to sustained progress.
Fixed-term exclusions in Isle of Wight secondary schools have fallen faster than the national average, from 1,136 (14.1% of the school population) in 2012/13 to 898 (11.8%of the school population) in 2013/14.
Asked by: Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms are in place to ensure that there is no delay in the provision of funding for a pupil who moves school after the start of a new academic year.
Answered by Lord Nash
There is a delay in funding as schools are generally funded for the number of pupils they had based on the previous year’s school census. This provides schools with greater stability and predictability in planning their budgets. However, we are aware of the difficulties that some schools experiencing an influx of pupils after the start of an academic year can face. This is why local authorities can use a mobility factor in their local funding formula to give additional funding to schools that have a large number of pupils entering at non-standard entry times. We have also given local authorities the option of setting up a growth fund, which can support schools taking on more pupils because of the need for extra places in the area.