Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what outcomes they expect amending the provision of teachers’ pay and conditions warning notices to produce.
Answered by Lord Nash
We are making amendments to teachers’ pay and conditions warning notices in the Education and Adoption Bill to be consistent with the changes we are making to performance standards and safety warning notices. We will allow local authorities to set an appropriate timescale for a school to take effective remedial action, rather than, as now, being bound by the existing requirement of 15 working days. We will also remove the school’s right to make representations to the local authority against a notice. This will ensure that the school begins to take steps immediately to remedy the matters in the notice. We will also require a local authority to inform the Secretary of State that they have given a notice to a school. This will ensure that where a regional schools commissioner intends to intervene in an underperforming school they are aware of any action the local authority is taking in that school.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to give the Secretary of State the power to delegate decisions on academy orders to regional schools commissioners; and if so, whether this will be done by secondary legislation.
Answered by Lord Nash
It is not necessary to give the Secretary of State any power to delegate decisions on academy orders to Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs). RSCs already exercise the powers and duties of the Secretary of State. This will continue when, subject to the will of Parliament, the powers and duties in the Education and Adoption Bill take effect. For instance, RSCs will exercise the duty to make an Academy order in respect of any maintained school judged to be Inadequate by Ofsted.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether in all circumstances warning notices will be issued to schools prior to an academy order being issued; and what is the estimated cost for a single school academy conversion.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Education and Adoption Bill proposes that swift action will be taken when a school is judged inadequate by Ofsted. Under the Bill an academy order would be made without first issuing a warning notice.
Where a school meets the new Education and Adoption Bill definition of coasting, it will automatically become eligible for intervention without the need for a warning notice. Becoming eligible for intervention in this way will not necessarily mean the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) will issue an academy order. Schools may have the capacity to improve and, where this is sufficient, they will be given the opportunity to demonstrate such improvement. Under the Bill, RSCs will be able to intervene where a coasting school does not have sufficient capacity to improve.
Some of these schools may require additional support and challenge, which RSCs can help to provide, for example from National Leaders of Education. Where necessary RSCs will also be able to progress academisation for these schools, bringing in new leadership where it is needed. In other cases of underperformance, the school may be issued with a warning notice. Where there is failure to comply with a warning notice an academy order may be made.
Costs vary according to type of project, and it would be very difficult to provide an average cost per academy based on total spent and number of academies opened.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the current performance data held by the Department for Education and its agencies, what estimate they have made of the number of (1) primary, and (2) secondary, schools that are likely to fall into the category of coasting.
Answered by Lord Nash
No school will be identified as coasting until the end of 2016, when there is data available for three years, 2014, 2015 and 2016. A school will only be deemed to be coasting when its performance data falls below the coasting level in each of the three previous years. The coasting level for 2016 will be based on the new primary and secondary accountability measures to be introduced in 2016 and will be set in 2016 once the impact of these changes is known. For these reasons it is not possible to provide an accurate forecast of the number of coasting schools, but the department estimates that numbers will be in the hundreds.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have retained the right to consultation for foundation and voluntary schools that are subject to academy orders as a result of low education standards.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Education and Adoption Bill does not retain the requirement for consultation about whether a school should become an academy for foundation and voluntary schools that have a foundation and are subject to Academy orders as a result of having been judged Inadequate by Ofsted. We are, however, requiring that for such foundation and voluntary schools the Secretary of State must consult on who she proposes should run the academy. This consultation must be with the trustees of the school, the foundation and, where the school has a religious character, the appropriate religious body.
For schools that have failed and been judged Inadequate by Ofsted, there should be no debate about whether transformation via academy conversion is needed and urgent action is required. But we also accept the importance of protecting the ethos of schools, and recognise that this is particularly important where the school has a religious character. We anticipate that all those concerned with foundation and voluntary schools, in particular Dioceses, will work closely with Regional Schools Commissioners to agree the best academy solutions for any of their schools that are failing.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria will be used to assess the quality of new providers that take over schools that convert to academy status; and whether they plan to publish the criteria.
Answered by Lord Nash
To be approved as an academy sponsor, applicants go through a rigorous assessment process and are required to demonstrate that they have the skills and expertise to help under-performing schools improve rapidly. Outcomes of all applications are determined by the relevant Regional Schools Commissioner, advised by their Head Teacher Board of outstanding school leaders.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which maintained sector providers they plan to consult on the impact of the Childcare Bill [HL].
Answered by Lord Nash
On 25 June 2015, the government made a policy statement available to the House of Lords, setting out further details on the government’s intention behind the Childcare Bill, to aid Peers in their scrutiny of the Bill ahead of Committee Stage.
The government wants to engage with parents, providers and employers about how they currently access and deliver childcare and what they think are the relative priorities for an additional 15 hours of childcare. This will begin in the summer.
We want to hear what is important to parents in choosing a childcare provider and their views on how the extended entitlement will best meet their childcare needs. We will make the best use of the consultation channels available, including social media and online forums and we are keen to work with employers who have a shared interest in this agenda to hear the views of their busy, working parents. Many voluntary and community sector organisations have already offered to host events for parents and providers, including groups representing and supporting disabled children and their parents, and we will be working with them to plan these events. We are also hoping to work closer with employer organisations such as the Confederation of British Industry who have welcomed the extension of the free childcare entitlement.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which disabled children's groups they plan to consult on the impact of the Childcare Bill [HL].
Answered by Lord Nash
On 25 June 2015, the government made a policy statement available to the House of Lords, setting out further details on the government’s intention behind the Childcare Bill, to aid Peers in their scrutiny of the Bill ahead of Committee Stage.
The government wants to engage with parents, providers and employers about how they currently access and deliver childcare and what they think are the relative priorities for an additional 15 hours of childcare. This will begin in the summer.
We want to hear what is important to parents in choosing a childcare provider and their views on how the extended entitlement will best meet their childcare needs. We will make the best use of the consultation channels available, including social media and online forums and we are keen to work with employers who have a shared interest in this agenda to hear the views of their busy, working parents. Many voluntary and community sector organisations have already offered to host events for parents and providers, including groups representing and supporting disabled children and their parents, and we will be working with them to plan these events. We are also hoping to work closer with employer organisations such as the Confederation of British Industry who have welcomed the extension of the free childcare entitlement.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government who will be asked to review the conclusions of the pilot schemes for the measures to be implemented under the Childcare Bill [HL] in 2016.
Answered by Lord Nash
The government has made clear its intention to roll out the extended free childcare entitlement in certain areas from September 2016 in advance of implementation from 2017.
The government is currently considering where early implementation of the extended entitlement should take place, including the number of areas and the locations to ensure geographic balance. The areas will test out the important operational details for delivering the extended entitlement and provide a source of intelligence to support the government in refining the systems to deliver the entitlement. We will announce further details in the autumn.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to publish details of possible new criminal offences to support regulations made under the Childcare Bill [HL].
Answered by Lord Nash
Clause 1(5) (k) of the Childcare Bill enables regulations to make provision for criminal offences in connection with the provision of information and documents and disclosure of information for the purposes of eligibility checking, mentioned in paragraphs (5) (i) and (j) of the Bill only.
As set out in the policy statement made available to the House of Lords on 25 June 2015, the government’s intention is that any new offences should align with existing offences for schemes involving information sharing and self-declaration. Clause 1(7) provides for a cap on the penalty that may be imposed on indictment, namely a maximum term of imprisonment of two years, with or without a fine. This is an appropriate safeguard, which might be appropriate in large scale fraud cases, or misuse of sensitive personal tax data, whilst retaining the option of imposing lesser penalties.
It would be for the police and the relevant prosecuting authority to decide whether to bring a prosecution and at what level.