Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many governors of independent schools fail an identity check using Verifile each year.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on individuals involved in the governance or management of independent schools. In accordance with the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, responsibility for ensuring that appropriate identity and suitability checks are carried out rests with the school’s individual proprietor or proprietor body, as applicable.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many governors of independent schools are required to verify their identity using Verifile.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on individuals involved in the governance or management of independent schools. In accordance with the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, responsibility for ensuring that appropriate identity and suitability checks are carried out rests with the school’s individual proprietor or proprietor body, as applicable.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department for Education is responsible for undertaking identity checks for governors of independent schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on individuals involved in the governance or management of independent schools. In accordance with the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, responsibility for ensuring that appropriate identity and suitability checks are carried out rests with the school’s individual proprietor or proprietor body, as applicable.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors fail identity checks through Verifile as a percentage of the total who are required to use the Verifile service.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors are required each year to carry out identity checks using Verifile.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what reasons have been identified for prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors failing identity checks when using the Verifile service.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that employers in the screen industry use more of the apprenticeship levy funding they receive.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
We are working closely with the screen industry so that it can benefit from apprenticeships.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education are working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to support the development of apprenticeship standards. Currently there are 48 approved standards available for delivery in the creative and digital sectors.
From discussions with the screen sector, we recognise that it faces some challenges in spending available levy funds due to the dominance of project-based working in the sector. To overcome these challenges, we are working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and ScreenSkills on an innovative Film and TV Apprenticeships pilot which will enable around 20 apprentices to benefit from hands-on experience on the sets of major films and TV shows. Launching in 2020, it will explore a new model for how high-quality apprenticeships can be used to deliver multiple placements on film and TV productions, as well as addressing skills shortages.
In addition, we have increased the transfer cap from 10% to 25% enabling levy-paying employers to transfer funds to smaller employers or charities in order to support the development of skills in their supply chains or respond to skills shortages in their sectors.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to publish the review of post-18 education and funding.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The independent panel will report shortly. The government will then conclude the overall review later this year.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to promote and support the development of design skills as part of STEM education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has worked with organisations such as the James Dyson Foundation and the Royal Academy of Engineering to reform the design and technology (D&T) A level, GCSE and curriculum. The content emphasises the iterative design processes at the heart of modern industry practice. There is also more mathematical and science content that students must use and relate closely to D&T, and a much greater use of design equipment such as 3D printers and robotics. Under the new national curriculum, reformed in 2014, D&T remains a compulsory subject in all maintained schools from Key Stage 1 to 3. Maintained schools are also required to offer it as a subject at Key Stage 4. Academies can use the national curriculum as a benchmark for what they teach. The D&T GCSE counts towards the Progress 8 secondary accountability measure.
The new qualification will prepare students for further study and careers in design. To ensure the subject is taught well, the Department supports recruitment of D&T teachers through bursaries of up to £12,000 for eligible candidates.
For post-16 students, the Government is introducing T Levels, based on learning from the best international examples. Once fully introduced, many of the new T Level programmes will focus on core science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations, including in the engineering and manufacturing sectors. Designed by employers, T Levels will give students access to high quality technical study programmes, which will prepare them for employment and higher level study in STEM occupations.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on the budgets of Oxfordshire primary and secondary schools of (a) changes to business rates, (b) the apprenticeship levy, (c) changes to national insurance contributions and (d) the withdrawal of the education services grant.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Audit Office published an estimate of the cost pressures faced by schools between 2015-16 and 2019-20 in December 2016, available at: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/financial-sustainability-in-schools/.
On 17 July 2017, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, announced that the Department will provide an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, on top of the spending plans considered in the NAO report. Core funding for schools will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19, and £43.5 billion in 2019‑20. This represents an increase of over 6%. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed, this means that overall funding for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms per pupil over the next two years.
We will be publishing an updated assessment of cost pressures for schools, taking account of this additional funding, which will include consideration of the withdrawal of the Education Services Grant and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, and any planned changes to national insurance. Schools are funded to meet the costs of business rates on the basis of actual charges.