Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to (1) monitor, and (2) oversee, local authorities’ plans for complying with their responsibilities under section 22G of the Children Act 1989.
Answered by Baroness Barran
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22G of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care. The government published statutory guidance on the sufficiency duty in 2010, which includes commissioning places from private or voluntary sector providers as required.
Ofsted is responsible for assessing the performance of children’s social care services delivered by local authorities, through the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services framework. When Ofsted inspects local authorities, they look at the experiences and progress of children in care. To ensure children and young people are safe and settled where they live, Ofsted assesses if a local authority has a sufficiently wide range and choice of placements available to meet the needs of children in care.
The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duty with £259 million of capital funding to maintain capacity and expand provision in both secure and open children’s homes. This will provide high quality, safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people. We are also investing over £142 million by 2024/25 to introduce new national standards, and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for unregulated supported accommodation.
Additionally, the department is investing £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, and £10 million to develop two Regional Care Co-operative pathfinders to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements across a region.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the ambition outlined in their Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation Strategy and Consultation, published in February, to "increase the number of care leavers going to university", what steps they will take to support access to safe and secure housing for care leavers when they are at university.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department gave a commitment in ‘Stable Homes Built on Love’ to work with the sector to develop a gold standard accreditation scheme for further education (FE) and higher education (HE) institutions. This covers all aspects of support for care experienced young people, including access to affordable year-round accommodation. Furthermore, local authorities are under a legal duty to ensure that any care leaver in full time residential FE or HE has suitable accommodation if they need it during a vacation.
As set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the government is also committed to seeing an increase in the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation. The department is providing £99.8 million to local authorities in this Spending Review period to increase the number of care leavers that remain with their former foster families in a family home up to the age of 21, through the ‘Staying Put’ programme. We are also providing £53 million in this Spending Review period to increase the number of young people leaving care through the ‘Staying Close’ programme, providing an enhanced support package including an offer of move-on accommodation for young people leaving children’s homes and other forms of residential care.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the provision of rent guarantors, particularly for vulnerable individuals who may require such support to secure accommodation.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We strongly encourage landlords and letting agents to assess the suitability of potential and existing tenants on an individual basis. However, to ensure a sustainable tenancy for both parties, landlords and letting agents are free to impose a requirement for a guarantor on a tenancy.
We recognise that securing a guarantor can be difficult for some tenants. In these cases, local councils may offer guarantee schemes to help people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness. Further advice is available from local authority housing teams, Shelter and other specialist advisers.
Some universities and colleges operate a rent guarantor scheme. Typically, if the university or college accepts an application to join their scheme, it acts as the guarantor to help the student become a private renter.
In February, the government published our ambitious and wide-ranging children’s social care implementation strategy, which includes the commitment to promote rent guarantor schemes for care leavers. We encourage local authorities to use the freedoms they already have, that is why we are investing in excess of £1 billion into the Homelessness Prevention Grant from 2022-25.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that rent guarantor schemes are (1) widely available, and (2) accessible, for care experienced and estranged students enrolled at universities.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We strongly encourage landlords and letting agents to assess the suitability of potential and existing tenants on an individual basis. However, to ensure a sustainable tenancy for both parties, landlords and letting agents are free to impose a requirement for a guarantor on a tenancy.
We recognise that securing a guarantor can be difficult for some tenants. In these cases, local councils may offer guarantee schemes to help people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness. Further advice is available from local authority housing teams, Shelter and other specialist advisers.
Some universities and colleges operate a rent guarantor scheme. Typically, if the university or college accepts an application to join their scheme, it acts as the guarantor to help the student become a private renter.
In February, the government published our ambitious and wide-ranging children’s social care implementation strategy, which includes the commitment to promote rent guarantor schemes for care leavers. We encourage local authorities to use the freedoms they already have, that is why we are investing in excess of £1 billion into the Homelessness Prevention Grant from 2022-25.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Education Policy Institute A spotlight on Design and Technology Study in England, published on 23 March 2022; and in particular, the finding that take up of Design and Technology in schools has fallen significantly over the last decade.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department is aware of this report and will consider its findings in future policy development. Design and technology is compulsory in state-maintained schools from key stages 1 to 3, and pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study design and technology at key stage 4. Design and technology is included in Progress 8 and Attainment 8, which are headline measures for school accountability.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Auditory Verbal Therapy on educational outcomes for deaf children.
Answered by Baroness Barran
There has been no assessment made by the department of the impact of Auditory Verbal Therapy.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve educational outcomes for deaf children.
Answered by Baroness Barran
On 29 March 2022 the department published the Special Educational Needs Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Green paper, which set out our plans to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including those with Sensory Impairment, within a fairer and financially sustainable system. We carefully considered the feedback we received through the responses to the consultation and in the many events that took place during the 16-week consultation period. A full response has been published on 2 March 2023, in the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.
It is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils with sensory impairments to hold the relevant mandatory qualification (MQSI). To offer MQSIs, providers must be approved by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. We have developed a new approval process to determine providers of MQSIs from the start of the 2023/24 academic year. Our aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairments, in both specialist and mainstream settings.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to increase the transparency of the process to assess whether an applied general qualification overlaps with a T level, including the rationale for the decisions reached.
Answered by Baroness Barran
Qualifications reform is being undertaken in three phases. Phase 1 removed around 5,500 qualifications because they had low or no publicly funded enrolments.
Phase 2 relates to the assessment of qualifications that overlap with T Levels. Qualifications are carefully assessed and considered against three tests:
The process we have used to identify overlapping qualifications is rigorous and has been led by evidence such as individual qualification specifications. Independent assessors were commissioned to conduct in-depth evaluations of the qualifications in scope and the outcomes of the process were moderated for consistency.
For the Wave 1 and 2 T Level overlap process, the department published a provisional list, and put in place an appeals process to give awarding organisations who did not feel we have applied the criteria correctly an opportunity to provide evidence. We published our final Wave 1 and 2 T Level overlap list (excluding health and science in October 2022, and it is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualifications-that-overlap-with-t-levels.
106 qualifications will cease to be publicly funded in August 2024. The department removed 26 qualifications from the provisional list due to a successful appeal. We will run a similar process for Wave 3 and 4 overlap, a provisional list will be published in spring 2023.
The department postponed the publication of the list of qualifications that overlap with health and science T Levels, as these T Levels are under review by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. We will publish information related to the health and science qualifications that overlap with T Levels shortly.
Phase 3 of qualifications reform will assess the qualifications remaining after phases 1 and 2. The department’s approach to the future landscape was published on 10 January 2023, and we consulted on these proposals in 2019 and 2020. The publication is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1128144/Guide_to_the_post-16_qualifications_landscape_at_level_3_and_below_for_2025_and_beyond.pdf.
The department has been open and transparent about our intention that A Levels and T Levels should be at the heart of study programmes for 16 to 19-year-olds. The publication makes clear that large alternative academic qualifications may continue to be publicly funded in areas such as performing arts and sports, and that small alternative academic qualifications may continue to be funded in strategically important areas such as health and STEM. This process will remove further qualifications, including large Applied General qualifications. This strikes the right balance between ensuring sufficient choice for learners whilst ensuring that most students undertake world class A Levels and T Levels.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to make changes to the process that assesses whether an applied general qualification overlaps with a T level, to ensure (1) provider, and (2) employer, involvement.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department recognises the value that employers can bring to the design of qualifications, which is why we have included them in technical education reform.
We have put employers at the heart of our technical education system. T Levels have been co-designed and developed with providers, employers and the government. Occupational standards are employer-led products designed to ensure occupational competence. We have used independent assessors in our process for assessing whether a qualification overlaps with a T Level, and this includes reviewing qualification specifications against employer-led occupational standards. As part of this rigorous process, all qualifications were assessed against 3 tests:
Only qualifications which met all 3 tests in relation were added to the overlap list.
The department’s approach to the future landscape, published on 10 January 2023, and guidance for awarding organisations , available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/awarding-organisations-submitting-qualifications-for-approval, makes clear the technical qualifications that can be put forward for 16-19s in 3 broad areas:
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has set out clear criteria on their requirement for awarding organisations to involve employers in the design of technical qualifications. This criteria includes examples of acceptable evidence which might be provided to satisfy IfATE’s statutory employer demand test.
This will build on the important work the department has already done to create world class T Levels, apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications by continuing to embed the principles of employer involvement and employer-led occupational standards at the heart of technical education.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report by Adoption UK Cost of living crisis: Impact on adoptive families and adopted people. Summary of survey data December 2022, published on 26 January, what steps they will take to support adult adoptees in response to the findings in that report that (1) 41 per cent of adopted people said the increased cost of living was having "a significant negative impact on their mental health", and (2) 89 per cent reported that increased costs for transport and accommodation making it harder to maintain relationships with birth relatives.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The government understands that many people, including adopters and adopted adults, are worried about the impact of rising prices. For this reason, the government is providing £37 billion of support this year, targeted at those who are most in need. The package will see millions of the most vulnerable households receive at least £1,200 of support in total this year to help with the cost of living, with all domestic electricity customers receiving at least £400 to help with their bills.
The department aims to ensure that children waiting to be found new adoptive families are placed with as little wait as possible. Tackling long waits for children who require new adoptive families is a key priority in the 2021 Adoption Strategy ‘Achieving excellence everywhere’. The department is funding Regional Adoption Agency (RRA) leaders to improve the recruitment of adopters, matching children with approved adopters and adoption support over the next three years. In the past year, RAAs have focused on those children who wait the longest and have seen a fall in the number of children with a court placement order waiting for 18 months, from 390 at March 2020 to 240 at September 2022.
Where necessary, the statutory framework covering adoption allows RRAs and local authorities to provide financial support to adoptive parents to support the placement of a child or the continuation of adoption arrangements.
Adult adoptees should be able to access the support that they need, particularly around their mental health needs. The department is publicly consulting on amendments to regulations to simplify arrangements for providers who support adopted adults that will increase the accessibility of support services. One of the proposed changes in the consultation is to remove the requirement that therapists be registered with Ofsted when providing counselling services to adopted adults. This change is recommended in Adoption UK’s ‘Cost of living crisis: impact on adoptive families and adopted people’ report.
The government is also improving NHS mental health support availability. The NHS Long Term Plan and mental health expansion plans will increase funding for mental health services, to target groups with severe mental illness and young people.