Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements are in place for students who leave a university prior to completing their course to have their learning accredited in order to facilitate future transfer to another course at a different higher education institution.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to improving the flexibility of higher education provision and student choice. We are currently considering the evidence gathered via the recent call for evidence on Accelerated Courses and Switching University or Degree, and engaging stakeholders, to understand arrangements currently in place for supporting student transfer and any barriers to take up.
There are no regulatory barriers to students choosing to leave university prior to completing their course and having their learning accredited by a different higher education institution.
English universities are independent, autonomous bodies and it is their responsibility to decide how to recognise or accredit prior learning so they admit students who are able to succeed at that institution or on a particular course. Government has no power to interfere in university admissions.
Sound practice in English university recruitment, selection and admission is underpinned by the principles of fair admissions, or Schwartz principles, and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education’s UK Quality Code.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional funding they plan to provide to compensate childcare providers for increased costs as a result of proposed increases in training requirements applicable to childcare providers and in the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government is investing £1 billion of additional funding per year in the early years free entitlements, including £300 million per year to increase the national average funding rate. This record level of investment was based on a rich source of evidence – the ‘Review of Childcare Costs’ which looked at both the current costs of childcare provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector (including the National Living Wage). Copies of the Analytical Report and the Executive Summary are attached.
We are determined that the maximum amount of this record level of investment reaches childcare providers. That is why, as part of our recent consultation ‘Early years funding: changes to funding for 3- and 4-year-olds’, we proposed that local authorities pass through 95% of their allocated funding to the frontline. Providers will then have the funding and increased choice in how to invest in the quality of their offer, including how to invest in their workforce.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why North Yorkshire County Council receives the sixth lowest allowance for childcare providers amongst 160 county councils; and what plans there are to develop a "more level playing field" for providers as set out in the Department for Education consultation <i>Early years funding: changes to funding for 3 and 4 year olds</i>.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government is investing £1 billion of additional funding per year in the early years free entitlements, including £300 million per year to increase the national average funding rate. We are determined to allocate this record investment fairly and transparently and that is why we have consulted on an Early Years National Funding Formula, which will determine the funding rates of all local authorities, including North Yorkshire. This consultation has now closed and we will respond in the Autumn.
The consultation included a proposal to require all local authorities to use a universal base rate for all providers from 2019-20 at the latest. This approach will ensure that no child is disadvantaged, in terms of the funding available to support their early education, by the type of childcare setting which they attend.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, should childcare providers be unable to meet the costs of providing the 30 hours free OFSTED-approved childcare service from September 2017, what plans there are to ensure that alternative services are available.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government is making a record-level of investment in early years to ensure that childcare providers receive sufficient funding to deliver the 30-hour entitlement. This includes increasing spending on the free entitlements by over £1 billion per year by 2019-20 and providing £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the rate paid for the two, three- and four-year-old entitlements.
We believe that the childcare market will respond to meet the additional demand for places generated by the extension of the free entitlement. The market has already demonstrated that it is able to respond through the roll-out of the entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds introduced in the last Parliament. In January 2016, over 166,000 two-year-olds benefitted from the funded early education, with over 20,000 providers delivering it.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether county councils are required to pass on to registered and approved providers 100 per cent of government funding allocated for childcare.
Answered by Lord Nash
Funding for the early years entitlement is underpinned by the School and Early Years Finance Regulations. Local authorities receive funding from central Government to deliver the early years entitlements through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which also includes the budgets for schools and high needs. The current regulations do not require local authorities to pass on all early years funding to their providers. Local authorities, in consultation with their Schools Forum, are responsible for deciding how best to distribute the funding across their locality. The current regulations do allow local authorities to hold back some funding from the DSG for central services.
However, when the two year old entitlement was introduced there was an expectation for local authorities to pass all available funding to providers for delivering two year old places.
Under the early years funding reform proposals on which we recently consulted, there will be a requirement for local authorities to pass on at least 93% (in 2017-18) and 95% (thereafter) of their early years budget directly to providers for delivering the three and four year old entitlement. We are currently considering responses to the consultation.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have (1) to afford sixth form colleges the same funding protection as schools in any future spending allocation, and (2) to allow sixth form colleges zero VAT on new capital programmes as currently applies to the school sector.
Answered by Lord Nash
Decisions about how 16-19 institutions will be funded in 2016/17 will be subject to the outcome of the next cross-government spending round.
Current capital allocations paid to sixth form colleges are in many cases already funded at 100% of the total project cost including VAT, where it is payable. This means that although colleges have to pay VAT on some building works they are not necessarily disadvantaged because of the VAT rules on Education Funding Agency funded programmes. However, we acknowledge that they are not able to recover their VAT costs on self-funded capital projects and certain areas of non-capital expenditure.
VAT refund schemes are the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Treasury. The Department for Education continues to look at how the capital needs of sixth form colleges can be met.