Education (Merseyside)

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2016 Westminster Hall

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Roger. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) on securing this important debate. I am pleased to see the Minister in his place today. He has previously met me and other Knowsley MPs to discuss the current lack of sixth-form provision in the borough. Perhaps he will comment on progress in today’s debate.

My constituency spans parts of two local authorities: St Helens and Knowsley. We celebrate the success of Carmel sixth form, which has good numbers going to the redbrick universities, as does Rainhill High School and St Helens College, which was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for St Helens North (Conor McGinn). Schools in St Helens South and Whiston are improving year on year, and I congratulate Cowley International College, where I was a long-term governor, on its successful Ofsted rating of good.

A Social Market Foundation report showed that disadvantaged schools are more likely to have unqualified, inexperienced and inappropriately trained teaching staff. Many schools across the region are struggling with recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers and suffer from high staff turnover. In Knowsley, a part of my constituency, schools are particularly struggling to recruit quality teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. One highly incentivised recruitment programme for maths teachers attracted just one applicant. Quality teaching is a critical factor in pupil attainment. The recruitment crisis will only compound the ongoing attainment gap and inequality in education.

Teacher shortages mean that schools are forced to use supply teachers who are often not qualified in the subject matter to fill the void and at a much greater cost, further challenging financially constrained schools. The crisis has grown under this Government, and schools and local education authorities need support to tackle the problem now. Over the past five years, freezes to the dedicated schools grant have led to real-term cuts in funding. At the same time, schools have had to increase employer pension and national insurance contributions.

Research by the Association of School and College Leaders shows that 70% of schools are planning to cut the number of courses they offer. Lucy, a St Helens resident and pupil in my constituency, is a talented musician who plays the flute. She is presently studying grade 7 and was on course to reach grade 8 by the time she leaves school. However, owing to funding cuts, her school principal tells me it is no longer viable to run the music GCSE course, leaving Lucy and other children absolutely devastated. I hope the cuts do not spread out and affect our search for funding towards our theatre in Prescot in Knowsley.

Instead of focusing on giving headteachers the resources and support they need to recruit and retain permanent quality teachers and to improve the maximum attainment of pupils, the Government go on to waste millions on free schools in areas that do not need more places. We do not understand that where we serve our constituents.

The Government are obsessing over a return to the 1960s grammar school selective system, but grammar schools are not the answer to the problems of our local education systems. Evidence from the Commons Library shows grammar schools are not the golden ticket to social mobility that the Government would have us believe. In practice, grammar schools will create a magnet that draws more quality teachers and pupils away from comprehensives, leaving additional challenges of recruitment and retention, and therefore affecting the attainment of our pupils.

Evidence shows that grammar schools fail children with statements of special educational needs or education, health and care plans more than any other group. Just 0.1% of grammar school entrants have an SEN statement, compared with 2.8% of the total pupil population. Thousands of children with special educational needs are on the autism spectrum. The new special educational needs and disability code of practice states that support will routinely be put in place quickly when issues are picked up. However, access to diagnosis is a problem and routinely takes more than a year. I urge the Government to focus robustly on identification and speedy diagnosis.

Shamefully, evidence from the National Autistic Society shows that one in six pupils waits more than three years to get support, depriving them of the opportunity to get the best from their education. I urge the Minister to ask the Government to look again at how the new SEND system supports children with autism, and to look to provide local authorities with additional support in improving identification, delivery and transition in those children’s education.

There are local reports of a lack of provision for some of the hardest-to-help young people—especially care leavers and young offenders. Many people would turn their eyes away from them. Budget constraints mean that some providers are reluctant to take on pupils who need additional intensive support. Free and grammar schools will not select those children; they will be left to other schools to pick up, adding further to their challenges. I urge the Minister to consider those children, provide additional specific funding and focus on meeting their needs. They should not be left behind as they are at present. The Government should allow more flexibility in current funding, to ensure that those learners can remain in supported provision, to help them progress according to their individual needs.

Our local authorities and schools are committed, and are working hard. Governors work tremendously hard and parent support is high—it is needed in some areas. However, huge cuts to budgets mean that schools simply do not have the resources that are needed. It is high time the Government chose to spend efficiently in education. They should look at the needs that exist now, instead of going for frills that we simply cannot afford, while some children are denied the education that they should be entitled to. That is the only way we shall do away with inequality in education provision.

Oral Answers to Questions

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Monday 25th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

As I said, the Department has allocated £40 million to North Yorkshire for places required by 2015. This is based on the local authority’s own forecast of how many places it will need. We encourage local authorities to negotiate significant developer contributions for new places where they result from developments. I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this matter in more detail. Perhaps, through him, I can persuade North Yorkshire County Council to encourage more free school applications.[Official Report, 1 February 2016, Vol. 605, c. 5-6MC.]

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

11. What assessment she has made of the affordability of childcare.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

This Government understand that for many parents childcare is the main issue. That is why we will be helping parents with the cost of childcare to the tune of £6 billion a year from 2019 onwards.

[Marie Rimmer]

Childcare and early education are vital to help children to get the best start in life, particularly in the most disadvantaged families, yet this policy does nothing to help the most disadvantaged children, and the Minister’s decision to change eligibility means that those who may benefit most will miss out on the extra 15 hours. What plan does he have to raise its quality in the early years, particularly to address the issue of disadvantaged children who will not benefit?

Further Education

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael]

I am keen to use my influence, as Chair of the Education Committee, for a lot of things, and that is certainly one direction of travel in which I am sure we will be going.

We must ensure greater employer engagement, which can and should come through governance, and we have already seen changes bringing that about, but something else needs to happen: the education sector needs to engage more effectively and readily with the world of work. I mean not just businesses, but the professional sectors, such as the care sector. It is critical that we know how many people there are with the types of skills that are needed. We need to know more about how the labour market works, and the education system needs to know more about how skills and the labour market are developing. That interface is crucial, and I see it coming through in various changes in the FE sector.

We have a good example of that in my constituency, where Stroud and Filton colleges merged to create an innovative college structure with characteristics that colleges need to think about when going through the area review. The first characteristic is precise, strong and courageous leadership. It is critical that we articulate a vision about where our colleges should go, and that is best done by a leadership with the capacity and willingness to do exactly that.

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

St Helens college has shown good, strong and innovative leadership, but it gets funding now only where there are job opportunities and training. Teachers from my college went to the Liverpool docks, to Dock Road, to provide education, at 7 o’clock in the morning, to some 200 Chinese speakers who did not speak English. It was a huge success. There are no bounds to what that college does. It has the inside of a plane to train people in flight hospitality—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. It might be a valid point, but it is not a speech.

--- Later in debate ---

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

I will not go into funding, because we have heard much about that during this debate.

Earlier today, Members in this Chamber heard my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop) read a list of hundreds of job losses additional to those caused by the devastating cessation of steel production. This country continues to de-industrialise, with manufacturing going to countries that subsidise such production. Generations of families in Middlesbrough will have worked in the British steel industry. Education and skills retraining will be necessary to assist them in searching for employment and in attracting alternative employment opportunities. My constituency has suffered the same experience, and I feel for those people. I also know of numerous success stories. Deep coal miners and glass workers have gone on to achieve degrees, including master’s degrees. Some have become entrepreneurs and some have set up businesses providing services.

I want to talk about adult education and training. The Workers Educational Association is under threat. It has been educating adults for over 100 years, and millions have benefited from the programmes and courses that it has provided. The WEA provides opportunities for many for whom school was not a positive experience, and that can be, and has been, a real and effective second chance. It is imperative to maintain the vital service provided by the WEA, and I sincerely hope that it survives the BIS review.

Sixth-form colleges are an educational success story. Sixth-form college associations representing colleges across England tell us of those that are outstanding providers of 16-to-19 education, outperforming academy sixth forms and educating more disadvantaged students, yet receiving less funding. Sixth-form colleges also offer superior value for money by delivering better outcomes than academies at a lower cost to the public purse. All that is achieved with a greater proportion of students eligible for free school meals: 11% of sixth-form college students are eligible for this benefit at the age of 15, compared with only 8% of students in academies.

The Government need to address the indefensible VAT anomaly from which sixth-form colleges suffer. I have listened to what further education colleges have said in condemnation of the previous Labour Government, but they funded the St Helens FE college. It is a wonderful piece of architecture and I invite hon. Members to come along to see it. This excellent college is innovative, providing education and training where and when it is needed. For instance, a course ran at 7 am in Dock Road, Liverpool and was paid for by employers for 200 Chinese-speaking adult pupils. However, the course did not meet the tight criteria set by this Government.

Flight Hospitality chartered a plane for the use of the college. However, like many FE colleges, the college struggles to hire maths and English tutors as it cannot compete with schools. The Government need to support FE colleges to recruit such tutors, rather than making further cuts to their budgets. Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Draft Consumer Rights Act 2015 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2015 Draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Part 8 Domestic Infringements) Order 2015

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2015 General Committees

[Nick Boles]

The hon. Lady is seeking to suggest that I have changed the Government’s policy. I would point out a couple of facts to her. First, this Government are not the previous Government—there was an election. Secondly, I was not the Minister then, Thirdly, I have made no statement that we are changing policy on this issue, but have simply said that we are not yet applying the particular, technical provisions of the regulations to the specified sectors while we conduct further conversations with the industry. If there is a change of policy relative to that discussed in the Public Bill Committee under the previous Government, we will bring that policy change to the House, and I have no doubt that she will subject it to her normal, inquisitorial treatment. However, we are not there yet, so I urge her to wait a little longer while we talk to the industry.

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

Forgive me if I am going out of bounds a bit, Mr Hamilton, but 75% of rail users are not aware of, or know very little about, the arrangements for compensation or their rights to it now, so how will the Minister take that into consideration? People who do not know their rights do not have rights. How often are the arrangements afforded to the individuals affected? If rights in this area are not brought into the Consumer Rights Act through this statutory instrument, how will people have those rights in future?

[Nick Boles]

The hon. Lady makes a very good point. It is a general problem with consumer protection that oftentimes the people who most need that protection are not aware of the provisions for it. That is one of the key motivations for this legislation: to make consumer rights clearer and more consistent. However, as I said earlier, that does not necessarily mean that there cannot be more than one arrangement to provide such protection. That is why we will continue to talk to the industry. There are lots of bodies representing customers and passengers in the affected sectors, all of which will be able to state their case, make their arguments and provide evidence. No final policy decisions have been made; it is simply that at the moment—today, in this Committee—we are not applying the provisions in the Consumer Rights Act to the specified sectors, while we continue the conversation with them.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That the Committee has considered the draft Consumer Rights Act 2015 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2015.

draft enterprise act 2002 (part 8 domestic infringements) order 2015

Resolved,

That the Committee has considered the draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Part 8 Domestic Infringements) Order 2015. —(Nick Boles.)

Oral Answers to Questions

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I thank my hon. Friend for the work he has done and continues to do as self-employment ambassador. I would be delighted to meet him to discuss how we can make the system fairer, quicker and simpler for the self-employed. He will know that tax policy, in particular, is an issue for the Treasury, and I will bring it to the attention of my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary.

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

The number of self-employed people is growing, but they are often disadvantaged and face additional burdens when applying for a mortgage or to set up a pension scheme for themselves. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that these barriers are not erected and do not attack the self-employed?

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady is right to point out that issue. She may know, as I am sure she read it carefully, that the Conservative party had a very pro-business manifesto. We have rightly committed ourselves to having a review of the challenges faced by self-employed people and their businesses, and that would include looking at the issue she raises: access to mortgages.

Oral Answers to Questions

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

I would be delighted to add my tribute to Andy Johnson. The vision of the West Norfolk Academies Trust is to produce world-class standards of student achievement, and it is the application of that vision that has resulted in its approach improving other schools in the area. I shall be delighted to visit schools in my hon. Friend’s constituency as soon as he invites me to do so.

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

When a school has been rated inadequate by Ofsted and is therefore subject to an academy order, the Government say there will be no requirement to consult on conversion to academy status. With that in mind, what are the merits of removing the right of parents to be consulted, and how does that sit with the Government’s rhetoric on accountability to parents?

[Mr Gibb]

The new Education and Adoption Bill is designed to ensure that those groups of people who are ideologically opposed to academisation are not allowed to disrupt or delay the process of academisation for those schools that have been letting down pupils year after year. This is about social justice and ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has a good quality education. I hope the hon. Lady will support the Bill.