Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of children during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant school closures who (1) had no digital devices in their household, (2) whose only available device was a smartphone, (3) had access to a single device in their household which was shared with more than one other family member, and (4) the total number of children who were unable to access remote education consistently as a result.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department has already invested over £100 million to support remote education and has delivered over 220,000 laptops and tablets to local authorities and academy trusts for children who would not otherwise have access.
The department allocated devices to local authorities and academy trusts based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that did not have access to a device through other means, such as a private device or through school. Local authorities and academy trusts were responsible for distributing the devices, being best placed to know which children and young people need access to a device delivered through the programme.
Where local authorities and academy trusts identified a need greater than their initial allocation, they could provide evidence and request more devices. No valid request for additional devices for eligible children was denied.
We are now supplementing this support by making an initial 150,000 available additional devices in the event face-to-face schooling is disrupted as a result of local COVID-19 restrictions or local lockdowns, and children become reliant on remote education.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the British Council The Shape of Global Higher Education, published on 1 May, what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK retains its pre-eminence in global higher education, particularly in the light of the increasing access to education systems in other countries for overseas students.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2019, the Department for Education and the Department for International Trade published the International Education Strategy, which can be found here and is also attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth.
Developed in co-operation with providers across the education sector, this strategy sets out an ambition to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year, and to increase the number of international higher education students in the UK to 600,000 per year, both by 2030.
The strategy also sets out actions to support the higher education sector to deliver on this ambition. These include the appointment of an international education champion to help build links with priority countries and unlock barriers to international exchange and partnership. In addition, the strategy sets out actions to ensure that international students have the best possible experience studying in the UK, and that doing this maximises their employment opportunities.
The government will be working closely with institutions, Universities UK International and the British Council to develop partnerships, deliver trade missions, to provide forums to develop sustainable mutually beneficial transnational education programmes and to develop annual updates to the strategy.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities comply fully with the Children and Families Act 2014 in the cases of children with education, health and care plans; and what action they are taking to ensure that there are no disincentives, both in terms of funding and concerns over their position on league tables, for schools to be inclusive and to accept children with special educational needs.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
To ensure local authorities comply fully with their obligations under the Children and Families Act (2014), including on education, health and care plans, we introduced new local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2016. All local areas will be inspected by 2021. These inspections do not give a pass/fail judgement. They instead identify areas of strength and where improvement is required, including asking an area to produce a Written Statement of Action if there are significant concerns. Where we have concerns with a local area’s performance, we work with partners, including NHS England, to support and challenge the area to improve.
The inspection reports have proved a catalyst for local change, both where Written Statements of Action have been required and where they have not. Local authorities and their health partners have embraced the process and used inspection findings to prioritise areas for improvement.
In terms of ensuring schools are inclusive, the Children and Families Act (2014) reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with SEND. The attached SEND Code of Practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND. The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, emphasises the need for leaders to offer high-quality, inclusive education and training to all.
We launched a call for evidence on how the special educational needs funding system operates in May 2019 to help us understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase foreign language teaching as part of the school curriculum and also to promote the lifelong learning of foreign languages in order to improve the UK’s skill base.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure, which includes languages, has seen the proportion of GCSE entries from pupils in state-funded schools in a modern foreign language (MFL) increase from 40% in 2010 to 46% in 2018. The reformed national curriculum now makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a foreign language in key stage 2.
The £4.8 million MFL Pedagogy Pilot commenced in December 2018. It is managed by the newly appointed MFL Centre for Excellence and is run through 9 school led hubs, to improve uptake and attainment in languages at key stages 3 and 4. The department has also launched a pilot project in MFL undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils to drive up participation in the subject, specifically targeting areas of high disadvantage to extend access to languages for all pupils.
Recruiting MFL teachers is a priority for the government. The government offers generous financial incentives for languages teaching, including scholarships in MFL worth £28,000, and tax-free bursaries, typically worth up to £26,000. The government is also working in partnership with Spain’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to deliver Spain’s Visiting Teachers Programme to provide schools with access to a pool of qualified teachers from Spain who are able to teach MFL. In addition to this, the department has a Teacher Subject Specialism Training programme which aims to improve the subject knowledge of non-specialist teachers and returning teachers in MFL.
The department is also continuing to promote the value of language qualifications to students who are choosing their GCSEs. The department recently published and promoted a guidance leaflet for parents, attached, which explains why studying a language, as part of the EBacc, broadens opportunities in both education and employment. In February, the department drew attention to the benefits of studying a language among 13 to 14 year olds through a social media campaign.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to update school food standards following new recommendations on sugar and carbohydrate consumption; and how they will encourage schools to comply with these standards.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We are currently working with Public Health England to update the school food standards. The update will be accompanied by detailed guidance to caterers and schools to help them adapt to the changes. Further details will be available shortly.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many school age children were home-schooled in 2015 and how many are home-schooled according to their latest figures; what information they havwe about the reasons for any increase in the numbers of parents home-schooling their children; whether their projections indicate that the number of home-schooled children will rise; and what action they are taking to ensure the quality of the education such children receive, as well as child safeguarding.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Data on numbers of children being educated at home are not collected on a national basis and consequently it is not possible to state such numbers - either at specific dates or as projections for the future. For the same reason, no national data are available on reasons why children are educated at home.
However, in the autumn of 2017 the Association of Directors of Children’s Services estimated, on the basis of a survey of local authorities, that the total number in England was 45,500, an increase of 21% on the position eighteen months previously. This was one of the reasons leading to the government’s consultation and call for evidence published on 10 April, which is likely to produce more information on these points.
The government response document, to be published after the close of the consultation, will set out the government’s intentions on home education.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government whether the Prime Minister raised the issue of potential cuts to the Fulbright Programme as a result of the US administration's budget proposals during her meeting with President Trump at the recent G20 summit.
Answered by Lord Nash
No, the Prime Minister did not discuss the Fulbright Programme with President Trump at the recent G20 summit.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there has been a decline in the number of student applications from other EU countries to UK universities since June 2016.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publish data on the number of applications by the 15 January deadline. Data for the 2017 application cycle shows there were 187,470 applications from EU domiciled applicants, which is above the 157,170 applications made in 2010, but lower than the 202,250 applications in 2016. Note that UCAS data covers applications to full-time undergraduate courses only.
Table 1: Applications to UK providers from EU domiciled applicants by the 15 January deadline.
Year | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Applications | 157,170 | 177,300 | 157,890 | 166,620 | 176,560 | 190,330 | 202,250 | 187,470 |
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking, together with the regulator Ofqual, to ensure that there is no confusion over the new numerical grading system for GCSEs in England.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department has been working closely with Ofqual and the awarding organisations to communicate the changes to GCSEs including the new 9-1 grading scale to key audiences. Ofqual have a communications campaign on 9-1 grading and regularly attend conferences and events across the country explaining the reforms. In 2015, Ofqual produced a set of postcards detailing the reforms and in 2016, these were supplemented by additional information. We jointly produced a slide pack that was sent to all schools in England in July 2016.
We and Ofqual are also working with partners such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), University and College Admission Service (UCAS), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and Association of Colleges (AoC) to make sure other stakeholders, such as colleges, universities and employers, have a clear understanding of the new grading scale and what this means for them. Ofqual is measuring the effectiveness of these communications, which will increase significantly, as we get closer to the first awards of GCSEs with the new grades in August.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to implement the recommendations of the Children's Commissioner, made on 4 January, that the rights of children online are upheld, including through the creation of a digital ombudsman and the inclusion of digital citizenship in the national curriculum.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department welcomes the work of the Children’s Commissioner on this important area. We will carefully consider this report as part of our ongoing work to make the internet a safer place for children.
The Department for Education is part of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), a group of more than 200 organisations established in 2010 drawn from across government, industry, law enforcement, academia, parenting and charity sectors which work in partnership to keep children safe online. The group is chaired by three Government ministers: the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, the Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism and the Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families.
UKCCIS has produced advice for schools and colleges on responding to incidents of sexting and guidance for school governors to help them support their school leaders to keep children safe online. Other UKCCIS achievements include the roll-out of free, family-friendly ISP level filters and the deployment of friendly Wi-Fi filtering in public spaces.
All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Maintained schools have to follow the new National Curriculum, which, from September 2014 has focused on essential knowledge, allowing teachers and schools to use their professional judgement to ensure the school curriculum meets the needs of their pupils. The computing curriculum covers e-safety at all four Key Stages, and was developed with input from e-safety experts including Childnet, NSPCC and the UK Safer Internet Centre. There is progression in the content across the four Key Stages to reflect the different and escalating risks that young people face as they get older.
However, this is only part of the wider school curriculum. Schools have more freedom to teach subjects or topics, such as digital citizenship, beyond the prescribed curriculum to ensure that children receive a rounded education. Teachers also have access to a wide range of high quality resources produced by experts including advice published by the PSHE Association, the Sex Education Forum, and Brook. These address changes in technology and legislation since 2000, in particular equipping teachers to help protect children and young people from inappropriate online content, and from online bullying, harassment and exploitation.