Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many visits were made by Ministers of her Department to Torbay constituency in the 12 months to 14 October 2014; whom the invitation for each such visit was issued by; and what the cost to the public purse was of each such visit.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I visited Torbay constituency on 17 July 2014, at the invitation of my hon. Friend, the Member for Newton Abbot, Anne Marie Morris. The visit was part of a wider trip to schools in Devon which cost £427.82 in total.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the involvement of practising teachers in the design of the national curriculum.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The new national curriculum, which was published on 11 September 2013, has been developed with due regard to the views of subject experts, teachers, and the findings of international best practice comparisons. Over 2,470 of the responses to the consultation on the new curriculum were from individual teachers, headteachers and schools. In response to the representations, changes were made to improve clarity, precision and consistency of the content.
We are confident that our reform to the national curriculum will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom than ever before, which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. The national curriculum has been significantly slimmed down and will free up teachers to use their professional judgement to design curricula that meet the needs of their pupils.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase freedoms for special schools to design their own curriculum.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The new national curriculum, to be taught from September 2014, sets out only the essential knowledge that all children should acquire, and leaves teachers to decide how to teach this most effectively and to design a wider school curriculum that best meets the needs of their pupils.
For all pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including those who attend special schools, lessons should be planned to ensure that there are no barriers to achievement. In many cases, such planning will mean that these pupils will be able to study the full national curriculum.
The SEN Code of Practice includes statutory guidance on identifying and supporting pupils with SEN and adapting teaching approaches to ensure they have access to the same opportunities as their peers.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he held with schools and local authorities for the purposes of drafting departmental advice on universal infant free school meals.
Answered by David Laws
Since the announcement of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM), Departmental officials have engaged in a number of discussions with primary school head teachers and their representatives, local authorities and other interested parties, to explore how this policy can be implemented so that the benefits of universal free school meal provision for children and families are maximised.
The content of the departmental advice document on universal infant free school meals, which was published on 6 March, was based on feedback gathered through these discussions. Before it was published, the document was commented on by the Department's UIFSM external reference group, which includes representatives from schools and local authorities.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the capital costs incurred by schools as a result of the implementation of universal infant free school meals; and whether the capital funding provided by his Department to schools to date covers such costs.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education consulted with a number of local authorities and schools in the autumn, in order to assess the potential capital needs to meet the new universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) entitlement. Circumstances differ between schools, and between authorities, but those discussions gave us an assessment of the range of likely costs.
Based on those discussions, we believe the £150 million of capital funding announced last December is an appropriate figure to support schools and authorities in meeting the new UIFSM entitlement. We know that many schools and authorities are still in the process of considering the best way of delivering this. That is why we are supplementing this capital support with the package of implementation support measures announced on 6 March, in order to offer advice and guidance to schools and local authorities that need assistance in implementing the policy.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help schools that are unable to deliver free infant school meals in September 2014 because of a lack of capital funding.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education has previously confirmed that it would be allocating £150 million in the 2014-15 financial year to support the implementation of the universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) policy. Local authorities (LAs) are also free to use their budgets for improvement and maintenance to support this objective. We allocated £1.4 billion to schools, LAs and the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund for maintenance and improvement in 2014-15.
On 6 March we launched a package of implementation support measures to help schools to provide meals to eligible pupils. This includes a national UIFSM support service, run by school food experts, which will offer advice and guidance to schools that need assistance in implementing UIFSM. The support will include a telephone helpline, the sharing of good practice, and intensive face-to-face support
The Department also announced on 6 March that it would be providing transitional funding to small schools with eligible pupils, worth a minimum of £3,000, which qualifying schools will be able to use to help them overcome delivery challenges.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken since 2010 to ensure that (a) primary and (b) secondary schools are equipped to support children with diabetes.
Answered by David Laws
Schools are already required to support children with long-term medical conditions such as diabetes. Non-statutory guidance, “Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings”, is available to schools to help them manage medicines and support children with medical needs such as diabetes.
From September 2014, there will be a new duty, which was introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014, on governing bodies of maintained schools and proprietors of academies to make arrangements to support pupils at school with medical conditions and to have regard to statutory guidance. The guidance, upon which we have consulted publicly, will set out the requirements on schools to support children with medical conditions, which we would expect them to apply to conditions like diabetes.