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Written Question
Physics: Teachers
Friday 14th July 2023

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of physics teachers in (a) South Leicestershire constituency and (b) Leicestershire.

Answered by Nick Gibb

As at the last school workforce census (November 2022, published on 8 June 2023), the number of teachers remains high, with 468,400 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 27,000 (6%) more than in 2010. The last school workforce census is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

In November 2022 (latest available data), there were 5,331 FTE teachers in state funded schools in Leicestershire. This is an increase of 1.3% from last year (5,263) and an increase of 0.6% since 2010, when the school workforce census began (5,298).

In November 2022 (latest available data), there were 845 FTE teachers in state funded schools in South Leicestershire constituency. This is an increase of 0.8% from last year (838) and an increase of 12.2% since 2010 (753).

The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.

The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing. The Department has extended bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK national trainees in languages and physics.

The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. There are 18 schools in the Leicester Local Authority area and 12 schools in the Leicestershire Local Authority eligible for Levelling Up Premium payments worth up to £2,000. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.

The Department launched a pilot initial teacher training course in spring 2022 called ‘Engineers teach physics’. It was designed to encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher.

The Department has increased the number of providers offering ‘Engineers teach physics’ in the second year to 18. This expansion of providers will ensure that this programme will be available to more trainees across the country.


Written Question
Pupils: Absenteeism
Friday 7th July 2023

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the rate of fines for parents and carers taking their children out of school during term times on encouraging school attendance.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Parents have a duty to ensure their child of compulsory school age, who is registered at school, attends regularly.

The Department has not formally assessed the impact of penalty notices. Data shows that absence due to unauthorised holidays, for which 85% of penalty notices are issued, has remained stable between 2017/18 (85%) and 2021/22 (85%). Data for 2020/21 should not be used due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The Department has consulted on a new framework to improve consistency and fairness in issuing penalty notices and to ensure they are used effectively as part of the suite of parental responsibility measures. The Department will be responding to this consultation in due course.


Written Question
Students: Mental Health
Wednesday 24th May 2023

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to provide funding for improving the mental health of 18-25 year olds in further or higher education; and whether it is his policy to support the introduction of legislation to make it compulsory for universities and colleges to (a) record suicides and (b) facilitate joined up monitoring of mental health of young people in further and higher education.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Every student death is a tragedy. The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent these devastating events, which we know have a profound and lasting impact on family and friends.

Whilst we do not plan to legislate higher education (HE) and further education (FE) providers to publicly record suicide numbers, this department does believe it is important to understand the overall trends in HE suicides and share best practice when tragedy does occur. This is why we asked the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to publish an updated linked data analysis on HE suicides. The ONS published the refreshed dataset and analysis on 31 May 2022, which included HE student deaths by suicide from the 2016/17 to 2019/20 academic years, and this can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020.

In order to better support student mental health, especially with regards to the transition between school or college into HE, the department has asked the Office for Students to distribute £15 million of funding to HE providers in 2023/24 to support student mental health, including providing additional support for transitions from school or college to university, with a particular focus on providing counselling services for students. Funding has already supported 32 providers to actively participate in groups in the seven NHS regions to explore more formal partnership working, with the ultimate aim of closing any gaps in mental health provision for students.

To support the development and implementation of a whole college approach to mental health and wellbeing, the department is giving all colleges in England access to senior mental health leads training by 2025. We are also providing record funding for children and young people’s mental health support in the NHS long term plan, through which we are investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year above 2018/19 levels into mental health services in England by March 2024. This funding will enable an additional 345,000 people under the age of 25 to get the mental health support they need.

The department also recognises that early intervention is critical to prevent the progression and escalation of mental health issues. For this reason, we are introducing Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges. These teams offer support to young people experiencing common mental health issues and facilitate smoother access to external specialist support.

An important step towards HE providers delivering mental health support is student disclosure of mental health conditions. It is vital that students disclose their mental health conditions to their HE provider, so that they can be supported, rather than suffering in silence.

Students are actively encouraged to declare a mental health condition when they apply for university via UCAS. Prospective students can enter any needs related to their mental health difficulty, which is then passed on to the course providers so they can consider additional support, including support prior to commencing the course.

The department supports the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus, which can be found at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/suicide-safer-universities. As well as supporting universities to prevent student suicides and support students and families after the death of a student, this framework includes additional guidance on information sharing and postvention guidance (actions after a death by suspected suicide), which can be found here: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/features/suicide-safer-universities/sharing-information.


Written Question
Skin Cancer: Health Education
Wednesday 27th July 2022

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of (a) melanoma and (b) other skin cancers in schools.

Answered by Will Quince

It is important to educate people about the causes and symptoms of cancer and the department is supportive of efforts to do this at an early age.

The statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education includes content on cancer awareness which should be taught in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. At primary school, the guidance covers safe and unsafe exposure to the sun, and how to reduce the risk of sun damage, including skin cancer. At secondary school, the guidance covers knowing the benefits of regular skin self-examination and screening for melanoma and other skin cancers.

To support schools, the department published a suite of teacher training modules and non-statutory guidance, including a module on health and prevention, which has a section on sun safety, self-examination and screening, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-training-health-and-prevention.

Schools may also teach about cancer awareness in other areas of the national curriculum. For example, the secondary science curriculum ensures pupils are taught about non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, and the impact of lifestyle factors on the incidence of these diseases.


Written Question
Students: LGBT+ People
Tuesday 21st June 2022

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure LGBT+ students are protected from bullying and discrimination within the education system.

Answered by Will Quince

The government has sent a clear message that bullying should never be tolerated, and we are committed to supporting schools to tackle it. The department provides advice for schools, which outlines schools’ responsibilities. Published guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

The department is providing over £2 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2023, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

We are also making sure that all children in England learn about respectful relationships, in-person and online, as part of new mandatory Relationships, Sex and Health Education.

The department has published ‘Respectful School Communities’, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline, available here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

Further and Higher Education providers, have clear responsibilities, including under the Equality Act 2010, and should have robust policies and procedures in place to comply with the law, to investigate and swiftly address reports of harassment. Ofsted's inspection framework for further education providers looks at whether there is "an environment in which learners feel safe because staff and learners do not accept bullying, harassment or discrimination. Staff deal with any issues quickly, consistently, and effectively".

Following on from the publication of its Statement of Expectations on harassment and sexual misconduct in April 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Minister for Higher and Further Education, wrote to the Office for Students to ask that as part of their next steps, they consider options for connecting the statement into conditions of registration. This would mean that providers could be fined failing to take their duties seriously.


Written Question
Apprentices: Standards
Monday 28th February 2022

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that apprentices are not affected by the transition to the provision by Ofqual of external quality assurance of apprenticeship end-point assessments through the regulation of end-point assessment organisations.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Simplifying and strengthening the way we conduct external quality assurance of endpoint assessment organisations (EPAOs) will help to ensure that EPAOs are consistently delivering high quality, fair and reliable endpoint assessments for apprentices and their employers.

To ensure a smooth transition to the new arrangements we are working closely with Ofqual, EPAOs and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. Throughout the transition process our primary aim is to minimise any disruption to apprentices or employers. We are maintaining effective quality oversight of end point assessments in the interests of all stakeholders, including apprentices and have, for example, extended the overall transition deadline to December 2022 to minimize any disruption and will work with any EPAO that fails to achieve the required standard in order to deliver a bespoke plan which priorities the quality of the apprenticeship experience.

We actively manage the register of EPAOs to ensure there is sufficient coverage of EPAOs for all apprenticeship standards and apprentices and continue to do so throughout the transition.


Written Question
GCSE: Assessments
Wednesday 26th January 2022

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that pupils are not disadvantaged due to the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic when undertaking their GCSE examinations this year.

Answered by Robin Walker

It is our firm intention that examinations will go ahead this year. It is of great importance to give pupils the opportunity to sit their examinations and we have put measures in place to ensure they can do so fairly.

We have worked with Ofqual to put in place several adaptations to support the safe and fair delivery of examinations in this academic year to recognise the disruption pupils have already faced, and to account for further disruption. The adaptations being made were welcomed during our joint consultation with Ofqual and include:

  • A choice of topics in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history, and choice of content in GCSE geography.
  • Provision of advance information which will set out the content focus of examinations in subjects where there is no choice of topic or content, to be released by 7 February.
  • Changes to the requirements for the delivery of practical assessments in a range of subjects.
  • Provision of support materials such as formula sheets for examinations in GCSE mathematics, physics, and combined science.

In balancing public confidence in qualifications with fairness, Ofqual have also confirmed that 2022 will be a transition year for grading. Grades will be set at a mid-point between 2021 and pre-pandemic grades. In 2023, Ofqual plans to return to results that are in line with those in pre-pandemic years. This package of adaptations, combined with Ofqual’s approach to grading, provides unprecedented support to maximise fairness and help pupils reach their potential.

Alongside these adaptations, we have announced almost £5 billion in dedicated education recovery funding, including a further £1.8 billion in the recent Spending Review. We have made significant investments in areas that evidence tells us will be the most effective, such as tutoring and teaching, and have directed funding at the most disadvantaged.

In the unlikely event that examinations cannot go ahead fairly or safely, we have contingency arrangements in place and have confirmed pupils will receive teacher assessed grades instead.


Written Question
Camps International: Educational Visits
Wednesday 28th April 2021

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has provided guidance to schools on pre-booked overseas trips with Camp International.

Answered by Nick Gibb

In line with the Government’s COVID-19 response roadmap, the Department advises against all domestic and international residential educational visits until at least Step 3 and no earlier than 17 May. Guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#educational-visits.

The Department will update guidance in line with the timetable set out in the roadmap, including advice on international educational visits, after the Global Travel Taskforce has reported its findings.

Any disputes regarding travel provider, and/or travel insurer, performance or behaviour should be resolved in line with the contractual arrangements and in line with the relevant industry and sector representative body disputes process.

The Association of British Insurers provide information and support at: https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/coronavirus-hub/travel-insurance/.


Written Question
Summer Schools: Coronavirus
Tuesday 23rd March 2021

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of providing schools with the flexibility to decide on how to manage their summer school programmes in order to ensure that programmes take into account the specific needs of their pupils in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb

£200 million will be made available to secondary schools to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will have the flexibility to plan a summer programme that best meets the needs of the school and its pupils. The Department will be publishing guidance for schools shortly.

Although schools are free to involve other pupils where the school has identified a particular need, the Department expects that most will want to focus summer schools on pupils making the transition into Year 7.

The aim of the programme, drawing on the evidence of good practice, is to deliver a summer school that offers a blend of academic education and enrichment activities, but the specific design will be for schools to decide.


Written Question
Assessments: Coronavirus
Friday 27th November 2020

Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the outbreak of covid-19, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that school pupils can sit exams safely in summer 2021.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The COVID-19 contain framework guidance sets out how national and local partners will work with the public at a local level to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks.

The Department has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Public Health England (PHE) to develop specific guidance for school settings. Where schools implement the system of controls outlined in our September reopening guidance, in line with their own workplace risk assessment, PHE and DHSC confirm that they create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.

The Department is working with Ofqual and engaging widely with the education sector to identify any risks to examinations at a national, local, and individual student level, and to consider measures needed to address any potential disruption. This could be a student unable to sit examinations due to illness or self isolation, or schools affected by a local outbreak during the examination season resulting in examination centres not being able to open. More details will be published later in the autumn.