Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to allow childminders to provide funded places to related children who do not live with them.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Childminders are an important part of the early education sector. They provide flexible and affordable care which can be tailored to the specific needs of parents and children.
Primary legislation does not permit funding care that is provided by a relative under the early years entitlements. Successive governments have taken this same approach to avoid creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis. For this reason, the department currently has no plans to change this long-standing position. A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child. However, this would have to be from local authority funds that are independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to allow childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn. This clarification, which aims to provide more flexibility and remove burdens for childminders while maintaining quality and safety standards, is part of our wider changes to the early years foundation stage.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to consult (a) teachers and (b) students in relation to its planned phase-out of BTEC qualifications.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government has not set out plans to phase out applied general qualifications.
In July, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced the review of qualifications reform. The rapid review is focused on Level 3 qualifications currently scheduled to have funding removed on 31 July 2025.
The department has an extensive programme of engagement underway, to ensure that the views of colleges, schools and teachers are fed into the review of qualifications reform. The department has already held a Ministerial chaired round table with key leaders in the college sector and is undertaking a series of focus groups and interviews with colleges, schools and other organisations to ensure that the views of stakeholders are fully considered. These events include key leaders from across the further education sector, as well as subject teachers and leaders of curriculum in institutions. In addition, departmental officials are using the latest student data and information available to inform the review.