Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding Family Hubs to all local authorities in England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Family Hubs are a one stop shop for families to make it easier for them to get the help they need. The government would like to see Family Hubs across the country. The department has selected 75 local authorities based on levels of disadvantage to target the areas with the highest levels of deprivation and disproportionately poor health and educational outcomes. It is crucial that the department focuses on delivering fairly in these 75 local authorities already committed to and building the evidence base. The department has appointed Ecorys, Sheffield Hallam University and Ipsos to assess the family hubs aspect of the ‘Family Hubs and Start for Life’ programme. The newly commissioned evaluation will explore how the programme is being implemented across local authorities, where improvements can be made, and how it offers value-for-money. The department expects to publish the findings of the evaluation in late 2025.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to commence section 93A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department will commence Section 93a of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, making recording and reporting incidents of reasonable force a legal duty. This will be enacted to coincide with the publication of updates to the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance, originally published in 2013, to ensure that schools have adequate advice on how they should be recording and reporting any incidents where reasonable force, including restrictive interventions, is used.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is to respond to her Department's consultation entitled Use of reasonable force and restrictive practices in schools which closed on 11 May 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises that the misuse of reasonable force and restrictive interventions can have a significant and long-lasting effect on the pupils, staff members and parents involved, as well as the wider classroom, which can potentially hinder the creation of a calm, safe and supportive school environment. The government is committed to minimising the use of reasonable force and restrictive interventions in all schools in England, including special schools and alternative provision.
This commitment includes updating the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance, published in 2013, to provide advice for schools on creating environments that minimise the use of reasonable force and restrictive interventions, the powers of school staff to use reasonable force and restrictive interventions safely, appropriately and within the law, and making recording and reporting incidents of reasonable force a legal duty.
Updates to the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance will be informed by the call for evidence which closed on 11 May 2023, as well as independent research into the use of reasonable force, physical restraint and other restrictive practices in special schools and alternative provision settings, stakeholder engagement, and data collection through departmental omnibus surveys. The department is considering all responses to the call for evidence as part of its work before the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance goes out for public consultation later this year.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the implementation of the increase in foster carers allowances announced in February 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Every year, the Department for Education (DfE) works with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to review the allowance and consider any changes in inflation and affordability for local government.
In February 2023, the DfE raised the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) for foster carers by 12.43% for the 2023/24 financial year. The DfE has also raised the NMA by 6.88% for the 2024/25 financial year. Both allowances are above the rate of inflation and demonstrate the government’s commitment to supporting foster carers.
The DfE expects all local authorities to pay at least the NMA, to ensure that foster carers are never financially disadvantaged by their fostering role.
The duty to pay this allowance is set out in the Fostering National Minimum Standards, issued under the Care Standards Act 2000. All carers should receive the allowance, along with any other agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them.
In December, I wrote to all local authorities reminding them of this duty and the expectation to pay.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance includes a requirement for pupils to be taught about the risks associated with e-cigarettes and vapes.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 1 June 2023, the Prime Minister announced steps to prevent pupils getting access to vapes illegally. As part of this, the Department is planning to include a specific reference to the harms of vaping in the amended Relationships, Sex and Health education (RSHE) curriculum.
The RSHE statutory guidance, which sets out the curriculum topics, already states that in primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use, and drug-taking. To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the Department published a suite of teacher training modules, including on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes (vaping).
In addition, the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco are taught in compulsory health education. This supplements drug education which is part of the National Curriculum for science in Key Stages 2 and 3.
Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises. This should be communicated to all pupils, parents and school staff.
Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include vapes. Items banned by the school can be searched for as outlined in the department’s Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to the 2023 report of the School Teachers Review Body.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As part of the normal pay round process, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted its report and recommendations to the government on teacher pay for the 2023/24 academic year. The department is considering the recommendations and will publish our response and the report in the usual way, in due course.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information gathered in nursery on whether or not a child has suspected SEND is passed on to their next educational setting.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers in England must follow. This includes statutory assessment arrangements for measuring progress of all children in early years provision, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
As set out in the EYFS framework, when a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the three prime areas of learning and development. This is the ‘progress check at age two’. The progress check must identify the child’s strengths and any areas where progress is less than expected. If there are significant emerging concerns, or an identified SEND, practitioners should develop a targeted plan to support the child’s future learning and development, involving parents and/or carers and other professionals as appropriate.
Practitioners should encourage parents and/or carers to share information from the progress check with other relevant professionals, including the staff of any new provision the child may transfer to.
Additionally, the EYFS requires early years providers, ordinarily schools, in England to complete the EYFS profile assessment for all children, including those with SEND, at the end of the academic year in which they turn five, usually reception year.
Each child’s level of development is assessed against 17 early learning goals (ELGs). For each ELG, practitioners must assess whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS, or if they are not yet reaching this level and should be assessed as ‘emerging’.
Year 1 teachers must be given a copy of the EYFS profile report. The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to support a successful transition to key stage 1 by informing the professional dialogue between EYFS and year 1 teachers regarding each child’s stage of development and learning needs, and helping them to plan the year 1 curriculum to meet the needs of all children.
For children attending more than one setting, the profile must be completed by the school where the child spends most time. If a child moves to a new school during the academic year, the original school must send their assessment of the child’s level of development against the ELGs to the relevant school within 15 days of receiving a request. If a child moves during the summer term, relevant providers must agree which of them will complete the profile.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information on a child’s educational profile and progress is passed from a nursery to their next educational setting.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers in England must follow. This includes statutory assessment arrangements for measuring progress of all children in early years provision, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
As set out in the EYFS framework, when a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the three prime areas of learning and development. This is the ‘progress check at age two’. The progress check must identify the child’s strengths and any areas where progress is less than expected. If there are significant emerging concerns, or an identified SEND, practitioners should develop a targeted plan to support the child’s future learning and development, involving parents and/or carers and other professionals as appropriate.
Practitioners should encourage parents and/or carers to share information from the progress check with other relevant professionals, including the staff of any new provision the child may transfer to.
Additionally, the EYFS requires early years providers, ordinarily schools, in England to complete the EYFS profile assessment for all children, including those with SEND, at the end of the academic year in which they turn five, usually reception year.
Each child’s level of development is assessed against 17 early learning goals (ELGs). For each ELG, practitioners must assess whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS, or if they are not yet reaching this level and should be assessed as ‘emerging’.
Year 1 teachers must be given a copy of the EYFS profile report. The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to support a successful transition to key stage 1 by informing the professional dialogue between EYFS and year 1 teachers regarding each child’s stage of development and learning needs, and helping them to plan the year 1 curriculum to meet the needs of all children.
For children attending more than one setting, the profile must be completed by the school where the child spends most time. If a child moves to a new school during the academic year, the original school must send their assessment of the child’s level of development against the ELGs to the relevant school within 15 days of receiving a request. If a child moves during the summer term, relevant providers must agree which of them will complete the profile.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ensure the Government's proposals for free childcare for children aged over nine months, as announced in the Budget 2023, apply to parents who already have childcare arrangements in place.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is expanding the current free childcare offer, so that eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.
From April 2024, working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week (across 38 weeks of the year). From September 2024 this will be extended to parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds, and from September 2025 working parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds will be able to access 30 free hours per week (38 weeks a year).
Parents who already have childcare arrangements in place will be able to benefit from this new offer, as well as benefiting from the government’s current range of childcare offers, which includes the free early education entitlements as well as Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit Childcare.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools in Stockton North constituency had at least one construction element in (a) condition grade C and (b) condition grade D when that data was collated; and which of those schools (a) have already received funding from the School Rebuilding Programme and (b) are expected to receive funding from the School Rebuilding Programme in the next two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:
Parliamentary constituency | Schools selected for SRP |
Wakefield | Ossett Academy and Sixth Form College, announced December 2022 |
Stockton North | St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, announced July 2021 St Paul's Catholic Primary School, announced July 2021 |
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.