Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an estimate of the sufficiency of childcare provision in Stockton North constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. At present, all local authorities report that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.
The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable, at 1.3 million places since August 2015. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-statistics.
The department also discusses sufficiency of provision in regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any substantial sufficiency issues, and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure a childcare place.
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. We collect data on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England, and fees data can be broken down to local authority level. The latest data for Stockton-on-Tees local authority shows that the mean hourly fee band for two-year-old children in 2021 is £5.75, and £5.50 for three and 4-year-olds.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the capital cost of tackling the backlog of repairs in schools in Stockton North constituency.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department plans to publish remediation costs to bring schools back into good condition based on data collected in the Condition Data Collection programme (CDC) by the end of the year. This will include the schools in Stockton North constituency.
The key, high-level findings of the CDC programme, were published in May 2021 in the report ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’.
The report is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
The Department has no plans to make a statement.
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 address repairs backlogs in further education colleges in Stockton North constituency.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The Further Education (FE) Capital Transformation Programme is delivering the £1.5 billion manifesto commitment to upgrade FE college estates.
Through this programme, £200 million was allocated to all FE colleges and designated institutions to undertake immediate remedial work and upgrade the condition of their estates. The Education Training Collective, which incorporates the FE colleges in Stockton-on-Tees received an allocation of £960,000 of capital funding, to improve their estate in August 2020.
The next stage of the programme of investment to upgrade the FE estate is due to be announced later this year.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was (a) allocated and (b) spent in Stockton North through the National Tutoring Programme in each month since it was launched.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department does not hold information on Tuition Partners or Academic Mentors at constituency level.
School-led tutoring grant allocations by school and local authority have been published. Information relating to the academic year 2021 to 2022 is available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1071234/School_Led_Funding_Publication_File_flat_values_v1.ods.
Information relating to the academic year 2022 to 2023 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2022-to-2023-academic-year.
Payment information relating to School-Led Tutoring for the academic year 2021 to 2022, will be published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency once the reconciliation process has been completed for that period.
Between November 2020 and June 2022, over 2 million tuition courses were started. The Government has committed more than £1 billion to support tutoring over academic years 2020 to 2023/24, during which we aim to offer up to six million tutoring courses.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will extend the provision of Supported Internships to people with a learning disability who are over the age of 25.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
Supported internships are part of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, which is designed to address the needs of children and young people up to the age of 25. Extending the Supported Internships programme to people over the age of 25 is not current government policy.
Young people who have previously had an education, health and care plan and have reached the age of 25, may also be eligible for funding through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above, including those learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
For young people, including those with SEND, apprenticeships can be the first step on the ladder that leads to fulfilling careers and further learning. For apprentices of all ages, they can provide a route to career progression, reskilling, and upskilling. The department has improved our Find an Apprenticeship service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department provides additional support to universities in the North East on creating skilled graduates for the life science sector in that region.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
I refer the hon. Member for Stockton North to the answer I gave on 19 July 2022 to Question 32529.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support universities in the North East to provide skilled graduates for the region’s life science sector.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The department has worked with Universities UK, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, the Institute of Student Employers, the Office for Students (OfS), and across the sector to understand what more we can do to support graduates looking to enter the labour market. This includes supporting graduates to work in life sciences.
We have also developed the graduate employment and skills guide, which was published on 10 May 2021 on the OfS’ website. The guide signposts graduate to public, private, and voluntary sector opportunities to help them build employability skills, gain work experience, or enter the labour market.
Additionally, the Medical Research Council targets around £85 million each year towards developing research careers, supporting around 1,600 PhD students. Many students are based within North East Universities, including Newcastle University.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to fund a new (a) primary and (b) secondary school to serve Wynyard within Stockton on Tees Borough.
Answered by Robin Walker
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department allocates capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities provide school places, based on their own forecast data.
Local authorities can use Basic Need funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools. Where a local authority thinks there is a demographic need for a new school in its area, it must seek proposals to establish an academy. This is known as the free school presumption process.
Stockton-on-Tees was allocated just under £61.6 million of basic need grant funding between 2011 and 2021. It has not been allocated funding in subsequent allocations because its data indicates need for mainstream places up to September 2025 had already been funded in previous years.
The department also funds new schools through the central free schools route. Under this process the department has recently approved a new primary school in Hartlepool that will also serve the Wynyard area of Stockton-on-Tees.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the proposal in his Department's SEND review to only allow families with disabled children to pick a school from a pre-defined list, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on the mental health of parent carers from having to appeal this list in order to have their child attend a school that meets their disabled child’s needs.
Answered by Will Quince
Through the proposals set out in the SEND and AP green paper, it is our aim to provide parents and carers with a clearer understanding of the support that should be available to meet their child’s needs, regardless of where they live.
Where specialist provision is required, the department is consulting on proposals for a simplified process where parents will be supported to express an informed preference for a suitable placement from a tailored list of settings that are appropriate to meet their child’s needs.
This aims to give parents and carers clarity on what is available locally which may still include mainstream, special, independent, or out of borough provision where appropriate in order to meet their child’s needs.
The expectation is that all schools on the list will be settings that can meet the child’s special educational needs as identified in their education, health and care needs assessments, therefore reducing the need to appeal and improving the choice offered to parents.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 25 April 2022 to Question 155726 on Special Educational Needs: Tribunals, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the introduction of compulsory mediation on the ability of families with disabled children to access the SEND Tribunal and obtain redress when necessary.
Answered by Will Quince
As the SEND and AP green paper sets out, the new national system will be designed to minimise uncertainty and disagreements throughout the system and improve parental confidence. The department recognises, however, that disputes around decision-making may still occur.
The government’s proposals seek to resolve issues earlier and improve relationships locally by strengthening mediation, including consulting on making it mandatory. Appeals to the tribunal should only need to be made in cases where parents feel that their child’s needs or proposed provision arrangements are not in line with the new national SEND standards, and mediation has not resolved the dispute. Mediation helps to maintain and improve relationships between providers, local authorities and families which is important for long-term collaborative working and supports better outcomes for children and young people.
This will reduce the need for cases to escalate to tribunal. The department will make sure there is appropriate support available to parents to help them understand the mediation process and how best to engage with it. However, parents will still be able to go to tribunal if necessary.
The green paper is now out for public consultation on its proposals until 22 July.