Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on enhancing (a) diet and (b) nutrition education in the school curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have met to discuss a range of issues and projects.
This department’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will aim to deliver a curriculum that ensures young people leave compulsory education with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to achieve and thrive throughout life. The call for evidence is drawing to a close, but the review group will be continuing with other forms of engagement for the rest of the first term of the 2024/25 academic year.
The importance of a healthy diet and good nutrition is already covered through a number of subjects in the national curriculum, including design and technology (D&T), science and relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).
The cooking and nutrition strand of D&T, which is compulsory for key stages 1 to 3, aims to teach children how to cook, with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves and others, healthy and affordable food.
Similarly, in science, healthy eating is covered through topics relating to nutrition and digestion, which cover the content of a healthy diet and the impact of diet on how the body functions.
Furthermore, within health education as a part of RSHE, it is expected that by the end of primary, pupils should know what constitutes a healthy diet, including understanding calories and other nutritional content, the characteristics of a poor diet and the risks associated with unhealthy eating. By the end of secondary, pupils should know how to maintain healthy eating and the links between a poor diet and health risks, including tooth decay and cancer.
At GCSE, pupils can delve deeper into diet and nutrition by choosing to study Food Preparation and Nutrition. The subject requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food.
The department is also providing additional support for teachers through the Oak National Academy, who have been working to give teachers and their pupils access to free, optional and adaptable high quality digital curriculum resources. They have a wide array of lesson plans for D&T that contain healthy and tasty recipes to help children to understand the significance of what they put into their bodies.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to make changes to how it calculates special guardianship allowances.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the valuable and important role that kinship carers, including special guardians, play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children. The department is committed to working with local government to support children in care, including through kinship arrangements.
Local authorities have the powers to provide a range of services, including financial support, to support children and families. As local authorities know their carers best, they have the power to decide what financial support should be provided to special guardianship carers and their children and any payments should be made in accordance with their model for assessing support needs. The government does not set a maximum or minimum allowance for local authorities to administer. While the government recognises the financial constraints on local authorities, guidance makes it clear that children and young people should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare.
Financial support is paid at the discretion of the local authority and in accordance with their model for assessing support needs. All local authorities should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the pilot of the family first for children pathfinder and family network.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to providing timely support to children and families that need help. Evidence shows that preventing problems from escalating leads to better outcomes for children and families and reduces cost pressures for local authorities and beyond.
The Families First for Children Pathfinder and Family Networks Pilot are testing whole-system children’s social care reform to help families overcome challenges, thrive together and keep children safe.
The pathfinder and pilot are being independently evaluated and interim findings are expected in spring 2025. The evaluation will support the department's understanding of both by assessing implementation, delivery, impact and value for money.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to support (a) Central Bedfordshire Council (b) North Hertfordshire Council with SEND provision.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing the necessary support to improve the experiences for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach to improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and alternative provision settings, as well as to ensure special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
Ofsted inspected local arrangements for children with SEND in Central Bedfordshire in November 2019 and found six areas of significant weakness. The local area was required to produce a written statement of action, which was approved by Ofsted in September 2020. A follow up revisit in July 2022 found the local area had made sufficient progress in three of the six areas of significant weakness. The department monitors progress against Central Bedfordshire’s improvement plan and provides support and challenge, including from a SEND expert advisor.
Ofsted inspected local arrangements for children with SEND in Hertfordshire in July 2023. Its report, published in November 2023, concluded that there are widespread and/or systemic failings, leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently. Hertfordshire local area partnership has established a SEND improvement board which is independently chaired by Dame Christine Lenehan to oversee progress and provide appropriate challenge. The department monitors progress against Hertfordshire’s improvement plan and priority action plan and provides support and challenge, including from a SEND expert advisor.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) Hitchin constituency and (ii) East of England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High-quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education.
There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, but the department must do more to recruit additional teachers, especially in shortage subjects in secondary. This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers.
Numbers of teachers in Hitchin and East of England have increased slightly in the last year with 1,102 teachers in Hitchin and Harpenden in 2023/24 (up from 1,087 in 2022/23), and 52,995 teachers in East of England (up from 52,308 in 2022/23). The department is doing more to attract teachers in these areas. Financial incentives are one of the most effective ways to increase teacher supply, and the department is continuing to support teacher trainees with bursaries in shortage subjects, and with retention payments for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers, who chose to work in disadvantaged schools. In 2023/24, 286 schools in the East of England were eligible for these payments.
To further help retention to ensure teachers stay and thrive in the profession, the department is also addressing teacher workload and wellbeing, and supporting schools to introduce flexible working practices. For example, Thomas Gainsborough School of Unity Schools Partnership, as one of the Flexible Working Ambassador Schools, is helping schools across the East of England to introduce flexible working practices.
In addition, Chiltern Teaching School Hub in Hitchin, and the 10 Teaching School Hubs across the East of England, are centres of excellence, supporting teacher training and development.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Mental Health Support Teams there were in (a) Hitchin constituency, (b) Bedfordshire and (c) North Hertfordshire in each year since 2010.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) have three core functions. Firstly, to deliver evidence-based early interventions for emerging and actual mental health issues, 1 to 1 and in groups. Secondly, to support a school or college’s mental health lead to embed an effective approach to promote and support mental health and wellbeing. Thirdly, to advise school and college staff, and liaise with external specialist services, to help pupils and learners to get the right timely support and stay in education.
Data specifically on how many MHSTs there are in Bedfordshire, Hitchin constituency and North Hertfordshire is not currently available.
However, data published by NHS England shows that since 2018/19, when the first wave of MHSTs were commissioned, 11 MHSTs have been established across Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. For the first 9 MHSTs established up to 2022/23, this equates to MHST coverage of 43% of pupils and learners and 40% of schools and colleges in these areas
A link to the data can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/#_Mental_Health_Support and https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F6642052bf34f9b5a56adc5dd%2FTransforming_children_and_young_people_s_mental_health_implementation_programme_2024_data-tables.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of childcare in Hitchin constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Delivering high quality affordable childcare is a priority for this government. As an initial step, the department is progressing work to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help increase the number of places available to parents, whilst also driving high and rising standards and better opportunities for every child.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, including supporting them through the childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on the implementation of the National Kinship Care Strategy.
Answered by David Johnston
‘Championing Kinship Care’, which was published on 15 December 2023, sets out the department’s vision for a future kinship care system and how kinship carers can be better supported, so that more children can thrive. The department is investing £20 million of funding in 2024/25 to help move towards a children’s social care system with kinship at its heart.
The department will launch a Pathfinder programme in 2024 in up to eight local authorities to provide special guardian kinship carers, who care for previously looked after children, with a financial allowance to be paid at the same rate as foster care. This programme will be backed by an investment of £16 million in 2024/25 and the department will explore expanding eligibility to broader cohorts of kinship carers and all local authorities in the future, subject to the findings of our evaluation. The department is currently working through the criteria for the eight local authorities, and will share further information on the Pathfinder in the coming months.
The department also announced £3.8 million in 2024/25 to expand the role of Virtual School Heads to specifically include championing the education, attendance and attainment of children in kinship care. Local authority funding allocations were published in March 2024 and the role extension will come into effect from September 2024.
The department is also delivering a package of training and support that all kinship carers across England can access if they wish to within this Spending Review period. The department is pleased to confirm the charity Kinship as the successful training partner and that the service went live in April 2024.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on the implementation of the financial allowance pathfinder.
Answered by David Johnston
The department will launch a Pathfinder programme in 2024 in up to eight local authorities to provide special guardian kinship carers, who care for previously looked after children, with a financial allowance to be paid at the same rate as foster care. This programme will be backed by an investment of £16 million in 2024/25 and the department will explore expanding eligibility to broader cohorts of kinship carers and all local authorities in the future, subject to the findings of our evaluation. Local authority selection will take place this year. The department will also work with an evaluation partner to make sure that the programme can provide robust evidence for future rollout. The department will share further information on the Pathfinder in the coming months.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to announce the eight local authorities selected for the financial allowance pathfinder.
Answered by David Johnston
The department will launch a Pathfinder programme in 2024 in up to eight local authorities to provide special guardian kinship carers, who care for previously looked after children, with a financial allowance to be paid at the same rate as foster care. This programme will be backed by an investment of £16 million in 2024/25 and the department will explore expanding eligibility to broader cohorts of kinship carers and all local authorities in the future, subject to the findings of our evaluation. Local authority selection will take place this year. The department will also work with an evaluation partner to make sure the programme can provide robust evidence for future rollout. The department will share further information on the Pathfinder in the coming months.