Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrea Leadsom and Claire Coutinho

Monday 17th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dame Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

8. What recent steps her Department has taken to tackle bullying in schools.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

All children should have access to a calm, safe and supportive school environment. In addition to school behaviours policies that must include measures to prevent bullying, we have provided more than £3 million in funding between August 2021 and March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations supporting schools in tackling bullying.

[Dame Andrea Leadsom]

I congratulate my hon. Friend for all her work tackling bullying. So many constituents write to me about the problems their children are experiencing. How are the behaviour hubs making a difference in schools and tackling the bullying that is so prevalent, particularly as a result of online harms and social media, which are all too frequent?

[Claire Coutinho]

We are confident that the behaviour hubs programme is helping schools to create calm, understanding and positive environments by spreading best practice. The behaviour hubs programme is being evaluated and impact assessed. We will publish an interim report in 2024. I would be delighted to discuss those findings with my right hon. Friend.

Childcare Reform Package

Debate between Andrea Leadsom and Claire Coutinho

Wednesday 28th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Claire Coutinho]

I recognise that it has been a challenging few years for the sector. In this piece of work we have surveyed about 10,000 providers, we have a providers’ finance report and we have surveyed about 6,000 parents, so we used a very data-driven estimate to come up with the figure. We will be consulting on the funding before the summer and, as I said, there will be funding coming in September before any expansion of the entitlements, which start in April next year. There will be additional money next year and by 2027-28 we will be spending an additional £4 billion that will be distributed via local authorities to those settings.

[Dame Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on such an excellent statement today—I think the shadow Minister needs to read it, because he clearly did not listen to it.

My hon. Friend has clearly thought about the need for top-quality childcare, which for many young children is vital when their home life is perhaps not all it could be. One thing she has not talked much about is the provision of new workforce. Can she comment a bit more on her consultation on changing the requirement for high-level qualifications to a requirement for qualifications that are more appropriate to providing empathetic and supportive care?

[Claire Coutinho]

I know my right hon. Friend is incredibly passionate about this area, and I share her passion. In the consultation we have set out some flexibilities after talking to the sector; an example of that would be relaxing some of the requirements around having level 2 maths for level 3 qualifications, which we know has been a barrier for some people. We are looking at all kinds of flexibilities that mean we will get the right staff at every stage to make sure that our children get the right education.