Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2017 to Question 873, what discussions she has had with (a) hon. Members representing for London constituencies, (b) councillors from London local authorities and (c) Greater London Assembly members on school funding since 1 January 2017.
Answered by Nick Gibb
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, has met with members from across the House to discuss the national funding formula and funding for schools. This includes a meeting on 1 Feburary 2017 with MPs from London, and a DCLG Councillors meeting on 15 March 2017, which was attended by local councillors from across the country, including London.
In addition, as Minister for School Standards, I have had meetings with a number of members who represent London constituencies, and local councillors from London Councils. I also took part in a Westminster Hall Debate on School Funding in London in March, with contributions from members from a number of constituencies in London.
Through the national funding formula consultation, we have listened to views from all parts of the country. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, announced a total increase of £1.3 billion new money over the next two years. As a result of this additional investment , the formula will provide at least a 0.5% per pupil cash increase for every school in 2018-19, and 1% by 2019-20, comparied to its baseline. We will say more about our formula when we publish the full details later in September.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with hon. Members for London constituencies, councillors from London local authorities and Greater London Assembly members on school funding since 1 January 2017.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Ministers and officials from the Department have met with a range of stakeholders from across the country to discuss school funding since 1 January 2017, as part of our consultation on schools and high needs national formulae.
I have met hon. Members from across the House, including those who represent London constituencies, and have taken part in meetings with representatives from London Councils, and from London individual local authorities.
I also responded to a Westminster Hall Debate on School Funding in London in March, with contributions from hon. Members from several London constituencies.
We received over 25,000 responses to the consultation, which we are analysing in detail and will publish the response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has agreed a timetable for deciding on the future status of civil partnerships.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government carried out a consultation on the future of civil partnerships in 2014. Views were invited on three options: abolishing civil partnerships; phasing them out; or extending them to opposite sex couples.
The review found that there was no clear consensus on the future of civil partnerships. A majority of respondents to the consultation were against extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples and several significant stakeholders thought it was too soon to consider making changes to civil partnerships until the impact of extending marriage to same sex couples is known. Given the lack of any consensus, the Government did not change the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
The decision not to change the law was judicially reviewed last year and the Government won in the High Court. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against the High Court judgment this week and confirmed that the Government’s approach is lawful.
We welcome the Court’s ruling. Before we take any action on this issue, it is right that we evaluate the impact that same sex marriage has on the take-up of civil partnerships. We will also carefully consider this judgment and its implications before deciding on our next steps.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is monitoring content that is publicly available on social networking sites using overt monitoring techniques.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s small social media team within the communications directorate is responsible for the management of the Department’s social media channels. One part of this team’s role includes manually monitoring content that is publicly made available on social media – including our partners, stakeholders, individuals and our own channels. Monitoring can also be undertaken by other members of the Department, such as analysts, digital/web specialists and policy leads.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the quality of early education and childcare available to disadvantaged children.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to age five. The EYFS helps early years providers to prepare young children for school and improve their life chances by delivering high quality early education.
The most recent EYFS Profile results show that the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has narrowed - 51% of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieved a good level of development (GLD) in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014. This is the equivalent of an extra 5,800 children eligible for FSM achieving a GLD.
We want all children, regardless of their starting point, to have access to high quality early education and childcare, as we know this is what makes the difference to outcomes. To help close the gap between disadvantaged children and their better off peers we introduced the early learning programme for two-year-olds in September 2013. Around 160,000 of our most disadvantaged two-year-olds are already benefiting.
We have also introduced the Early Years Pupil Premium, worth £50 million a year. This provides nurseries and schools delivering the early education entitlement with an extra 53p an hour for disadvantaged three and four year olds to help them close the gap in school readiness.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the quality of early years education.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to age five, which all early years providers must follow. All three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours a week of quality early education, free of charge, to prepare them for school and improve their life chances. 94% of three- and 99% of four-year-olds are taking up the current free entitlement.
The latest Early Years Foundation Stage Profile data reveal that an increasing proportion of children are achieving a good level of development at age five: 66% in 2015, compared to 52% in 2013. This is an impressive increase in the last two years.
The quality of the workforce is key to the quality of early years provision and to the positive outcomes it delivers for children’s long term life chances. In group full day care settings, 87% of the workforce has a relevant qualification at level 3. Many of the workforce are qualified beyond level 3. Since 2007, over 16,000 individuals have achieved Early Years Professional Status and Early Years Teacher Status.
We will continue to grow a high quality workforce to drive improvement across the sector through our Workforce Strategy. The strategy will consider how career progression in the sector can be improved to attract and retain quality staff and how effective continuing professional development can help settings to deliver the best quality provision they can.
The government is committed to supporting parents with high childcare costs and is investing in childcare at record levels. By 2019-20 we will be spending more than £6 billion on early years and childcare. The Childcare Bill is delivering the government’s election manifesto commitment to giving families where parents are working an entitlement to 30 hours of free childcare for their three- and four-year-olds.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many tenders from (a) Serco and (b) G4S for contracts let by her Department were successful in each year since May 2010; how much her Department paid to each of those companies for the execution of contracts in each such year; how many contracts which terminate after 2015 each company holds with her Department; and what the monetary value is of all outstanding contracts between her Department and each company.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information, in the form requested, is not held centrally and a full answer could only be provided at disproportionate costs.
From the information we do hold centrally we have a total of two contracts with Serco, both of which are due to expire on 31 March 2015.
The amount paid to Serco and G4S since May 2010 is as follows:
Financial Year ending March
Year | Serco | G4S |
2011 | £22,708,767.65 | Nil |
2012 | £1,859,328.89 | Nil |
2013 | £3,937,575.89 | Nil |
2014 | £2,210,233.65 | £12,458.31 |
2015 | £600,983.28 | £466.20 (up to end of November 2014) |
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many tenders from Capita Group plc for contracts let by her Department have been successful in each year since May 2010; how much her Department paid to Capita Group plc for the execution of contracts in each such year; how many contracts which terminate after 2015 Capita Group plc hold with her Department; and what the monetary value is of all outstanding contracts between her Department and Capita Group plc.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information, in the form requested, is not held centrally and a full answer could only be provided at disproportionate costs.
From the information the Department does hold, we have two main contracts with organisations in Capita Group, the Learner Support Contract which is due to expire on 31 August 2015 and the Teachers Pensions Administration, which is due to expire on 30 September 2021.
The Teachers’ Pension Administration and the Learner Support contracts are both fixed price, but could change over the remaining duration of the contracts. Therefore, at present, the remaining value of the two contracts is £66.97 million.
The amount paid to organisations in the Capita Group since May 2010 is as follows:
Financial Year ending March
Year | Amount |
2011 | £125,579,167.14 |
2012 | £24,812,874.80 |
2013 | £25,837,711.70 |
2014 | £20,828,241.59 |
2015 | £13,215,946.64 (up to end of November 2014) |
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions (a) Serco and (b) G4S have tendered for contracts let by her Department in each year since May 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information is not held centrally and an answer could only be provided at disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions Capita Group plc has tendered for contracts let by her Department in each year since May 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information is not held centrally and an answer could only be provided at disproportionate costs.