Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to speech and language therapists in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s vision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), is the same as it is for all children and young people. The department wants them to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.
The first response when any child is falling behind in school is good quality teaching. To support with this, the department is developing a suite of Practitioner standards, called ’Practice Guides‘ in the SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan, which will set out the best available evidence to help professionals in mainstream settings, including early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, including for those with speech and language needs.
In some cases, additional, specialist support may be required to meet the needs of a child, including support provided by speech and language therapists. The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning. The department established a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work, which is intended to be completed by 2025. The government is also backing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take over the next 15 years to meet the needs of the changing population. This includes increasing the number of allied health professionals such as speech and language therapists.
In addition, working with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within the department’s Change Programme until 2025. The project will fund nine Integrated Care Boards and local areas within each of the nine Change Programme Partnerships to trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with SLCN in early years and primary school settings.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve nutrition education in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government wants to support the health and wellbeing of everyone. The department understands the importance of education in delivering this aim and the department is supporting schools in a number of ways to provide high quality nutrition education for their students.
Nutrition is a discrete strand of the national curriculum for Design and Technology (D&T). This was introduced as part of the 2014 D&T curriculum and is compulsory for key stages 1 to 3. The curriculum aims to teach children how to cook 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.
A food preparation and nutrition GCSE was introduced in September 2016. It requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food.
The importance of nutrition is also included in the science curriculum for both primary and secondary schools. Nutrition through 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.
The statutory guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education includes content on the importance of daily exercise, good nutrition and the risks associated with an inactive lifestyle, including obesity.
Throughout the guidance, there is an emphasis on empowering young people to make choices and adopt lifestyles that will increase their chance of living happy and healthy lives to support the agenda on tackling obesity. To support teachers to deliver the healthy eating topic, the department has developed a teacher training module which can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health#train-teachers-on-relationships-sex-and-health-education.
The government also supports the provision of nutritious food in schools, which ensures pupils are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and can concentrate and learn.
The standards for school food are set out in the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. The School Food Standards are part of the government’s drive to help children adopt healthy eating habits from a young age. The department provides a number of resources for schools, which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools.
The School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme also provides over 2.2 million children in reception and key stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school. Schools are encouraged to use it as an opportunity to educate children and to assist a healthy, balanced diet.
The Oak National Academy will be providing a fully resourced curriculum for key stages 1 to 3 for food and nutrition. This will align with the national curriculum and Oak’s guiding principles, which focus on the knowledge and skills specific to food and nutrition.
Oak have assured the department that pupils will be able to cook more than six savoury dishes by the end of key stage three by following their food curriculum.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to reduce the time taken to complete education, health and care plans.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, where required, are issued as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need.
In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system through its SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan. It commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
As part of these reforms, the department is currently testing measures to deliver a nationally consistent EHC plan system to improve the quality and speed with which support is put in place.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.
Following the joint SEND local area revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2022, an Improvement Notice was issued to Devon County Council with a requirement to develop an Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) that addressed the four areas of weakness including one relating to EHC plans. In line with the Improvement Notice, the APP is subject to rigorous monitoring by the department and NHS England and the department continues to work closely with the local area to ensure they are supported in addressing issues and driving improvements to services.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support students whose multi year college and university courses are cancelled prior to their completion.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government established the Office for Students (OfS) as the independent regulator for higher education (HE) in 2018. As a pre-condition for registration, the OfS requires all HE providers to submit student protection plans for approval. This means that all HE providers registered with the OfS must have a student protection plan in place.
Student protection plans set out what students in HE can expect to happen should a course, campus, or institution close. The purpose of a plan is to ensure that students can continue and complete their studies, or can be compensated if this is not possible.
In the event of a change in a provider’s circumstances, such as a significant course closure or a campus closure, the OfS will work closely with the provider and its students to ensure that students’ interests continue to be protected. Universities have previously worked to reduce the impact on students in a variety of ways, many universities have awarded degrees when they have enough evidence of a student’s prior attainment to do so. Others have assigned provisional grades to students to allow them to progress.
Where a student complaint cannot be resolved through the institution’s own complaint processes, the student can ask for their complaint to be reviewed by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education in England (OIA), which was set up to review student complaints about higher education providers in England. The OIA's website gives details about eligibility criteria and how to make a complaint.
Further education colleges are autonomous organisations, therefore they are responsible for the management of their operations. If a college has to withdraw a course, or if there is a change to the course provision, we would expect college course leaders to give affected students as much help and support as possible to find a suitable alternative course.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary schools in England use literacy resources at Key stage 1 designed specifically for (a) deaf children and (b) other visual learners that include visual languages to support access and inclusion in early literacy as of July 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the importance of supporting all children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including deaf children and those with a hearing impairment.
On the Get Information About Schools service, there are 197 primary schools and five all-through schools listed as providing for children with hearing impairments. This information is available at: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
The government does not collect local authority level data on specialist education services for children with sensory impairments. The Children and Families Act 2014 requires all local authorities to publish a local offer of services for children and young people with SEND in their area, to ensure that families are aware of services that are available in their area and are able to contribute to shaping the services to meet local needs. Information about the support available for children with sensory impairment should be included within that local offer.
In the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out a mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings, reducing reliance on Education, Health and Care plans to access support.
The department will improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings, who is responsible for securing the support and from what budgets.
On 11 July 2023, the department published an updated version of our Reading Framework, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1168960/The_Reading_Framework_July_2023.pdf. This provides best practice guidance for improving early reading teaching, including for pupils with SEND.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students who have received chemistry or physics bursaries for undertaking a PGCE accept a job in a state school at the end of their training; and what proportion of those teachers who remain in such employment after five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s published data shows that the rate of progression into teaching for those who receive a bursary is very similar to the rate of progression for all trainees. Of those who trained in 2020/21, the Department provisionally estimates that 74% of chemistry postgraduate trainees and 73% of physics postgraduate trainees who were awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and were eligible for a bursary will be employed as a teacher in a state funded school in England within 16 months of the end of the academic year. The equivalent employment rate for all postgraduate trainees, whether they received a bursary or not, is 73%.
The Department does not currently hold data showing the employment rate of bursary recipients after five years.
For trainees starting Initial Teacher Training in the 2023/24 academic year, the Department is providing a £27,000 tax free bursary and a £29,000 scholarship in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The Department is also providing a Levelling Up Premium of up to £3,000 tax free annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. These incentives are designed to support the recruitment and retention of teachers in these subjects, and to encourage them to work in the schools and areas that need them most.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to attract STEM teachers to schools in Devon.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of teachers remains high, with more than 468,000 across the country, which is 27,000 more than in 2010. In November 2022, the latest available data, there were 5,667 full-time equivalent teachers in state funded schools in Devon. This is an increase of 1.7% from last year (5,571) and an increase of 4.6% since 2010, when the school workforce census began (5,419).
The Department recognises that recruitment and retention in some subjects, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, remains more challenging and the Department has put additional targeted initiatives in place.
In October 2022, the Department announced an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting ITT in 2023/24, which is a £52 million increase on 2022/23. The package includes bursaries worth £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach in key subjects, such as physics, chemistry and computing. More information on the financial incentives package can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2023-to-2024.
For the 2023/24 academic year, the Department has also extended bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK national trainees in physics.
The Department is offering a Levelling Up Premium (LUP) worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. In Devon, there are 25 secondary schools that are eligible for the LUP. Specialist teachers in these schools can claim up to £2,000 tax free annually. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
In spring 2022, the Department launched ‘Engineers teach physics’, an ITT course which was piloted as a step to encourage engineering graduates and career changers with an engineering background to consider a career as a physics teacher. Following the pilot year, the Department has now rolled ‘Engineers teach physics’ out nationally, with 18 providers currently offering this course.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Primary Schools use literacy resources at KS1 designed specifically for deaf children and visual leaners which include visual languages.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department does not collect information on or monitor the use of literacy resources designed specifically for deaf children and visual learners that primary schools use at Key Stage 1.
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice 2015 includes guidance on the role of early years providers and schools in identifying and supporting children with special educational needs, including those with visual and hearing impairments.
Systematic phonics is the best evidenced way to teach children to decode the English alphabetic code. By ensuring high quality phonics teaching, literacy levels for all children can be improved as they progress through school.
Published in 2021, the Reading Framework defines best practice for improving early reading teaching, including guidance on ensuring reading teaching is accessible for all pupils.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many deaf children reached their age related reading score for their year 1 phonic screening check assessment in the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department publishes data on the attainment of pupils recorded as having a hearing impairment in the phonics screening check within the ‘Key Stage 1 and phonics screening check attainment’ statistics publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-1-and-phonics-screening-check-attainment/2021-22.
The attached table includes the number of pupils recorded as having a hearing impairment who met the expected standard in Year 1 in the phonics screening check between 2016 and 2022. In addition, the number of such pupils eligible to take the check and the number and proportion working towards the standard, were absent or disapplied from the check are included to provide context. Data for 2020 and 2021 is not available due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These statistics include pupils with special educational needs in state-funded schools where hearing impairment was recorded as their primary type of need on the school census. Therefore, these statistics will not capture all pupils in Year 1 with a hearing impairment.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
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 enabling an Ukrainian student who is taking English language exams for the first time an additional 10 per cent of time to complete their papers; and what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that those taking exams in a second language have sufficient time to complete exam papers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Many awarding organisations and qualifications, including all GCSEs, AS and A levels and those awarding them, are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). Ofqual sets the standards and rules that awarding organisations need to meet when they design, deliver and award regulated qualifications.
Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition (Condition G2) states that an awarding organisation must ensure that all pupils taking its qualifications in England are assessed in English, except where use of another language is permitted, for example, because it is one of the primary objectives of the qualification for the pupil to gain knowledge of, skills in, and understanding of that language. The full list of General Conditions is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ofqual-handbook/section-g-setting-and-delivering-the-assessment.
Access arrangements may be appropriate for pupils with limited fluency in English, for example, the use of a bilingual dictionary. Applications for access arrangements are approved by awarding organisations ahead of the examination or assessment. The Joint Council for Qualification’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments regulations sets out the assessment criteria and evidence required for different types of arrangements which examination centres can apply for on behalf of a pupil. The regulations are available at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AA_regs_22-23_May23_revision_FINAL.pdf.
Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding which qualifications they enter pupils for, based on what is in their best interests. Schools will want to carefully consider the individual circumstances of pupils before deciding the appropriateness of an examination entry and will make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. Schools and colleges should also contact the relevant awarding organisation(s) to discuss the arrangements that may be suitable for individual pupils.