Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of international students to the UK economy.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector.
International tuition fee income at HE providers can be found on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/income.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of findings from a recent IDP Connect survey which found that nearly half of prospective students surveyed were reconsidering or unsure of their plans to study in the UK following changes in policy and rules regarding international students.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government seeks to ensure that there is a fair and robust migration policy while maintaining the UK’s place as a top destination for the best and brightest students from around the world. The department remains committed to the ambitions set out in the government’s International Education Strategy to host 600,000 international students per year and to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year, both by 2030.
The department expects the UK to remain a highly attractive study destination. The UK has four universities in the top 10, and 17 in the top 100. The UK has a highly sought after higher education (HE) experience, which is respected by students across the globe. The department is hugely proud to have met its international student recruitment ambition two years running, with 679,970 international students studying at a UK university in 2021/22.
However, the level of legal migration remains too high. As a result, on 4 December 2023, the government announced a new package of measures to reduce net migration and curb the abuse and exploitation of the country’s immigration system. The department continues to work closely with the Home Office, the Department for Business and Trade, and other governmental departments to assess the impact of these changes on HE providers.
HE providers are autonomous bodies, independent of government. As such, they are responsible for their own admission decisions. The government takes a close interest in ensuring that the HE admissions system is fair and works closely with HE providers and sector bodies to make sure the system works well for students.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will amend the residency requirement for the Skills Bootcamp programme so that newly arrived citizens from the British overseas territories under the BOTC (F), BOTC (M), and the BIOT (Chagossian) routes can take advantage of the programme to help them settle into employment in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Adults are eligible to apply for a Skills Bootcamp if they are aged 19 or over, have the right to work in the UK, live in England and meet residency requirements.
Skills Bootcamps follow the same residency eligibility criteria as other funding streams for further education for adults aged 19+, including the Adult Education Budget. The government has to prioritise which learners to support within the finite resources available.
Learners who have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous three years on the first day of learning are eligible for funding, irrespective of citizenship or nationality. Eligibility also extends to those with a right of abode in the UK, who have been residing in British Overseas Territories for at least the previous three years on the first day of learning.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that living more than 20 miles from home has on (1) the mental health and wellbeing, and (2) educational outcomes, of children in the care system in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.
The department recognises that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care to live in. The way that local authorities currently plan for, commission and provide homes for children is at times not sufficient. This can result in some children living far from where they consider home and can have a negative impact on their wellbeing and outcomes. We want to reduce out of area placements, but sometimes circumstances mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority.
Information on placements, distance from the home placement and the location of the placement can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2022.
In response to the urgent calls from the Competition and Markets Authority and the Care Review to transform the way care is provided to children, the government is working to drive forward improvements at a national, regional and local level to increase sufficiency and improve standards of care and regulations.
By 2027, we will see an increase in the availability of high-quality, stable and loving homes for every child in care local to where they are from. To achieve this, the department is supporting local authorities to increase care placements and ensure they meet children’s needs, with £259 million of capital funding for secure and open children’s homes. We will also review legislation, regulations and standards of care to ensure the needs of all children in care are met.
We are also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of multiple placement moves on the well-being and mental health of children in the care system in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All placement decisions are subject to the duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989, which requires the placement decision to be the most appropriate way to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. The welfare of children must always be paramount and local authorities have a duty to safeguard all children in their care. When the difficult decision is made to change a child’s placement, it must be in the best interest of the child. The department believes that social workers and the courts are best placed to make decisions for vulnerable children, in consideration of all the factors involved in often complex cases. Every child should experience a stable and loving home during their time in care.
Recognising the urgency of action in placement sufficiency, the department is prioritising working with local authorities to recruit more foster carers. This will include pathfinder local recruitment campaigns that build towards a national programme to help ensure those carers approved are the right match for children coming into care, and children have access to the right placements at the right time, including supporting those children who have suffered complex trauma.
Figures on the number of looked after children who moved more than once (three or more placements during the year) were published for the year ending 31 March 2018 to the year ending 31 March 2022 in the table ‘CLA on 31 March with three or more placements during the year – LA’ in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England, including adoptions, 2022’. The table can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/53b32118-528e-4015-777b-08dab100bfc2.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the charity Become Home for Christmas, published on 2 January; and in particular, the finding that, on average, 150 children in the care system in England were moved each day in 2021–22.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All placement decisions are subject to the duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989, which requires the placement decision to be the most appropriate way to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. The welfare of children must always be paramount and local authorities have a duty to safeguard all children in their care. When the difficult decision is made to change a child’s placement, it must be in the best interest of the child. The department believes that social workers and the courts are best placed to make decisions for vulnerable children, in consideration of all the factors involved in often complex cases. Every child should experience a stable and loving home during their time in care.
Recognising the urgency of action in placement sufficiency, the department is prioritising working with local authorities to recruit more foster carers. This will include pathfinder local recruitment campaigns that build towards a national programme to help ensure those carers approved are the right match for children coming into care, and children have access to the right placements at the right time, including supporting those children who have suffered complex trauma.
Figures on the number of looked after children who moved more than once (three or more placements during the year) were published for the year ending 31 March 2018 to the year ending 31 March 2022 in the table ‘CLA on 31 March with three or more placements during the year – LA’ in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England, including adoptions, 2022’. The table can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/53b32118-528e-4015-777b-08dab100bfc2.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure all schools are aware of the extension of the right to free school meals to children in all families subject to the 'no recourse to public funds' rule.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The permanent extension of free school meal (FSM) eligibility to families with no recourse to public funds has been in place since the start of the 2021/22 summer term. The department updated its FSM guidance page at that time to reflect this change. The current guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools-and-local-authorities.
On 20 April 2022, an article on the expansion of FSM eligibility was included in the Education and Skills Funding Agency Update, which was emailed to academies and local authorities directly. The article can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-20-april-2022.
On 26 April 2022, the department issued a notice to all schools and local authorities through its sector bulletin that this change had come into effect.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor the impact of the guidance on school uniforms.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is monitoring the impact of the school uniform guidance through continued engagement with key stakeholders, including via correspondence received by the department from parents, school leaders, and uniform suppliers.
While it is the responsibility of school governing boards to determine their uniform policy, we will continue to engage with the sector to ensure that schools are aware of their obligations to comply with the uniform guidance.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect on the level of support for (1) disabled children, and (2) families, of the proposed policy change in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) review to decide the services disabled young people receive on the basis of a new national banding system.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper sets out the department’s proposals to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families, so that they can fulfil their potential and lead happy, healthy, and productive adult lives. The proposals aim to drive national consistency in how needs are assessed, identified, and met across education, health, and care, through the introduction of national standards.
The department wants to ensure the most effective use of the investment in high needs funding and the proposal for a national framework of funding bands is to allow far greater consistency in funding arrangements throughout the system. We are consulting on how best to develop a national framework for funding bands and tariffs, to make it easier for children and young people, and their families, to understand not only the provision they can access locally, but also the funding levels that provision would attract, giving them greater assurance that their child’s needs will be met appropriately.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families on 24 March (HCWS714) regarding children with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), whether the reference to "all families with NRPF" means that no family that meets the income and capital rules will be excluded from entitlement to free school meals; and what steps they are taking to inform schools of the decision to extend eligibility for free school meals permanently.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children from families with no recourse to public funds will be entitled to free school meals. This is subject to income thresholds where appropriate.
This change will come into effect for the start of the summer term, commencing in April 2022. The department will shortly be providing updated guidance which will be communicated to relevant stakeholders.