Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the proposal by the 'Let Clothes be Clothes' campaign for unisex school uniforms in finalising the statutory guidance on the costs of school uniforms.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
It is for the governing body of a school to determine uniform policy. In making decisions about its school uniform policy, and all other school policies, a school must have regard to its obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. Where a school has different dress codes for male and female pupils, they will need to carefully consider their obligations under equalities legislation not to discriminate unlawfully on the grounds of any protected characteristic. The department publishes guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools. This includes a duty on schools not to discriminate unlawfully due to the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. The department also publishes non-statutory best practice guidance on school uniform which is clear that “in formulating its school uniform policy, a school will need to consider its obligations not to discriminate unlawfully”: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/514978/School_Uniform_Guidance.pdf. For example, it is not expected that the cost of girls’ uniform is significantly more expensive than boys.
Under the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021, the forthcoming statutory guidance will be limited in scope to the cost aspects of uniform, but we will continue to make our non-statutory guidance available to schools alongside it.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Williams of Trafford to all peers on 22 October 2020 on issues raised during the Report stage of the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill, whether the Department for Education’s review of how immigration status and restrictions interact with free school meal and other educational entitlements was completed during the autumn term; if so, (1) whether, and (2) when, this review will be published; and if not, when this review will be completed.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are working with departments across government to evaluate access to free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds. This review has not been formally concluded at present. In the meantime, the extension of eligibility will continue with the current income threshold until a decision on long-term eligibility is made.
Once the review is complete, we will update our guidance accordingly. Our current guidance regarding the extension is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/guidance-for-the-temporary-extension-of-free-school-meals-eligibility-to-nrpf-groups.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the review on how immigration (1) status, and (2) restrictions, in particular no recourse to public funds, interact with free school meals and other educational entitlements will be (a) completed, and (b) published.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are working with departments across government to evaluate access to free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds. In the meantime, the extension of eligibility will continue with the current income threshold until a decision on long-term eligibility is made.
Once the review is complete, we will update our guidance accordingly. Our current guidance regarding the extension can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/guidance-for-the-temporary-extension-of-free-school-meals-eligibility-to-nrpf-groups.
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 impact of mindfulness teaching in (1) schools, (2) colleges, and (3) universities.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Department for Education remains committed to long term improvements to support children and young people’s mental health, set out in the government’s response to its Green Paper and NHS Long Term Plan. This includes the roll-out of mental health support teams and the provision of training for Senior Leads for Mental Health in schools and colleges.
As part of this, we are producing evidence about what works to support mental health and wellbeing in schools, so that they can make evidence-based decisions about how to best support their pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. The department is funding a large-scale programme of randomised control trials of mental health interventions in schools. The aim of this programme is to provide robust evidence on what works to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and whether programmes can be delivered effectively in a school setting.
The programme is testing the effectiveness of 5 different approaches to supporting pupil mental health and wellbeing in primary and secondary schools across England. It includes a programme of brief mindfulness-based exercises to be run by teachers in the classroom, which provides teachers with a short training session and materials to run brief mindfulness-based exercises with their classes.
The government has not made an assessment of the effectiveness of mindfulness in colleges and universities. It is for higher education providers as autonomous bodies to identify and address the needs of their student body and decide what mental health and wellbeing support to put in place.
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 recommendation in the National Food Strategy Part One report, published on 20 July, that free school meals should be extended to all children in families receiving Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The government will carefully consider the findings of the National Food Strategy Part One?report and will be responding fully in due course.
Free school meals are an integral part of our provision for families on low incomes and our wider actions to promote social mobility. We are supporting around 1.4 million of the most disadvantaged children through free school meals, saving families around £400 a year. It is right that we are targeting our support towards those families that are most in need of it.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the call coordinated by Action for Children, Barnardo’s, National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC and The Children’s Society of more than 150 children's organisations to put the needs of children at the centre of their COVID-19 recovery plans, what steps they are taking to do so.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Children have been and remain at the heart of our recovery planning. Supporting children and young people to recover from the COVID-19 outbreak means encouraging school attendance and helping them to catch up on lost learning, but also ensuring they are safe and well. We look forward to continuing our close work with children’s charities and benefitting from their insights and experience to inform our long-term recovery plans to support the continued safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people.
Our guidance published on 2 July provides schools, colleges and nurseries with the details needed to plan for a full return, as well as reassuring parents about what to expect for their children. We know that school is a vital point of contact for public health and safeguarding services that are critical to the wellbeing of children and families. The guidance has been developed in close consultation with the sector and medical experts from Public Health England to ensure that both staff and students are as safe as possible.
Pupils in England will also benefit from a £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time over the 2020-21 academic year. This includes £650 million to be shared across state primary and secondary schools and a National Tutoring Programme, worth £350 million to increase access to high quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, we have prioritised vulnerable children and young people’s attendance in early years, schools and colleges and supported local areas to improve attendance rates.
As well as working in collaboration with children’s charities, we have also supported those that provide vital services that are helping vulnerable children and young people.
In April, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out the £750 million COVID-19 funding for frontline charities. The Department for Education and the Home Office were allocated a total of £34.15 million specifically for vulnerable children’s charities. As part of this, on 10 June, the two departments launched the £7.6 million Vulnerable Children National Charities Strategic Relief Fund to provide support to national children’s charities operating in England and Wales which offer services to safeguard vulnerable children, and which have suffered financially owing to the impact of COVID-19. The strategic aim of this funding is to ensure that large charities can continue to sustain their existing services.
As part of this funding, the department also announced £7.27 million for a consortium led by Barnardo’s, which will support their new See, Hear, Respond service supporting vulnerable children, young people and families affected by COVID-19. The department has also provided funding to other charities working with vulnerable children, including Grandparents Plus, Family Rights Group and FosterTalk. This adds to investment in the NSPCC’s Childline service, while some £10 million has already been committed to the Family Fund, helping families with children who have complex needs and disabilities through grants for equipment which makes their lives easier.
As well as charities, we are supporting local authorities during this outbreak by providing a package of support totalling £4.3 billion to help meet the immediate COVID-19 related pressures, including in Children’s Social Care and in delivering services for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether working parents are now permitted to use paid childcare providers but are not permitted to ask family members or friends to provide childcare while they are at work.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
From 1 June, early years settings have been able to welcome back all children. Guidance for parents and carers about opening from 1 June is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has announced that from 13 June, single adult households can form a ‘support bubble’ with one other household. This will mean that lone parent households may form a support bubble with another household to provide informal childcare, so long as no members of either household are shielding. This will enable grandparents and other family members to provide childcare support to lone parents, or for grandparents living on their own to look after grandchildren from one other household. The guidance is available at:
On 23 June, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced that from 4 July, two households will be able to meet up in any setting subject to social distancing measures. Friends and family members providing informal childcare from that date will need to adhere to guidance on social distancing. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing-after-4-july.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of providing the current free school meals voucher scheme during the upcoming summer holidays. [T]
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government fully understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a Covid Summer Food Fund which will enable children who are eligible for free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the 6-week holiday period. This is a specific measure to reflect the unique circumstances of the outbreak.
The government has made significant wider support available for children and families at this time. On 10 June, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, confirmed an additional £63 million to be distributed to local authorities in England to help those who are struggling to afford food and other essentials due to COVID-19. In addition, the government has introduced an uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by around £1,000 a year for the next 12 months as part of an injection of over £6.5 billion by the government into the welfare system.
Additional support has been pledged by various departments across government with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announcing the provision of £16 million for food support through charities, including FareShare and WRAP. DEFRA have also issued 2 million food packages to those who are shielding.
The Department for Education’s Holiday Activities and Food programme ensures that thousands of disadvantaged children have access to enriching activities and nutritious healthy meals over the summer, and is receiving £9 million this year.
More widely, the government has supported families to cope with the impact of coronavirus by introducing a range of support measures, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. Support has also been provided to help families pay their rent or mortgage, access sick pay, and delay tax payments.
In relation to free school meals, this response applies to educational settings in England only. Education is a devolved matter and it will be for each administration to determine the actions they wish to take.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue to provide support for the National School Breakfast Programme over the May half-term holiday and summer holidays.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
As both my right hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.
Our latest guidance for schools is set out below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.
Alongside our national approach to supporting free school meal pupils, we are committed to supporting schools and children who benefit from our breakfast club programme. Our suppliers, Family Action along with Magic Breakfast, are in contact with schools on the programme, where possible, and are working closely with them to target the children most in need to continue to provide them with a healthy breakfast.
Schools on the programme can choose to support target children in the way which works best for them. This may include parents collecting food parcels from open schools or breakfast food ‘drop offs’ to target families. This should be arranged alongside the school’s wider support for children on free school meals, and schools must follow Public Health England’s advice on social distancing at all times.
This programme operates during term time, and we would not expect provision to continue through schools during the May half term holiday week. We continue to work flexibly with Family Action and Magic Breakfast on the best ways to support schools during the COVID-19 outbreak.
These are rapidly developing circumstances. We continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of school children living in poverty who fall into the vulnerable category for the purposes of their education policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Our latest guidance on vulnerable children is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, for the purposes of continued attendance at educational settings, vulnerable children and young people are defined as those who:
The official statistics on the number of children in poverty is based on the Annual Households Below Average Income Survey. It is not possible to separately identify children defined as ‘vulnerable’ from the survey data.
The department’s analysis of deprivation and low income in education uses free school meal eligibility as an indicator of children living in families that need additional support. Detail on free school meal eligibility is available at: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals.
We do not hold data on the overlap between the numbers of children and young people included in the total of the three categories of vulnerable children and children eligible for free school meals.
Our published ‘characteristics of children in need: 2018 to 2019’ data shows that 54.1% of Children in Need at 31 March 2019 (aged 5-16, excluding those who were looked after at any point during the year unless they were also on a child protection plan) were eligible for free school meals. This data is available in Table 1 of the ‘Children in need outcomes national tables: 2019’ available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2018-to-2019.
Our published information on children with Special Educational Needs from the 2019 school census shows that, in January 2019, 32.7% of pupils with EHC plans were eligible for free school meals. This is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2019.
Educational providers and local authorities have the discretion to offer support to children and young people who they consider to be vulnerable, where the child or young person does not fall into either of the categories above.
Educational providers and local authorities may therefore choose to offer support to children and young people where their individual circumstances, including the impact of poverty, may suggest that they would benefit from this support and continued provision.
As this is based on ongoing, locally made decisions, we do not hold data on the number of children and young people that have been identified as otherwise vulnerable or the overlap between this cohort and their eligibility for free school meals.
These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.