Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Essex County Council regarding the projected costs and other implications of children re-entering the care system.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is committed to delivering long-term, sustainable improvements to the children’s social care system. We are working to identify the sorts of interventions that really work to help prevent the need for children to become looked-after or re-enter the care system. This is a key focus for the Partners in Practice Programme, Innovation Programme and What Works Centre.
No representations have been received from county councils and local government organisations regarding increases in children re-entering the care system and no discussions have been had with Essex County Council on projected costs and other implications of children re-entering the care system.
However, we recognise that local councils are delivering children’s services in a challenging environment and need to make tough choices about priorities to achieve efficiencies. The government is supporting local councils to do this in a number of ways. The Department for Education (DfE) has invested £200m since 2014 in our Innovation Programme and Partners in Practice Programme. As part of this, we have committed £20m to provide additional support to local councils where the risk of service failure is highest. We are committed to working with partners to understand how DfE might further support improvement across the system.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from county councils and local government organisations regarding increases in children re-entering the county council care systems; and what is the impact of those increases on individual county councils 2017–18 forecast spend.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is committed to delivering long-term, sustainable improvements to the children’s social care system. We are working to identify the sorts of interventions that really work to help prevent the need for children to become looked-after or re-enter the care system. This is a key focus for the Partners in Practice Programme, Innovation Programme and What Works Centre.
No representations have been received from county councils and local government organisations regarding increases in children re-entering the care system and no discussions have been had with Essex County Council on projected costs and other implications of children re-entering the care system.
However, we recognise that local councils are delivering children’s services in a challenging environment and need to make tough choices about priorities to achieve efficiencies. The government is supporting local councils to do this in a number of ways. The Department for Education (DfE) has invested £200m since 2014 in our Innovation Programme and Partners in Practice Programme. As part of this, we have committed £20m to provide additional support to local councils where the risk of service failure is highest. We are committed to working with partners to understand how DfE might further support improvement across the system.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many schools in England and Wales have direct access to defibrillators.
Answered by Lord Nash
We do not hold information on those schools that have direct access to defibrillators.
We know however, how important swift access to a defibrillator can be in cases of cardiac arrest, which is why the Government is encouraging schools and other eligible settings to purchase a defibrillator as part of their first-aid equipment.
To make it as easy as possible for schools to do so, the Department has negotiated a deal with NHS Supply Chain to offer defibrillators to schools at a reduced cost. Since the scheme was launched in November 2014, 1967 defibrillators have been purchased through this route.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in each local authority area, how many (1) children arrive at school without eating breakfast, and (2) breakfast clubs are being run.
Answered by Lord Nash
The department does not collect or hold this information.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children who were living below the poverty line during their school age years did not complete their education in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department does not collect data on children who are not registered pupils at a school and do not complete their education.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the retention rates of teachers and trainee teachers by (1) region, and (2) subject.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department publishes the retention rate of teachers at national level. This information shows that around 90% of teachers are employed in state-funded schools in the year after qualifying and 70% are still employed in the state-funded sector after five years.
These statistics are published in Table 8 at the following web link but are not produced by region or by subject.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2015
Statistics showing the number and rate for teacher entrants, teacher turnover and teacher wastage by region are publicly available in section 2 of the ‘Local analysis of teacher workforce: 2010 to 2015’ at the following web link. These statistics are not produced by subject.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-analysis-of-teacher-workforce-2010-to-2015
Figures for the number of trainee teachers who completed Initial Teacher Training (and their employment outcomes within six months of gaining qualified teacher status) by subject and region are publicly available. These statistics are published in the statistical first release ‘Initial teacher training (ITT) performance profiles for teacher training providers in England in the academic year 2014 to 2015’ available at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/initial-teacher-training-performance-profiles-2014-to-2015
The proportion of postgraduate trainees who are awarded QTS and gain employment within 6 months has remained broadly flat, with percentages ranging from 87% to 95% over the last 10 years. There are regional statistics in the link below, although these may not reflect the location of the trainees’ employment.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/initial-teacher-training-performance-profiles-2014-to-2015
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Nash on 30 January (HL Deb, col 972), what level of funding has been spent on subject enhancement courses every year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Nash
Spend on subject knowledge enhancement courses for each year since 2010 are as follows:
Financial Year | Spend on Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses |
2010-11 | £14,604,659 |
2011-12 | £16,096,848 |
2012-13 | £18,092,321 |
2013-14 | £16,633,862 |
2014-15[1] | £13,930,199 |
2015-16 | £20,678,828 |
[1] Low spend in FY 2014-15 can be attributed to the transition from allocations to a claims-based system during AY 2013/14, which overlapped with the early stages of FY 2014-15, meaning that significantly fewer claims were processed.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many schools in England and Wales offer coding as an extracurricular activity.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department does not hold or collect data on how many schools in England and Wales offer coding as an extracurricular activity.
The Government has supported extracurricular coding initiatives, such as Code Club, which benefitted from funding through the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Innovation Action Fund. Additionally, coding has been part of the English National Curriculum at all four Key Stages since 2014. The computing curriculum includes the basics of programming, and encourages pupils to design computer programs. All maintained schools must follow the computing curriculum and academies and free schools may use it as a benchmark.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Nash on 24 November (HL Deb, col 2046), (1) how Ofsted inspectors categorise incidents of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour, either direct or indirect, including racist, sexist, disability and homophobic bullying, use of derogatory language, and racist incidents, in relation to the wider assessment of the school; (2) what specific measures and actions Ofsted recommends after such incidents are recorded; and (3) how progress is monitored and recorded.
Answered by Lord Nash
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 16 November (HL Deb, col 1417) concerning PSHE guidance on mental health teaching, what resources and training are available to schools and teachers for mental health education and training.
Answered by Lord Nash
Good mental health is a priority for the Department. We have high aspirations for all children and want them to be able to fulfil their potential, both academically and in terms of their mental wellbeing.
Schools have an important role to play in supporting the mental health of children, and young people and providing good personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) is one way schools can do this. PSHE education is a non-statutory subject that can encompass many areas of study. It equips pupils with the knowledge and skills to make safe and informed decisions and to prepare them for adult life. Through the introduction to the national curriculum, we have made clear that all schools should make provision for PSHE.
The Government’s current approach is for schools to develop their own local PSHE programme to reflect the needs of their pupils, drawing on the resources and evidence provided by expert organisations. Schools also should decide what training their staff need, reflecting their individual circumstances, and we trust head teachers to ensure that the right training is available for all school staff.
Teachers, and other school staff, can access free on-line e-learning modules on a wide range of mental health issues, through the MindEd website, https://www.minded.org.uk. In addition, we funded the PSHE Association to produce guidance on teaching about mental health in PSHE. This was published in March 2015.
To get a clear picture of what schools are doing on mental health and inform further action, we are conducting a large survey asking schools what activities and support they have put in place. The results will be published spring 2017.