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Written Question
Schools: Energy
Thursday 29th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is planning to take steps to support schools in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency with their energy bills over the coming winter.

Answered by Jonathan Gullis

Significant cash increases to school funding will help schools to manage these higher costs. Overall, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.

Schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are attracting £81.6 million in total this year, a 4% cash increase. This reflects 3% more per pupil in their pupil-led funding compared to 2021/22. Schools’ actual allocations in 2022/23 will be based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.

On top of this funding through the National Funding Formula, schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are seeing £2.4 million through the Schools Supplementary Grant.

Schools will also benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least the 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy, and give schools greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.

Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.

For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.

Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.

There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.

The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.

More broadly, the Department allocates annual capital funding to improve the condition of school buildings, including through improving energy efficiency. The Department has allocated over £13 billion in condition funding since 2015, including £1.8 billion this financial year. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade, with all new buildings delivered through the programme designed to be net zero carbon in operation. Schools can also access funding specifically for carbon reduction and energy efficiency measures through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund.

Every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.


Written Question
Pupils: Refugees
Tuesday 27th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support Ukrainian refugee children into education in Hertfordshire.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

The department is supporting all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, to create sufficient school places for Ukrainian refugee children. As of 1 September, a total of 382 Ukrainian children had applied for school places in Hertfordshire, including 232 primary and 150 secondary applications. 221 Ukrainian children have been offered a place in a primary school and 138 children in a secondary school, a total of 359 places. Further information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-placements-for-children-from-outside-of-the-uk#dataBlock-0d7ea979-5308-4894-dbfb-08da76d991a7-tables.

Moreover, the department will provide additional funding on a per pupil basis for Ukrainian children for the three phases of education at the following annual rates:

  • Early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000
  • Primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580
  • Secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755

In August 2022, the department made initial payments to all local authorities that have children who arrived between March and May 2022 via the Homes for Ukraine visa route. Further payments will be made on a quarterly basis. Hertfordshire received £2,158,450 in August. The funding is for local authorities to spend on providing early years education and primary and secondary school places for children from overseas. It can be used to provide a wide range of support, including funding teachers and other school staff, school transport, uniform, English language tuition and emotional/mental health support.

Ukrainian parents can apply for a school place through the in-year admissions process. We have set out this process in the Ukrainian welcome pack. For younger children, all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, will work with families to enable all children access to early years provision in their local area as soon as possible, even if these places are not in the immediate vicinity of their accommodation.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support the education of students with special educational needs.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

The department has increased high needs funding by £1.65 billion over two years, bringing total high needs funding to over £9.7 billion by the 2023/24 financial year. We are providing additional support to local authorities through our Safety Valve and Delivering Better Value in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) programmes. These programmes will help local authorities provide effective and sustainable services that will support children and young people with SEND to achieve better outcomes.

Alongside this, the department is investing up to £18 million in supported internships over the next three years, aiming to double the number of supported internships by 2025. This will help more young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans have the skills they need to secure and sustain paid employment.

Later this year, the department will publish a National Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan, setting out our response to the SEND and AP Green Paper consultation and the next steps for implementation of system reform.


Written Question
Apprentices
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to promote the apprenticeship route to young people in secondary education.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The department’s new ‘Career Starter Apprenticeships’ campaign showcases apprenticeship standards which offer great opportunities for those looking for their first role after leaving full-time education.

The first featured apprenticeships, all at level 2 and 3, launched in August. More information on the campaign can be found here: https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/apprentices/career-starter-apprenticeships, and more featured apprenticeships will be published over the coming months.

The department also continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through our Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge programme. This free service provides resources and interventions to help better educate young people about apprenticeships. Since September 2021 it has reached over 685,000 students and over 2,500 schools.

Alongside this, our ‘Get the Jump’ campaign is raising awareness and understanding of the full range of education and training choices available to young people. More information is available at: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/explore-your-education-and-training-choices.


Written Question
Apprentices
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help encourage employers to provide high quality apprenticeships.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The department wants more employers to offer high-quality apprenticeships. We are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. Employers who pay the apprenticeship levy can make use of their levy funds, topped up by 10% by the government, to fund apprenticeship training and assessment in their businesses, and smaller employers can reserve funding for up to 10 new apprenticeships.

We are encouraging the use of more flexible training models, such as accelerated and flexi-job apprenticeships, so that employers in all sectors can benefit from apprenticeships and apprentices can attain occupational competence as quickly as possible. We also continue to make improvements to the apprenticeship levy transfer system to make it easier for large employers to make full use of their levy funds and support starts in their supply chain, sector, or local area, and to support more employers, including SMEs, to meet local or sectorial skills needs

We want to make sure that every apprentice has a high-quality experience. To achieve this, we are further improving quality by investing in a comprehensive package of professional development for apprenticeship training providers and their workforces, and by giving employers the tools, advice, and direction they need to provide high-quality experiences for their apprentices.


Written Question
Students: Coronavirus
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to compensate students who attended university during the covid-19 pandemic for missed in-person teaching.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The unprecedented and unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changes to the way higher education (HE) providers delivered their teaching.

The former Minister for Higher and Further Education wrote to all English HE providers to make clear that they are expected to offer a high-quality, face-to-face student experience. Online learning should only be offered to enhance the student experience, not to detract from it, and it should not be used as a cost-cutting measure. The former Secretary of State for Education wrote an open letter to students about face-to-face teaching, setting out what they can do if they feel they are not getting the teaching they signed up for.

HE providers are independent and autonomous bodies who are responsible for the management of their own affairs. If current or former students have concerns about the delivery of their university courses, they should first raise them with their provider. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for HE to consider their complaint. OIA recommendations can include practical remedies as well as financial compensation, where that is deemed appropriate.


Written Question
Apprentices: Hertfordshire
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) apprenticeships placements and (b) apprenticeship vacancies are available in Hertfordshire.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The department is committed to supporting employers and individuals across the country to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.

The latest published statistics show that in the first three quarters of the 2021/2022 academic year, or August 2021 to April 2022, there were 4,960 apprenticeship starts in Hertfordshire.

As of 6 September 2022, there are currently 311 adverts comprising 407 vacancies within Hertfordshire posted on our Find An Apprenticeship service. Individuals can also find and apply for apprenticeship vacancies through an employer’s website, recruitment agencies, or local job centres, meaning that the actual number of apprenticeship vacancies in Hertfordshire will likely be higher than the stated figure.


Written Question
Overseas Students: Finance
Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to student finance for British National Overseas students.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

To qualify for student finance in England, a person must have settled status or a recognised connection to the UK. This includes persons who are covered by EU law, have long residence in this country, or who have been granted international protection by the Home Office.

Subject to meeting the normal eligibility requirements, Hong Kong British Nationals (overseas) status holders will qualify for student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK, as is the case for the majority of persons who are on a five-year route to settlement.


Written Question
Pupils: Per Capita Costs
Monday 29th November 2021

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the per pupil funding is for schools in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency for the academic year (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24.

Answered by Robin Walker

Schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are attracting £4,862 per pupil through the schools national funding formula (NFF) in the 2021-22 financial year. This will increase to £5,007 per pupil in the 2022-23 financial year and is based on notional school-level NFF allocations.

The department is investing a further £4.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in 2022-23.

This includes a further £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in 2022-23, on top of the notional school-level NFF allocations set out above. The department will announce the distribution of this additional funding for 2022-23 shortly. The department will make announcements on the breakdown of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial year core school budget in due course.


Written Question
Institutes of Technology: Hertfordshire
Monday 18th October 2021

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of locating an Institute of Technology in Hertfordshire for (a) people and (b) businesses in that county.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The department is conducting a competition to deliver our manifesto commitment to establish 8 more high quality Institutes of Technology (IoT). The selected 8 will join the 12 IoTs that have already been established. While it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of any individual proposal, the department can confirm that we have received an application for the Hertfordshire area. Proposals are being assessed and we plan to announce the outcome of the competition in the autumn.