Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what retention rates were for educators of T-Level studies in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps she is taking to ensure the quality of these educators meets a minimum standard.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold information on retention rates specifically for teachers of T Levels. All teachers can access a free of charge continuing professional development programme, offered by the Education Training Foundation, to help update their knowledge and skills to successfully deliver T Levels. We recently updated this support, with more teacher resources, and shorter, more accessible online courses. More information about this support is available here: https://www.et-foundation.co.uk/professional-development/t-levels/.
Ofsted inspects further education and skills providers in England under part 8 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and must state whether education or training inspected is of adequate quality. Inspections will encompass T Level provision where offered.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of differences in funding per child between SEN children educated in state schools and those educated in privately owned institutions.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
From the 2018/19 financial year to 2023/24, the most recent year for which information is available, the average per-pupil expenditure on pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan in maintained special schools and special academies on the one hand, and non-maintained and independent special schools on the other, are set out in the tables below:
Per-pupil expenditure: Cash values (rounded) as at the time, not adjusted for inflation | ||||||
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Maintained special schools and special academies | £20,000 | £21,000 | £22,000 | £23,000 | £24,000 | £26,000 |
Non-maintained and independent special schools | £52,000 | £54,000 | £54,000 | £57,000 | £62,000 | £63,000 |
To note:
1. Per-pupil expenditure is the average calculated from the national expenditure on place and top-up funding for the school types, per pupil with an EHC plan.
2. For maintained special schools and special academies the calculation uses the place funding rate of £10,000 per place plus the average top-up funding expenditure. by local authorities on those schools as recorded in their section 251 outturn data, per pupil as recorded in the January schools census.
3. For non-maintained and independent special schools the department has calculated the total expenditure from the £10,000 per-place funding allocated to non-maintained special schools and the total top-up funding expenditure by local authorities on those schools as recorded in their section 251 outturn data, per pupil with an EHC plan as recorded in our SEN2 data collection.
4. From 2023, the data collection for SEN2 changed from aggregated figures at local authority level, to a person-level collection. This has been a major change in approach and care should be taken with comparisons across this period because expenditure per pupil changes between 2021/22 and 2022/23 may include an effect from the EHC plan data collection methodology change.
The per-pupil expenditure amounts for children with EHC plans as set out in the table above are averages of a wide range of per-pupil funding levels that are different depending on the needs of the child and school they attend. It is the relevant local authority’s responsibility to decide how to allocate that funding and how much to allocate to each school.
Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Dudley Council is being allocated over £62 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £5.4 million on their 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the merits of increasing the funding per-pupil for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
From the 2018/19 financial year to 2023/24, the most recent year for which information is available, the average per-pupil expenditure on pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan in maintained special schools and special academies on the one hand, and non-maintained and independent special schools on the other, are set out in the tables below:
Per-pupil expenditure: Cash values (rounded) as at the time, not adjusted for inflation | ||||||
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Maintained special schools and special academies | £20,000 | £21,000 | £22,000 | £23,000 | £24,000 | £26,000 |
Non-maintained and independent special schools | £52,000 | £54,000 | £54,000 | £57,000 | £62,000 | £63,000 |
To note:
1. Per-pupil expenditure is the average calculated from the national expenditure on place and top-up funding for the school types, per pupil with an EHC plan.
2. For maintained special schools and special academies the calculation uses the place funding rate of £10,000 per place plus the average top-up funding expenditure. by local authorities on those schools as recorded in their section 251 outturn data, per pupil as recorded in the January schools census.
3. For non-maintained and independent special schools the department has calculated the total expenditure from the £10,000 per-place funding allocated to non-maintained special schools and the total top-up funding expenditure by local authorities on those schools as recorded in their section 251 outturn data, per pupil with an EHC plan as recorded in our SEN2 data collection.
4. From 2023, the data collection for SEN2 changed from aggregated figures at local authority level, to a person-level collection. This has been a major change in approach and care should be taken with comparisons across this period because expenditure per pupil changes between 2021/22 and 2022/23 may include an effect from the EHC plan data collection methodology change.
The per-pupil expenditure amounts for children with EHC plans as set out in the table above are averages of a wide range of per-pupil funding levels that are different depending on the needs of the child and school they attend. It is the relevant local authority’s responsibility to decide how to allocate that funding and how much to allocate to each school.
Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Dudley Council is being allocated over £62 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £5.4 million on their 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the causes of backlogs in Teachers' Pensions; and what steps she is taking to reduce such backlogs.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
A backlog in the provision of cash equivalent transfer values (CETVs) to members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme has been caused by two issues. Initially, an embargo was placed on the provision of CETVs by the public service pension schemes from March 2023 to July 2023. This was a result of the need for new factors to be calculated following a change to the Superannuation Contributions Adjusted for Past Experience (SCAPE) discount rate. Not all of those cases could be cleared by the scheme administrator before the Transitional Protection (McCloud) legislation took effect on 1 October 2023. For those members affected by Transitional Protection, further cross-scheme guidance was needed by the scheme administrator which created another significant period in which CETV cases could not be processed.
As of 20 November 2024, there are 1,952 CETV cases which have not been processed three months after the member applied.
The majority of these cases do not include scheme flexibilities and the scheme administrator currently estimates that such cases will all be cleared by the end of February 2025. The department is working with the scheme administrator to determine the likely timeframe for cases that involve flexibilities and the small cohort where guidance is being finalised. Consideration is being given to measures to reduce the timescales that members are waiting, including investigating the potential for any further automation of calculations, simplification of the CETV figures provided to the member and maximising the administrative resource available, for example through ongoing overtime.