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Written Question
Internet: Older People
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2024 to Question 15588 on Digital Technology: Disadvantaged, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of availability of free or low cost internet training for people aged 65 and over to tackle digital exclusion.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government recognises that digital skills are important for adults of all ages, and we are committed to improving their level of digital skills to support active participation in society.

From August 2020, the department introduced a digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills to undertake specified digital qualifications, up to level 1, free of charge. The new entitlement mirrors the existing legal entitlements for English and maths, and puts essential digital skills on an equal footing in the adult education system, as a third basic skill. The department introduced new Essential Digital Skills qualifications (EDSQs) at entry level and level 1 from August 2020, funded under the digital entitlement. EDSQs are based on the new national standards for essential digital skills and are designed to meet the diverse needs of adults with no or low digital skills, reflecting different learning needs, motivations and starting points.

To further enhance the essential digital skills offer for adults, from August 2023 the department introduced new digital Functional Skills qualifications (FSQs), which have replaced FSQs in Information and Communication Technology. Digital FSQs have standardised content and assessment, providing a benchmark of digital skills for employers. The department published the final subject content for digital FSQs in October 2021.

The government recognises that formal qualifications are not appropriate for everyone. That is why the department also funds community learning and other non-regulated learning, such as building confidence in essential digital skills, through the Adult Education Budget. Many local authorities and other further education providers are already delivering these courses that help equip adults with the essential digital skills they need for work, life and further learning.

More information about essential digital skills and other government funded training opportunities can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/skills-for-life.


Written Question
Pupils: Autism
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing guidance on how to adapt school environments to support the needs of autistic students.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department’s ambition is for all children and young people, no matter what their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are, to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department aims for children to achieve well throughout their education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.

Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. Additionally, under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has Special Educational Needs, including those who are autistic, gets the special educational provision they need. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that teachers are expected to monitor the progress of all pupils and put support in place where needed.

In the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department sets out its vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for the early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support. This will give parents confidence and clarity on how their child’s needs will be met.

As part of this, the department has committed to developing practitioner standards, which were known as practice guides in the Improvement Plan, to provide advice to education professionals. These will set out evidence-based best practice in identifying and meeting individual needs. The department will publish three practitioner standards by the end of 2025, one of which will be focused on autism. The department will begin building on existing best practice and will include guidance on how an education environment may be adapted to better support the needs of autistic pupils.

Additionally, the department’s Universal Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuous professional development and support for the school and further education workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those who are autistic, through one programme, which aims to reach 70% of schools and colleges in England per year.

The contract offers autism awareness training and resources. Over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training since the Universal Services programme commenced in May 2022.

There is no specific guidance for adapting physical school environments to support autistic students. However, the department does publish a range of guidance documents, including Building Bulletins, which support the provision of inclusive learning environments. These are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-requirements-part-b-generic-design-brief.

The Building Bulletins which have particular relevance to designing inclusive environments for children and young people with SEND, including those who are autistic, are the following:


Written Question
Education: Disadvantaged
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to close the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary state schools in the long-term.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Raising attainment for all pupils is at the heart of this government’s agenda. The disadvantage gap at key stage 2 (KS2), as measured by the disadvantage gap index, is stable compared to 2022 having slightly reduced from 3.23 in 2022 to 3.21 in 2023. The key stage 4 (KS4) disadvantage gap index has widened slightly compared to 2021/22, from 3.84 to 3.95.

Across all major departmental programmes and all phases of education, help to narrow these gaps is targeted towards pupils that need it most. The department is investing in 55 Education Investment Areas where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts expand into areas most in need of improvement.

Regular school attendance is vital for children’s attainment, mental wellbeing and long term development. The department has a comprehensive strategy in place to improve attendance that includes stronger expectations of the system, an improved data tool, and the expansion of the attendance mentor and attendance hubs programmes. This is important as statistics show that pupils with higher attainment at KS2 and KS4 had lower levels of absence over the key stage compared to those with lower attainment.

The schools National Funding Formula (NFF) targets funding to schools that have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In 2024/25, the department is targeting over £4.4 billion (10.2%) of the NFF according to deprivation, and over £7.8 billion (17.8%) for additional needs overall. In 2024/25, schools with the highest levels of deprivation, on average, attract the largest per pupil funding increases.

As part of the department’s almost £5 billion multi-year recovery programme, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) also addresses this gap and has delivered nearly five million tutoring courses since it began in November 2020, of which 345,606 courses were started by pupils from September to October 2023. The department listened to feedback from schools and as a result set the subsidy at 50% for 2023/24, which reduces the amount of money schools contribute towards tutoring, which may enable more tutoring to be delivered. Recovery programmes, such as the NTP and the recovery premium, are also focused on helping the most disadvantaged. The department has provided £1 billion to extend the recovery premium over the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. This builds on £300 million delivered in 2021/22.

Pupil premium also provides extra support for these children. This funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. The most disadvantaged three and four year olds are also eligible for early years pupil premium funding, which is being extended to the most disadvantaged two year olds from April 2023 and to under twos from September 2023. Low-income families and children experiencing other forms of disadvantage can qualify for 15 hours free early education for two year olds, a year before all children become eligible for 15 hours at ages three and four.

The quality of teaching a pupil receives is the single most important, in-school factor for improving outcomes. That is why the department’s ambition, as set out in the 2022 Schools White Paper, is to build a system of world-class teacher training and professional development that delivers high-quality professional development at every stage of a teacher’s career. 52,939 early career teachers have now benefitted from provider-led training as part of Early Career Framework reforms which are designed to support teachers in their crucial first years in the profession. 65,416 professionals have benefitted from a fully funded National Professional Qualification (NPQ) based on the best available evidence for effective practice since NPQs were reformed in 2021. This represents a substantial increase in comparison to the 33,399 professionals who undertook a funded NPQ in the four years between 2017 and 2021.

Additionally, the Levelling Up Premium offers higher annual payments of up to £3,000 after tax to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged secondary schools. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rate of Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has consulted (a) autistic people and (b) the families of autistic people as part of their review of the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework and Early Career Framework.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department reviewed the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework (ECF) during 2023, in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation and groups of sector experts, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) specialists. This review included a public call for evidence.

Following this review, the updated and combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) was published on 30 January 2024, for delivery from 2025.

The department’s review of content for the ITTECF paid particular attention to the needs of trainees and early career teachers (ECT) when supporting pupils with SEND. There is now significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND, some of which has been adapted from the new National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for Special Educational Needs Coordinators to be relevant for trainees and ECTs. The department has also made some edits to existing statements to improve inclusivity for SEND throughout the framework.

Recognising the importance of ensuring trainees and ECTs are confident in supporting pupils with SEND to succeed, the department will also be enhancing the requirements on ECF lead providers when creating SEND exemplification materials.

The ITTECF is based on the best peer-reviewed evidence about what works and is designed to emphasise the importance of high-quality teaching. The framework therefore deliberately does not detail approaches specific to particular additional needs, such as autism, but focusses on what makes the most effective teaching. When reviewing the frameworks in 2023, the department tested this approach with SEND educational experts, with consensus that the approach of ‘quality-first teaching’ would be the best way to improve outcomes for all children, particularly those with special educational needs.


Written Question
Teaching Methods: Coronavirus
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of one-to-one learning for pupils who need to catch up on time missed in school as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.

There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.

The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.


Written Question
National Tutoring Programme
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the National Tutoring Programme in closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.

There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.

The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.


Written Question
Teaching Methods: Coronavirus
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with headteachers on the effectiveness of one-to-one learning for pupils who need to catch up on time missed in school as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.

There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.

The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.


Written Question
National Tutoring Programme: Cost Effectiveness
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the cost effectiveness of the National Tutoring Programme.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.

There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.

The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a pilot scheme of mandatory autism training in education settings.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department considers all teachers as teachers of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). All teachers need to be equipped to teach pupils with SEND. High quality teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for all pupils.

Training and development to support children with SEND begins at the start of a teacher’s career journey, through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), and is embedded throughout the Early Career Framework (ECF) once qualified. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level.

The Teachers’ Standards already set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. To identify opportunities to build teacher expertise, the department is undertaking a review of the ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) and ECF. The review, due to be published in early 2024, has an aim to support trainees and Early Career Teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND, through engaging with the most up to date evidence to inform their practice and applying this in the contexts in which they work as new teachers.

To support teachers and leaders at any stage in their career, the department’s Universal Services programme, backed by almost £12 million, provides SEND-specific training for education professionals. Universal Services includes autism-specific training and resources led by the Autism Education Trust, with over 100,000 professionals undertaking autism awareness training since 2022.


Written Question
Schools: Air Conditioning
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Officials in the department sit on the working group for a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting primary schools with air cleaning technology: the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial. This was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research, which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The trial has concluded, and the academic leads intend to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.

There is strong evidence from laboratory studies of the efficacy of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter air cleaning units at removing airborne viruses from the air. Although they help improve air quality, air cleaning units do not reduce CO2 levels or improve ventilation so it’s important that they are not used as a substitute for ventilation or a reason to reduce it.

The department recognises that good ventilation helps to create a healthy indoor environment for staff and pupils. Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that contains virus particles which reduces the risk of respiratory illnesses, as well as improves pupils’ alertness and concentration.

Between September 2021 and April 2023, the department delivered over 700,000 CO2 monitors to over 45,000 state-funded schools and colleges. This means that all eligible school and college now has an assigned CO2 monitor for every teaching and childcare space to help them manage their ventilation.

For schools and colleges that identified spaces with sustained high CO2 readings (1500ppm or more) through their monitors, an application process was made available for department funded HEPA filter air cleaning units. This policy was informed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Environmental Modelling Group which advises that air cleaning units have limited benefit in spaces that are already adequately ventilated and should only be considered where the ventilation is inadequate and cannot be easily improved. The department has subsequently delivered over 9,000 air cleaning units to over 1,300 settings between January 2022 and April 2023.