Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2021 to Question 137247, whether the use of £256 million of existing funds by providers is ringfenced for hardship support; and how much new funding is ringfenced for student hardship support in relation to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
On the 2 February 2021 we announced that we are making available a further £50 million of hardship funding for this financial year, for higher education providers to use to support students in greatest need.
This funding can be distributed to a wide population of students, including international students impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
This funding is in addition to the £20 million of hardship funding made available in December 2020 and to the £256 million of Student Premium funding which higher education providers are also able draw on this academic year towards student hardship funds.
We shall continue to monitor the situation going forward to look at what impact this funding is having.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding has been allocated to schools in (a) Norfolk and (b) Norwich South constituency for health and safety adaptations during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. This increase in funding will help schools with costs associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. As stated in our guidance, schools should use their existing resources when making arrangements for the autumn term. This guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
This year, Norfolk is receiving an extra £25 million for schools, an increase of 3.8% per pupil. This takes total funding for the 2020-21 financial year in the local authority to over £507 million. Norwich South is receiving an extra £1.5 million for schools this year, an increase of 3.0% per pupil. This takes total funding for the 2020-21 financial year in the constituency to over £55 million.
Keeping schools, nurseries and colleges open is a national priority. The Department has announced a new COVID-19 workforce fund for schools and colleges to help them to remain open. It will fund the cost of teacher absences over a certain threshold for those schools and colleges facing high staff absences and significant financial pressures. Guidance on the claims process will be published shortly.
On Friday 4 December the Department updated the guidance for exceptional costs associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. These instructions are to help schools claim exceptional costs that were not claimed for during the first window, which closed on 21 July 2020. Guidance on exceptional costs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19/exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19--2.
Over 9 million items of personal protective equipment have been delivered to schools, colleges and universities as part of 50,000 one-off deliveries distributed by the Department of Health and Social Care to build resilience across the education sector to respond to any suspected cases of COVID-19 on-site. This was a one-off delivery with no cost to schools.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding has been allocated to schools in (a) Norfolk and (b) Norwich South constituency for the provision of personal protective equipment to keyworkers in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. This increase in funding will help schools with costs associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. As stated in our guidance, schools should use their existing resources when making arrangements for the autumn term. This guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
This year, Norfolk is receiving an extra £25 million for schools, an increase of 3.8% per pupil. This takes total funding for the 2020-21 financial year in the local authority to over £507 million. Norwich South is receiving an extra £1.5 million for schools this year, an increase of 3.0% per pupil. This takes total funding for the 2020-21 financial year in the constituency to over £55 million.
Keeping schools, nurseries and colleges open is a national priority. The Department has announced a new COVID-19 workforce fund for schools and colleges to help them to remain open. It will fund the cost of teacher absences over a certain threshold for those schools and colleges facing high staff absences and significant financial pressures. Guidance on the claims process will be published shortly.
On Friday 4 December the Department updated the guidance for exceptional costs associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. These instructions are to help schools claim exceptional costs that were not claimed for during the first window, which closed on 21 July 2020. Guidance on exceptional costs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19/exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19--2.
Over 9 million items of personal protective equipment have been delivered to schools, colleges and universities as part of 50,000 one-off deliveries distributed by the Department of Health and Social Care to build resilience across the education sector to respond to any suspected cases of COVID-19 on-site. This was a one-off delivery with no cost to schools.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) children and (b) children eligible for free school meals reached a good level of development at age five in Norwich South in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The requested data is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what programmes are being funded by the revenue raised from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Budget 2016 announced funding for a number of programmes linked to the revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The Department for Education will receive £575 million during the current Spending Review period. Funding for 2020-21 onwards will be considered at the next Spending Review.
The funding has been used for the following projects:
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2019 to Question 224488, what the evidential basis is the statement in that answer that the UK’s EU membership is inextricably linked to its current membership of the European University Institute Convention and that the UK’s membership of the EUIC will automatically cease on 29 March 2019.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The terms of the European University Institute Convention (EUIC) expressly refer to the contracting states of the Convention being EU Member States and limit future accession to the Convention to EU Member States. It is therefore not possible for a non-Member State to become a signatory to the Convention and participate in that capacity. Accordingly, when the UK ceases to be a Member State of the EU, it will also cease to be a party to the Convention. However the UK will continue to be covered by the EUIC for the duration of the Implementation Period if the Withdrawal Agreement is passed.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his oral contribution of 25 February 2019, Official Report, how much funding in addition to that £6 million will be available to schools to enable them to (a) deliver high-quality (i) relationships and sex education and (ii) relationships education and (b) (i) train teachers and (ii) equip them with effective resources.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to supporting schools to teach the new subjects to a high standard, and will continue to work with subject experts to ensure schools are supported to improve their practice. This will focus on a supplementary guide, targeted support on materials, and training. The Department has announced a budget of £6 million in 2019-20 to develop this programme of support for schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.
The Department knows that many schools already teach these subjects well, often as part of Personal, Social, Health, and Economic Education and will be able to adapt to the new requirements quickly. As part of the programme of support in the 2019/20 financial year, the Department is establishing an early adopter school programme to support early teaching of the new requirements from September 2019.
The lessons the Department learns from these early adopter schools will be shared with schools working to a slower timetable, and it will work with early adopter schools to support the design of the training programme and to refine the supplementary guide.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how he plans to ensure that (a) Ofsted inspectors (i) know what good quality relationships and sex education and relationships education is, (ii) are trained in that education and (iii) are able to maintain school accountability and (b) Ofsted inspection processes are transparent.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has worked with Ofsted to develop the recently announced revised draft guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education. The content for these subjects also builds on the existing Sex and Relationships Education guidance (2000), that many schools already deliver as part of a planned personal, social, health and economic education and national curriculum subjects such as citizenship and science.
Ofsted Inspectors will evaluate the extent to which a school is successfully promoting all aspects of pupils’ welfare, including learning how to stay healthy, about emotional and mental health, and safe and positive relationships. From September 2019, Ofsted proposes to introduce a new personal development judgement with a focus on these matters, and all inspectors will receive dedicated training on how to inspect effectively against this judgement.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, under what circumstances his Department will request the return of funding allocated to local authorities that dispose of or change the use of buildings or assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Where local authorities dispose of or change the use of buildings or other assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants, they must repay the money through the claw-back process. The Department for Education has a thorough set of monitoring arrangements in place regarding clawback rules. Further information on the clawback process is set out in the ‘Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Capital Guidance’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273740/capital_guidance.pdf.
I refer the hon. Member for Norwich South to the answer given by my hon. Friend, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Childcare and Education, Sam Gyimah, on 29 February 2016 to Question 28207.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria are used to determine how prime contractors for Employment and Skills Funding Agency funding are permitted to set their management fees.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The ESFA is currently undertaking work to develop expectations about the services that providers should offer to their subcontractors. A key priority for this is to increase the amount of funding that reaches front line delivery. Any changes will come into force in 2019. In the delivery of programmes to young people, the amount of funding retained by the directly funded institution must be proportionate to the costs and must be determined through due diligence and risk assessment processes.