Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the schools budget was spent on supply teachers in (a) St Helens borough, (b) the Liverpool city region and (c) England in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes annual income and expenditure, including on supply teachers, for local authority maintained schools and academies.
Schools’ Consistent Financial Reporting and Academies’ Accounting Returns are published and available at the following link: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/Help/DataSources.
Spending on supply teaching staff comprises the following categories: supply teaching staff, plus supply teacher insurance, plus agency supply teaching staff, minus receipts from supply teacher insurance claims.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to the (a) Liverpool city region and (b) St Helens borough to support children with SEND in each year since April 2010.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Funding for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is drawn from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).
Local authorities are required to provide sufficient funds to enable schools to meet the cost of additional support for pupils with SEND, up to the value of £6,000.
When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEND exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This top-up funding, and funding for special schools, comes from the local authority’s high needs block of the DSG.
In 2013, the schools and high needs funding blocks DSG were created. As the DSG includes other funding such as for early years, the department is unable to provide comparable figures before the creation of the blocks within the DSG in 2013-14.
The high needs funding allocations for those children with more complex SEND, from 2013-14, are set out below.
For Liverpool city region (which includes the following local authorities: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral):
Year | High needs funding allocation |
2013-14 | £148.9 million |
2014-15 | £155.0 million |
2015-16 | £157.5 million |
2016-17 | £157.9 million |
2017-18 | £162.3 million |
2018-19 | £169.4 million* |
2019-20 | £174.1 million* |
2020-21 provisional allocations | £198.5 million |
For St Helen’s borough:
Year | High needs funding allocation |
2013-14 | £17.1 million |
2014-15 | £17.8 million |
2015-16 | £18.4 million |
2016-17 | £18.4 million |
2017-18 | £18.7 million |
2018-19 | £22.4 million* |
2019-20 | £22.3 million* |
2020-21 provisional allocations | £24.1 million |
*In December 2018, the department allocated an additional £250 million of high needs funding, in recognition of funding pressures. This additional funding is included within the final totals displayed.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of St Helens Council on preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local Government plays a vital role in preparing the country to be fully ready for the UK to exit the EU on 31 October 2019.
The Department has stepped up their preparedness significantly and speaks regularly to councils and partners, including through the Local Government Brexit Delivery Board and a network of nine regional chief executives. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government leads this engagement.
Every council has designated a Brexit Lead Officer to work with central Government to intensify their local preparations and, in total, the Department has made £77 million available to help local areas get ready for the UK to exit the EU.
Whilst the Department has not had any meetings with St Helens Council regarding preparations for the UK exiting the EU, the Department has issued advice to local authorities’ children’s services on how to prepare for the UK to exit the EU. This guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-exit-no-deal-preparations-for-local-authority-childrens-services-in-england.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of students qualify for free school meals in each secondary school in St Helens North constituency; and what the average proportion of students is who qualify for free school meals in secondary schools in England.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number and proportion of students who qualify for free school meals is published at national and school level in the underlying data of the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication. The 2019 publication is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2019.
The underlying data file Schools_pupils_and_their_characteristics_2019_pupil_characteristics_UD.csv includes a column for parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of apprenticeship starters were eligible for free school meals in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England in each quarter of each academic year since 2014.
Answered by Anne Milton
Information on the proportion of apprenticeship starters who were eligible for free school meals is not held in the format requested.
The department publishes data on apprenticeship starts with various breakdowns by level, local authority and parliamentary constituency in the apprenticeships geography and sector subject area tool in the apprenticeships data library. A link is attached:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of people entering higher education by age 19 in (a) 2018-19 and (b) each of the last five academic years were eligible for free school meals in (i) St Helens North constituency, (ii) the North West and (iii) England.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The department publishes information at a national level on the proportion of students who entered higher education by age 19 who were eligible for free school meals at age 15 in state-funded and special schools.
The latest figures for England can be found in Table 1 here:
Figures are not available at regional or parliamentary constituency level.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of apprenticeship starts that were eligible for free school meals started (a) intermediate, (b) advanced and (c) higher apprenticeships in (i) St Helens North constituency, (ii) the North West and (iii) England in the first quarter of the academic year (A) 2018-19, (B) 2017-18, (C) 2016-17, (D) 2015-16 and (E) 2014-15.
Answered by Anne Milton
Information on the proportion of apprenticeship starters who were eligible for free school meals is not held in the format requested.
The department publishes data on apprenticeship starts with various breakdowns by level, local authority and parliamentary constituency in the apprenticeships geography and sector subject area tool in the apprenticeships data library. A link is attached:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many businesses in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West hired apprentices in each of the last five years.
Answered by Anne Milton
The most recent statistics on the total number of businesses with apprenticeship starts for the academic years 2012/13 to 2016/17 are published on GOV.UK and are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/750709/apprenticeship_starts_tables.xlsx.
Data on the number of businesses with apprenticeship starts at a national level is provided in table 8A. We do not provide regional or constituency breakdowns of this data.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on which dates the National Plan for Music Education monitoring board met since 2011; and if he will publish the minutes of those meetings.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Plan for Music Education, published in 2011, sets out the Government’s commitment to music and our desire that young musicians should have every opportunity to progress as far as their talents allow.
According to the Department’s records, the National Plan monitoring board met on the following dates: Monday 23 January 2012; Monday 14 May 2012; Wednesday 17 October 2012, and Wednesday 28 February 2013.
Since then, officials from the Department have continued to meet regularly with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Arts Council England, to monitor delivery of the Plan and its related programmes.
The Department has no plans to publish minutes of monitoring board meetings.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to consult on a new National Plan for Music Education; and what the timetable is for the publication of that plan.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Plan for Music Education sets out the Government’s commitment to music and its desire that young musicians should have every opportunity to progress as far as their talents allow. The Department is reviewing the plan for 2020, and will be consulting widely as part of that refresh, working with music experts and teachers. Further details will be announced in due course.