Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

May I just say that the Secretary of State will apologise to the House, because it was rather discourteous of him to disappear?

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

Many large companies that are net contributors to the apprenticeship levy are in the process of making redundancies among apprentices because of the downturn with the pandemic. In sectors such as aviation, we see valuable engineering apprentices being made redundant by big names such as Virgin and Ryanair. Will my right hon. Friend look with the Treasury at whether, for a limited period only during the pandemic, instead of making apprentices redundant, struggling sectors could use the apprenticeship levy to pay apprentices and to keep them employed and developing their skills?

[Gavin Williamson]

Mr Speaker, I apologise for being a little late. I got waylaid by a colleague asking a question outside the Chamber, and I did not realise the speed at which you were working through the Order Paper; it was so much more efficient than the last Speaker.

My hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) raises a really important question about apprenticeships and ensuring that we support youngsters who may find themselves in a situation with the company that they are working for where they are not in a position to complete their apprenticeship. That is why we are working very closely across Government to put in place measures to ensure that if a youngster, or anyone of any age, is in a position where they would not be able to complete their apprenticeship, they can do so, and to support employers to continue to take on apprentices. That includes the up to £2,000 that employers can benefit from by taking on apprentices.

Education and Social Mobility

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

The recent state of the nation report of the Social Mobility Commission highlights the challenges that we continue to face when it comes to tackling educational inequality and improving social mobility. Thanks to the Government’s reforms since 2010, there are 1.4 million more children now attending schools that are rated “good” or “outstanding” compared with six years ago. Furthermore, £2.5 billion has been invested this year in the pupil premium, which is reducing the attainment gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off peers in primary and secondary schools. I say to the hon. Member for Bradford South (Judith Cummins) that that is having a much bigger impact than EMA ever did or ever would have. However, there is still far more to do. Children living in the midlands or in the north have a smaller chance of attending a good school than children in the south. Just 5% of children eligible for free school meals are getting those five A grades at GCSE, while white working class boys, as we have heard many times today, are less likely to go to university than any other group in society.

As has been mentioned earlier, it is vital that appropriate support is targeted at children of a young age, as we know that educational inequalities start before children reach school age. Indeed, a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research earlier this year stated that children from the north are already behind their southern counterparts by the age of five. From September next year, the Government will double the current entitlement of 15 hours of free childcare a week for all three and four-years-olds in England to 30 hours—part of a record £6 billion per year investment in childcare by the end of this Parliament. The introduction of the early years pupil premium has equipped providers with the flexibility to innovate to improve the quality of early years provision for eligible children.

I shall briefly mention one incredibly important group of young people whom we must consider as part of this debate—children who are looked after in the state system. Outcomes for our looked-after children in education are poorer than their peers, and the gap gets wider as the children get older. Although trends in the educational attainment of looked-after children are generally improving, these children are still far less likely than their peers to receive good GCSE and A-level results and, indeed, tend not to go to university. When we speak about social mobility and ensuring that a child’s background should not determine how far they can go in life, it is imperative that we remain mindful of looked-after children and the sometimes unique obstacles that they face.

All this is where we are in our current system. We can all agree that despite the improvements that have been made since 2010, there is still a shortage of good school places and adequate choice for parents when it comes to choosing the best education for their child.

There are two grammar schools in my local area: Crossley Heath and North Halifax Grammar School. Both schools provide an excellent education to children and have proved incredibly popular with parents across Calderdale for many years. Sadly, although they are popular with all parents, it is only those in middle-income or high-net-worth families that tend to access those schools because of the costs associated with preparation for entry—whether tuition or private school. This has been a big bugbear of mine for many years. If our local primary schools are serious about social mobility and about access to the right school place for each individual child, why do they not offer tuition to access grammar schools for those children who are capable and come from less well-off means?

It is not because the schools cannot afford to so—we have already heard how much they get from the pupil premium—but because they oppose the principle. Indeed, to the many Opposition Members who oppose selective education on principle, I would say that this discrimination is already an inbuilt part of the comprehensive system at present. Having a ban on grammar schools already causes an inbuilt discrimination against those without monetary means. Comprehensive schools also tend to be highly selective on wealth in other areas, as good and outstanding schools are disproportionately in well-to-do areas, and that is widely acknowledged.

Unfortunately, I do not have a great deal of time left, so I will be brief. In the interests of improving education standards and increasing choice for parents, there is a case for relaxing restrictions on selective education. That proposal, alongside other initiatives, will indeed increase social mobility.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

A lot of what the hon. Lady says is incorrect. She will be well aware that a report by the Sutton Trust clearly set out the improved attainment of free school meal children, in particular in grammar schools. It is totally untenable for her to set out her concerns about grammar schools while resolutely being opposed to any kind of consultation document that looks at how we should reform them. We want to look at how we can reform grammar schools. The education system has changed beyond all recognition over recent years, and it is right that we now look at what role grammars can play in a 21st century education system.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

3. What steps her Department has taken to implement the Staying Put policy; and what progress her Department has made on expanding similar arrangements to children from residential care.

[The Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

Since May 2014, we have provided £44 million to local authorities to implement Staying Put. The latest data indicate that 54% of 18-year-olds who are eligible to stay put chose to do so. That is a massive increase on what happened before—I am proud to say this—a Conservative-led Government changed the law. We have also seen 30% of 19-year-olds and 16% of 20-year-olds still living with their former foster carers. For those leaving residential care, we have announced plans to pilot a similar scheme, Staying Close.

[Craig Whittaker]

Sir Martin Narey’s recent review of the children’s homes estate recommended that the vulnerable 9% of looked-after children who are currently excluded from Staying Put arrangements are given the opportunity to take part in Staying Close. Will the Minister update the House on what plans he has for exploring Sir Martin’s recommendations?

[Edward Timpson]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his continued support for care leavers in this House. A key part of our new cross-Government care leavers’ strategy, “Keep On Caring”, was the commitment to introduce Staying Close, as recommended by Sir Martin Narey. We now intend to pilot Staying Close so that we can understand the costs and practical implications before there is a wider roll-out. Part of the next phase of the children’s social care innovation programme will be an invitation to organisations to work with us to develop projects that are aimed at transforming support for vulnerable children, including Staying Close.

Schools that work for Everyone

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman argues about the status quo, while resolutely standing against any proposals to change it. As he knows, the challenge that we face is selection by house price. Parents simply do not have the choice if they are not able to buy a house in a catchment area. We think that is totally unacceptable and that grammars should do more to reach into disadvantaged communities, but we also think that parents in those communities should have the choice of a grammar if that is what they want.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

The Calder Valley is unique in the north of England, as we are still served by three state grammar schools, all of which are hugely popular with parents and pupils alike. Will my right hon. Friend, however, look at how we encourage state primary schools to help those pupils, particularly those from deprived backgrounds, who opt to sit the entrance exam, which my local state primary schools are currently opposed to doing?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend sets out a serious issue. It is one of the reasons for some of the proposals to ensure that grammars work more carefully with their feeder schools that are primaries in areas of lower income families. It is vital that we break that link. An important piece of work done by Kent County Council looked at some of the reasons why parents from lower income families were often less inclined to send their children to grammar schools. In many cases that was not just about the test; it was about school uniforms and transport costs. These are all practical steps that we can take to remove the barriers that parents sometimes wrongly think exist, which dissuade them from even applying to grammars.

Compulsory Emergency First Aid Education (State-funded Secondary Schools) Bill

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Friday 20th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this important debate and would like to start by thanking the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce) on taking this Bill forward.

Every year some 30,000 people in the UK have cardiac arrests outside of a hospital or associated care setting, but, at present, fewer than one in 10 of them survive. With a current ambulance target response time of eight minutes, time is of the essence, so acting quickly is essential because for every minute that passes in which immediate CPR is not given, the survival chance falls by 10%. However, if immediate CPR action is taken, the chances of survival rise threefold. Furthermore, it is estimated that 150,000 people die every single year in situations where their life could potentially have been saved if someone with an understanding of first aid was on hand to act quickly.

We will all have our own experiences of family and friends who have had accidents or fallen into difficulty and required urgent first aid. Very recently, a close friend of mine collapsed while playing sport. Thankfully, there were qualified professionals close at hand to assist and my friend now continues to make a recovery. However, such was the seriousness of the situation that it could have been very different if medical assistance had not been on hand. Many people, however, are not so fortunate. Thousands of lives are lost every single year because people do not have the knowledge or the confidence to intervene in such circumstances.

The Bill, of course, is about equipping our young people with the range of emergency life-support skills that are needed to keep somebody alive in such circumstances until professional help arrives. Depending upon the situation, the range of skills and knowledge which such training could provide may well prove to be the difference at a time of a cardiac arrest or a serious accident, when every second counts.

We all appreciate the importance of ensuring that as many people as possible are adequately equipped to assist in such situations, should they be required to do so. Indeed, I wholeheartedly agree with those hon. Members who have suggested that this process needs to start in schools to ensure that all of our young people are taught the life-saving skills that will remain with them through the rest of their lives. Ultimately, the question becomes: how do we encourage schools to teach these vital skills to our young people?

Earlier this year in the last parliamentary Session, the Education Committee, of which I was a member at the time, published a report regarding the teaching of PSHE in schools. PSHE covers a wide programme of learning through which our young people acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their daily lives. Among the various topics taught in our schools as part of this broad subject area is life-saving skills, which include CPR and more general first aid training. While it is up to individual schools to determine how they deliver PSHE, the Committee’s report makes it clear that this is an important part of the curriculum and that the Government should take various steps to improve the quality of provision in schools.

The final recommendations from the Committee cited a number of key steps that are required to improve the quality of PSHE in schools. These included formally measuring the quality of provision, incentivising schools to improve the way in which they deliver PSHE, and the need to ensure that appropriate curriculum time is devoted to the subject.

I was pleased to see that the Government welcomed the report’s findings when they set out their initial response in July on improving the quality of that education in schools. They made it clear that they want all schools to put high-quality PSHE at the heart of the curriculum. In March, before formally responding to the Committee’s recommendations, the Secretary of State announced new measures to improve the quality of PSHE, including the development of a new, rigorous PSHE quality mark and working with the PSHE Association to help them to quality-assure resources. The new PSHE quality mark will be brought in line with similar accreditations of this type that require schools to provide evidence of the depth and quality of their teaching in a particular area. That includes first aid training.

As part of the Government’s initial response to the report in July, they stated that they will work with Ofsted on how best to capture evidence of the quality of PSHE education in schools. They also acknowledged the importance of schools publishing the relevant information about their PSHE curriculum on their websites, and they have indicated that they are considering options to further strengthen schools’ compliance with the current requirements.

In the longer term, the Government have now indicated that they want to go further and that they will work with the sector to develop further measures to improve quality. Indeed, the Secretary of State made it clear that she wanted to make significant progress on this issue during this Parliament and would consider in full the arguments put forward by the Committee as part of that work to ensure that PSHE is taught well in every school. I have alluded to the Committee’s report, and to the assurances that have been provided by the Secretary of State in response to it, in order to make clear the Government’s commitment to enhancing this education, of which life-saving skills are an integral part.

Along with other hon. Members, I look forward to seeing what steps the Secretary of State will take further to improve the quality of PSHE education in schools, but I am somewhat reassured by her commitment to take this work forward throughout the duration of this Parliament. Given the Government’s commitment to improving this provision, the delivery of first aid training and its role within the wider subject area may well be part of the Secretary of State’s report. It might therefore be somewhat premature to consider the question of first aid training in schools while we are still awaiting her report on the wider subject area, of which first aid forms an integral part.

According to research by St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross, only 7% of the UK population have the skills and the confidence to carry out basic first aid in an emergency. We all agree that starting early and providing training in schools is absolutely key to changing that situation in the longer term, but we must not forget the need to raise awareness of the issue throughout the wider community as well. Indeed, even if the Bill were approved, it would take many years to improve the degree to which life-saving skills were common among the general population. Surely we need to start now by raising the profile of this issue, and not only in schools.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My hon. Friend is making the crucial point that people might have had first aid training at school, but many of them will have left school quite a long time ago. What efforts does he think could be made, without resorting to heavy-handed legislation, to encourage people to renew those skills?

[Craig Whittaker]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point. I myself have been on retraining courses over the years since I left school—although, as hon. Members can see, that was not so many years ago. [Laughter.]

As I was saying, surely we need to start now by raising the profile of this issue, not only in schools but in all parts of society from the workplace to voluntary clubs and places of worship. A number of organisations, including the British Heart Foundation, the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance, already work with thousands of people up and down the country to provide these skills and raise awareness of this issue. Those three organisations in particular work with a plethora of voluntary groups and organisations across my constituency, and I am sure that all Members will join me in paying tribute to the work that they do throughout the United Kingdom.

However, we have a long way to go in complementing the work of these charities and working alongside them to raise awareness of these issues and to further promote first aid training among the wider adult population. As MPs, we have a role to play. During a Westminster Hall debate earlier this year, my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Heather Wheeler) revealed that she had written to all her local schools and colleges about installing defibrillators. Today, other Members have talked about doing that. I recall my hon. Friend saying that a number of schools had subsequently taken her up on that offer as a result. Along with our local councillors, we can have a role in working alongside schools, local authorities, community groups and voluntary organisations to encourage them to consider the provision of first aid training. Following the example set by my hon. Friend, I have written to all my schools within the Calder Valley—and I will do so again—to raise awareness of these issues.

I am pleased that a number of hon. Members have mentioned the availability of defibrillators. While their presence on their own is clearly not enough, particularly in the absence of adequate training, they are an important part of the jigsaw puzzle. My own local authority, Calderdale, has taken steps to increase the number of defibs in public buildings and in places that experience high footfall. This has been an important and welcome first step. Local authorities have a key role to play and it is important that they take these issues seriously and consider how they can work with schools and other stakeholders to promote the wider availability of defibs throughout the community.

We have heard harrowing statistics and personal stories from hon. Members which speak for themselves. We all agree on the need to ensure that more people are first aid trained, and the arguments in favour of providing training in schools have been accepted by all. I commend the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead for introducing the Bill and for allowing us this opportunity to discuss, and raise awareness of, these important issues.

Many schools already teach CPR and more general first aid training as part of their delivery of the PSHE curriculum, and the question is whether that should be prescribed in law as outlined by the Bill. The Government have accepted the concerns about how PSHE has been delivered in the past, and they have made it quite clear that they are committed to working with the sector to develop further measures to improve the quality of PSHE in schools. Indeed, the Secretary of State has indicated that she wants to make significant progress on this issue during the course of this Parliament. To approve legislation relating to first aid training in schools before the Secretary of State has reported back on her development plan for the teaching of the subject area of which this forms a constituent part is, I feel, somewhat premature.

It is up to individual schools to determine how they deliver PSHE. I am pleased that the Government are looking closely at provision in this area with a view to raising standards, but it is important that schools retain the ultimate right to deliver the curriculum in the best way they see fit. It is the professionals, our teachers and headteachers, who are best placed to decide what is most suitable for their students, and they need the flexibility to deliver PSHE, including CPR and first aid training, in a way that is appropriate for their school environment.

The national curriculum creates a minimum expectation for the school programme. Indeed, it does not seek to prescribe everything that a school should teach, but rather, creates a structure and a framework around which the professionals working in a school environment can tailor a programme that works best for their students. We must also remember that schools do not have a monopoly on the provision of education to our children. Parents, grandparents and voluntary groups outside the formal school environment have just as important a role to play.

Let me return to the Education Committee’s report of earlier this year, which recommended putting CPR and first aid on a statutory footing in the curriculum. What Members who served on that Committee have not mentioned is that we stopped short of recommending that that should be done provided we extended the school day. There is a real risk here in terms of a plethora of high-profile issues. I recall discussing the curriculum in 2011, when there were high-profile campaigns for a number of things, such as PSHE, life skills, road safety, financial literacy, advanced technology and even Latin.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My hon. Friend has suggested something that would break my rule of not legislating for specific subjects; to have Latin on the curriculum must be an advantage.

[Craig Whittaker]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I recall that when I was at school—that very short time ago—Latin was not my most favourite of subjects. Some people would say neither was English, but there we go.

The Government have been called on to include many similar subjects in the national curriculum. Simply having this long and overly prescriptive list of compulsory subjects that must be taught could easily lead to a tick-box exercise, as has been said, and to schools being prevented from focusing on what is important for their pupils and their communities. Schools should be encouraged to, and supported in, teaching vital skills such as first aid, but forcing them to do so in law may not be the best way to achieve the outcomes we all desire, unless we have a serious think about extending the school day.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

As always, it is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Mrs Murray). I congratulate the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce) on her success in the ballot and thank her for bringing this Bill before the Chamber. I also congratulate St John Ambulance, the British Heart Foundation and the British Red Cross, because, whatever we might think about the Bill, one must commend them for their campaign, which has brought this matter to national attention.

I want to concentrate on the concerns of schools in Bury North. I thought it would be good to seek the views of those secondary schools in my constituency that would be affected if the Bill were to become the law of the land. None of the headteachers who responded supported the idea of first aid training being compulsory because most already offered it. I am fortunate in that our schools in Bury North are very well regarded. There is great competition for places. One is being rebuilt, and many parents from outside the area seek to send their children to schools in Bury.

I contacted a school with 1,000 pupils that already teaches emergency first aid to year 7 pupils. We do not need a Bill imposing more red tape and bureaucracy when schools are already teaching first aid of their own free will. It said:

“We feel that it should not be a compulsory part of the curriculum as needs for PSHE change over time and the flexibility should be left to schools.”

Another school said it offered a short first aid course as part of PSHE. Its headteacher stressed that the training could not be in depth because it was costly to cover a full year group of more than 200 pupils. He said that if the training imposed by the Bill was free or under £500, his school could

“gladly buy in to the offer”,

but he went on to say:

“On the other hand, with restrictions due to reduced funding and the expectation schools find this type of funding from existing resources or efficiency savings, I would not advocate it being compulsory.”

It also said it made first aid training available as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, in which about 60 of its pupils were taking part. In providing this education, it has to arrange staff first aid training and put in place first responder arrangements, at a cost to the school’s budget.

The school was also concerned about the time made available to teach first aid in greater depth. It said:

“Another aspect is curriculum content versus time available. The consultation on the target of ninety per cent of pupils to undertake the English Baccalaureate will put further strain on an already crowded curriculum.”

As a religious school, it was also concerned that, because 10% of its teaching time was spent on religious education, it was under increased time pressure over and above other schools.

[Craig Whittaker]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point about religious education, which is of course statutory within the curriculum. When it comes to how religious education is taught, we know that it is a postcode lottery around the country. Does my hon. Friend agree that putting this on a statutory footing will not necessarily mean that it will be taught or indeed taught well?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gyimah]

My hon. Friend has made some very good points during this debate and she makes another one there. In thinking about this Bill, the intentions are important but we also have to consider how we implement it across thousands of schools to make sure that every child receiving this gets the highest-quality training and that it is refreshed at the appropriate times.

The new national curriculum, which has been mentioned a number of times, particularly by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), introduced in September 2014, represents a clear step forward for schools. It provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum. It will ensure that all children have the opportunity to acquire the essential knowledge in key subjects. Beyond primary English, mathematics and science, the slimmer national curriculum gives teachers greater flexibility to innovate in how they teach and to develop new approaches that will engage children in their education more effectively.

[Craig Whittaker]

On that point—

[Mr Gyimah]

I do want to make some progress. We want the new national curriculum to last, rather than having to be updated every few years. The new national curriculum is based on a body of essential knowledge that children should be expected to acquire in key subjects during the course of their school career. It embodies for all children their cultural and scientific inheritance, enhances their understanding of the world around them, and exposes them to the best that has been thought and written. That essential knowledge should not change significantly over time.

It has somehow been routine for Education Ministers to come to this place to make the case against the inclusion of a particular new requirement in the national curriculum. Such proposals, like the one in this Bill, are often supported by a persuasive argument, but their sheer number means that I start from a position of caution. I have to read out some of the topics that have been suggested for inclusion in order to make Members aware of the sheer burdens that people wish to be imposed on the national curriculum. The topics include: understanding the causes and issues around homelessness; teaching children about their rights in the context of forced marriage; teaching against violence; understanding transgender issues; knowledge about the health dangers of tobacco; understanding animal welfare; anti-bullying, including online bullying; the risks and dangers of gambling; promoting gender equality; knowledge about cancer and how to cope when cancer affects your life; knowledge of the symptoms of brain tumours in young people; fire and road safety, as was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince); positive body image; the UN declaration on the rights of the child; the dangers of carbon monoxide; gardening; knife crime—

Todmorden and Calder High Schools

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

My predecessor, the Labour MP for Calder Valley, tried in vain for 13 years to convince her Government to rebuild both Calder and Todmorden high schools. The two schools have been at the top of the local authority priority list for many years, nay for decades. The problem with the previous Labour Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme was that these schools never hit the criteria to be rebuilt and without a change in the criteria they would never have been rebuilt. The two criteria of the Building Schools for the Future programme were deprivation and underachievement, but neither school was considered by the then Labour Government to be in an area of deprivation and both overachieved according to the criteria set by that same Government. It was therefore inevitable that my predecessor would fail in her attempt to get them both rebuilt under that programme.

Since becoming the MP for Calder Valley nearly five years ago, as well as for the three years before that, I have had a constant stream of people visit the schools, including the previous Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove); the previous Minister responsible for children and families, my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton); the Minister responsible for school reform, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb); the Prime Minister’s office; the director of capital at the Education Funding Agency; the director of finance and commercial at the Department for Education; the chief executive of the EFA; and a plethora of people from the funding agency. Every one has either pledged money or agreed that something needs to be done about these schools.

The problems at the two schools have been extensive, with gas leaks, electricity substations replaced, sewer collapses, banisters on stairwells too low for health and safety, heating systems that are so old that at one end of the building it is like a sauna and the other end it is like a freezer, asbestos, prefabricated buildings that are a couple of decades past their usable life, mould, water retention behind rendered walls, crumbling windows and crumbling windowsills, as well as the fact that both schools battle the blight of flat roofs that need constant repairs and leak like sieves. Those are just a few of the issues.

At Todmorden high school, the local authority has allocated an additional £250,000 per annum just for unexpected repairs. At Calder high school, when they built the Ted Hughes theatre not too many years ago in memory of our locally born national poet laureate they found that the part of the building on which they were building the theatre had no foundations at all.

Both schools are a mess. The fact that their teachers teach and pupils learn to their full potential is testament to the excellent heads, their management teams, excellent teachers and superb pupils. Calder high school was built in 1935 but did not open until after the war, in 1950. It was built for 350 students, but today it caters for 1,500 students and staff. It was also our country’s first comprehensive school, and with the exception of the separate sixth-form building, built over a decade ago, the building is mainly in its original form—all flat-roofed. Todmorden high school is a specialist high school for visual arts, but trust me, nothing at all about the buildings can be considered visual art. It was built in 1958, it too is all flat-roofed, and it leaks like a sieve. The Pennine wind howls through the windows, which constantly rattle, and the extortionate energy bills add to the global warming issue, rather than keeping the young people in the building warm.

Imagine the excitement, then, when it was announced that instead of the criteria used for Building Schools for the Future, there would be new criteria around dilapidation and places. Finally, after nearly two decades, these two schools were on a level playing field with others, and everybody assured me that justice would be served. Every school in the UK was to be surveyed, and finally, after the unfairness of Building Schools for the Future, both Todmorden and Calder high schools would be in with a real chance of getting the money, not only because they had been promised it by the Prime Minister, no less, and the Secretary of State for Education, but because the process for getting the money was finally to be fair.

In this Parliament, there have been only two lots of announcements of funding under the Priority School Building programme: PSBP 1 and, more recently, PSBP 2. Both schools narrowly missed out under PSBP 1; both, after the applications were ranked, came in the early 300s. The Government announced moneys to rebuild the first 261 schools. On that basis, it seemed a sure bet that they would be in the next round. PSBP 2, however, was done on a block-by-block basis, so schools applied to have blocks rebuilt, rather than the whole school. This time, because the Government used the surveys that had been done for prioritising schools, funding for 467 blocks was announced. This time, Calder high was the school with the lower block score, at around 1,700, and Todmorden, which everybody knows locally as being the most dilapidated of the two, scored 2,638, which is absolute nonsense.

I asked the Minister for Schools only last week about the property data surveys and why he would not publish the rankings of schools. My right hon. Friend replied:

“we have no plans to publish a ranking list of surveyed schools, which could be misleading without taking into account other information supplied by schools and local authorities with their PSBP 2 bids.”—[Official Report, 2 March 2015; Vol. 593, c. 661.]

If the DFE is taking into account other information supplied by schools and local authorities, why did we spend millions of pounds on property surveys? Why did the Department not use the statement of priorities, which every local authority uses as a working document, and uses to allocate maintenance spend? That could have saved the Department millions of pounds by preventing the carrying out of additional surveys—surveys that do not appear to be a true reflection of the real state of dilapidation. In fact, it was only a decade ago that it ceased to be a requirement for local authorities to submit those statements of priorities to central Government. I accept that not every local authority will now be using the same format. However, as it is down to individual local authorities to allocate maintenance spend priorities, they will have some form of working document that they use to allocate funds.

If the survey is not the only basis, in the interests of openness and transparency why will the Minister not let everyone know what other things are taken into account? We know locally that the surveys do not reflect the reality on the ground. If they did, Todmorden high school would be ranked as a higher priority than Calder high school. It is not.

After reviewing the survey data following the decision about phase 2 of the Priority School Building programme, I raised concerns about how robust the surveys were, in particular for Todmorden high school. After what seemed like a whirlwind tour of all and anyone who would listen, many of them agreed to my request for a second look to be taken at the surveys, particularly that of Todmorden high school. The director, finance and commercial, at the Department for Education and the chief executive of the Education Funding Agency have said they would look again at the surveys. The Prime Minister’s office has said that it would ask for a re-survey. The Secretary of State has said that she will ask for a re-survey. Even the surveyors have said they will do another survey.

The problem appears to be that the Minister seems to be blocking this. May I ask the Minister why he is blocking attempts to have at least Todmorden high school re-surveyed or the survey re-examined? Similarly, I am told that, even if we did manage to have Todmorden re-surveyed and it was correct, the Minister would not allow it to be added to the list anyway, despite there being contingency within the list. May I ask the Minister if this is true and, if he is blocking any other school being added to the list, why?

Finally, the Prime Minister promised money for Todmorden high school and the previous Secretary of State for Education promised money. Every person whom I have dragged around the schools over the years agrees that the schools need to be rebuilt, the 2,500 students and teachers at Todmorden and Calder high schools all agree that these schools need rebuilding, and every parent and grandparent of those young people who live and work in those communities know that the schools need rebuilding. Many parents tell me that the schools needed rebuilding when they went to them. Why does the Minister believe that he knows better than all these people? Why will he not reconsider having the schools looked at again? Why will he not agree to put them on the PSB2 programme if he got it wrong?

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) on securing this important debate. I understand how important this matter is to him, and I recognise that he is and has been a strong advocate for the schools in his constituency.

It clearly is not right for pupils and teachers to work in buildings in a poor condition where learning is disrupted and staff time is diverted from the necessary focus on teaching. High quality school buildings send out an important signal to young people and to those who teach in schools about the importance that we place on education. It can also help to raise the aspirations of many young people, in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds, if they are educated in appropriate settings. Investment in the school estate is one of this Government’s highest priorities, and it is our aim that every child will have a good quality school place in buildings that are safe and fit for purpose.

Over this Parliament the Government have spent some £18 billion on school buildings. This year we allocated a total of £1.4 billion to help improve and maintain the condition of school buildings, and have recently announced a further £4.2 billion in school condition funding up to 2017-18. This is in addition to the major investments in the Priority School Building programme, and the announcement of a second phase of that programme. Since 2011, we have also invested £5 billion in the creation of new school places in response to need, and we recently announced a further £1.3 billion in basic need funding for 2017-18 for new school places.

The Priority School Building programme aims to rebuild or refurbish those schools or individual school buildings in the very worst condition. I entirely agree with my hon. Friend that we should prioritise on the basis of need, not on the basis of deprivation, attainment or other factors that were considered by previous Governments. Through the first phase of PSBP, 260 schools are being rebuilt or will have their condition needs met. We are now actively engaged with all 260 schools in the programme—19 are already open in new buildings, 82 construction contracts have been signed, and the other schools are all in various stages of design and development. We are still aiming for all schools to be open in their new buildings by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally planned.

In May 2014, as my hon. Friend indicated, we launched a second phase of the Priority School Building programme—PSBP2—a £2 billion programme between 2015 and 2021 to undertake rebuilding and refurbishment projects in schools with buildings in the very worst condition. While the first phase of the programme worked on the basis of the condition of the whole school site, through PSBP2 the Department has refined the approach to target individual school buildings as well as whole-school rebuilds where appropriate. That is for the good reason, as I am sure he will understand, that some schools have a large number of buildings, some of which are in a very good state and some of which are in an absolutely terrible state. It is not reasonable to overlook buildings in a very bad state simply because of the state of some of the school’s other buildings. This allows limited funding to be focused much more tightly on addressing specific issues in a school estate.

That approach has been made possible by the introduction of the property data survey programme—the most comprehensive survey of the school estate ever undertaken—which has provided information on the condition of individual school buildings. It has sought to do so—I emphasise this for my hon. Friend—in a way that is consistent across the country so that we do not rely on surveys that have been undertaken in very different ways by different local authorities and responsible bodies, on the basis of which it would not be possible to allocate money from central Government because we would not know whether there was consistency across the country.

[Craig Whittaker]

I accept what my right hon. Friend says about surveys, but the local authority surveys of Todmorden and Calder high schools are consistent. For decades, Todmorden high school has been prioritised streets ahead of Calder high, yet under the national surveys it is completely the other way around. Surely there is cause to look again at the national surveys of those two schools, because they are completely at odds with what we know locally.

[Mr Laws]

My understanding is that, following my hon. Friend’s representations to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State, the Department looked very closely at the judgments we made on those school buildings, and we continue to believe that they were right, but I will move on to that point in a moment.

I would like to make it clear at this point that I, as the Minister responsible for the capital programme, have not resisted any proposals that have been put to me in relation to buildings in my hon. Friend’s constituency, or any proposals from anybody in the Government. The Department received expressions of interest in the programme on behalf of 1,299 schools, covering over 3,300 property data survey blocks, which was a much greater number than for PSBP1. That was probably because of the willingness to accept individual block bids and, as my hon. Friend will know from his time on the Education Committee, because PSBP1 had a large private finance element, which put off some bidders, whereas PSBP2 is entirely from public capital.

Of the 1,299 schools that applied, 277 have been successful, which means that well over 400 school blocks will have their condition needs addressed, as my hon. Friend indicated. Individual school buildings were prioritised for inclusion in the programme on the basis of data from the property data survey programme, together with the information supplied in schools’ expressions of interest. Our aim was to identify those blocks where the poor condition is most highly concentrated, where the continued operation of the school is most at risk and where the cost of addressing the issues would present those responsible for schools with the greatest challenges, given the allocations we are able to give them at a responsible-body level.

I understand that my hon. Friend has concerns about the property data survey, particularly with regard to Todmorden and Calder high schools. The property data surveys were all conducted by professionally qualified building surveyors and engineers who are experienced in undertaking condition surveys in schools. Consistency among the surveyors was ensured by using detailed guidance and a standardised surveying pro forma developed by the EFA. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors provided feedback to the EFA on the methodology we used throughout the development of the programme and it has endorsed our approach.

Data from the surveys were subject to a rigorous quality assurance and audit programme. Schools’ responsible bodies were also given the opportunity to review their data and they provided feedback to the EFA on any discrepancies prior to the data being used. I know that Calderdale council raised a number of queries about the property data survey information. They were reviewed by our independent technical advisers in line with our published criteria for changes, and they decided that the original survey information should stand. I am sure that my hon. Friend understands why we took the decision to base the initial property data survey on a visual inspection only. An intrusive survey of every one of the schools that applied would potentially have damaged the existing school buildings and increased the risk of our disturbing any asbestos present in each building. The additional costs, as well as the inconvenience to schools, would have been significant.

We recognise, of course, that every survey has its limitations, which is why we invited those applying to the Priority School Building programme to submit additional local information. We considered the information submitted on asbestos and structural issues alongside the property data survey information. We have published information on the Government website on the methodology used to prioritise the programme.

In the majority of cases, the schools prioritised for the Priority School Building programme were not even in the previous Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, which shows the stark gap between the previous plans and the priorities in many areas. The cost of PSBP schools is up to a third lower than that of BSF schools, saving millions of pounds per school. We are building or improving more than 800 schools during this Parliament, compared with less than 400 under Labour’s BSF programme. We have already completed more than 200 new school buildings since the last election.

The starting point for deciding on schools for the programme was the information contained in the property data survey, specifically the degree of need shown in the worst two condition grades in the survey, namely condition grade C, where elements are exhibiting major defects and/or not operating as intended, and condition grade D, where they are life expired or at serious risk of imminent failure. The need shown in those grades was then divided by the gross internal floor area of the block to produce a relative condition need value per square metre, to allow sensible comparisons to be made.

We automatically included in the programme blocks with a significant structural or asbestos need issue that could only be sustainably addressed by rebuilding, as well as those with condition D need that required the most substantial funding and would not otherwise make the programme. The remaining blocks were then ranked by the need per square metre calculation, including any structural and asbestos costings.

In the case of Calder high school—I believe my hon. Friend has discussed these matters with some of the senior members of the EFA—three blocks were included in the application. In those blocks, the degree of grade C and D need was simply less than those schools that were successful in their application. Indeed, the need was considerably less, as my hon. Friend knows. As part of the prioritisation process, we reviewed the information that was submitted with the school’s expression of interest in relation to structural and asbestos-related issues. As with all structural and asbestos issues raised, they were analysed on a consistent basis by our technical advisers to identify whether the need was immediate and significant enough to be accepted for automatic inclusion or for additional need to be priced and considered in the ranking process. The issues identified at the school did not, unfortunately, pass that assessment.

In the case of Todmorden high school, the expression of interest covered six blocks that all made up a single block as part of the property data survey. Again, the simple fact was that in the worst two condition grades C and D, the property data survey showed the school to have low need. Actually, it was shown to have no need at all in the worst condition grade D, and certainly much lower need than schools that were ultimately selected as part of the programme.

My hon. Friend will know that another of his schools was successful in the Priority School Building programme 2. Cragg Vale primary school was successful on the basis of the structural concerns raised in the school’s expression of interest. Independent technical advisers reviewed the information submitted by the local authority and confirmed that a retaining wall had been condemned and posed a risk to the school. The cost of the repair to the retaining wall was priced in line with Priority School Building programme 2 and PDS pricing. However, that would have addressed only the wall, and we could not be confident that it would have addressed the underlying issues causing the movement. The school was classified as having no viable repair, and was therefore escalated to the list. As he will understand, sometimes more significant structural issues are not automatically visible to those of us who are not experts in such matters, so a school may look in a better state superficially, but have a higher condition need.

We should be clear that the fact that Todmorden and Calder high schools were unsuccessful is not to say that they do not have condition issues that need addressing. We encourage responsible bodies to bid only for their worst blocks, and selection for the programme was made by comparison with other blocks in poor condition. To put that in context, the property data survey holds data on almost 60,000 blocks across England. It is likely that the successful blocks had a combination of very poor condition elements in their building—in other words, failing boilers as well as issues with their external and internal walls.

PSBP2 is intended to sit alongside, not to replace, the responsibility that local authorities, governing bodies, trustees, dioceses and other bodies have for the maintenance of school buildings in their care. As my hon. Friend will probably know, since 2011 we have made available more than £23 million in capital funding for the provision of new school places and the maintenance of schools in Calderdale. We have announced a further £16 million of funding for 2015 to 2018. Academies in Calderdale have successfully bid for more than £17.5 million in funding through the academies capital maintenance fund, of which about £10 million is for academies in my hon. Friend’s constituency. Over the 2011 to 2018 period, Calderdale schools will receive £22 million for the improvement and maintenance of the school estate.

I understand that Calderdale council is considering using part of the allocations to address some of the issues at Todmorden school. I would encourage it to do so, because that is exactly what the money is for. Indeed, the fact that the local authority has put forward these particular schools as part of the bidding process for PBSP2 implies that it must be concerned about their condition. Therefore, they should be a real priority for the money we have allocated to the local authority. We understand that local authorities have competing priorities for their capital resources, but I am sure that my hon. Friend is making the case to Calderdale council for investment in these schools.

Because of my hon. Friend’s representations to me, the Secretary of State, the Prime Minister and senior members of the Education Funding Agency, I have asked EFA officials who lead on the delivery of our national school building programme to contact Calderdale council to offer their expertise in the development and procurement of capital schemes. I invite the council and my hon. Friend to make any further and final representations that they wish to make following either my comments or his in this debate.

In addition, I hope that EFA officials, who are able to offer expertise in the development and procurement of capital schemes, can review the full range of options for addressing the building condition need at Calder high and Todmorden schools. As I have previously said, we are delivering school building projects at a third of the cost of the previous Government's BSF programme, and, if appropriate, we intend to provide Calderdale council with access to the same procurement routes that allow us to deliver such savings. As a local council, it can, if it thinks it appropriate, use the money we have devolved to it to seek to prioritise these schools, and, following the efficient methods of procurement to which the EFA has access, to do so as effectively as possible.

We want to allow those responsible for the maintenance and improvement of school buildings, such as Calderdale council, to plan well across their estates. It is precisely for that reason that we have, for the first time, provided certainty on school condition allocations over the next three years. That is why my hon. Friend’s local council now has a significant amount of additional money to tackle this need.

I am enormously grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing attention to the building issues facing schools in his area. I hope that I have explained the process of prioritising schools in the Priority School Building programme. I am sorry that he has so far been disappointed with the results, but I hope that we can work with his local council to deliver the right result for these schools in his constituency.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan]

I agree with my hon. Friend that parents being able to make the right choice for their child is exactly what we want to see, because they know their child best. I should make it clear that the Department is currently considering the proposals that have been put to us by a school in Kent, and I expect to reach a decision in due course.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

4. If her Department will publish a ranking of the property data survey programme of participant schools.

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

Through the priority school building programme 2, we have used the property data survey to allocate £2 billion to rebuild and refurbish buildings in the worst conditions at 277 schools across the country. We have no plans to publish a ranking of surveyed schools.

[Craig Whittaker]

The previous Secretary of State said that Calder high school was one of the worst he had seen in England. Similarly, when the Prime Minister came to Todmorden, he pledged money for the rebuilding of Todmorden high school. Despite those assurances, so far neither school has received any money. Will the Minister pledge to do as was initially intended and make transparent the priority listings of all schools surveyed under the property data survey programme so that we can see how robust they are?

[Mr Laws]

I know that my hon. Friend is a champion of the schools in his constituency, including the two that he mentions. In addition to the priority school building programme phase 2 funding, we recently announced £4.2 billion of funding for the improvement and maintenance of school buildings over the next three years, and his local authority is able to draw down on those moneys allocated to its area for the schools that he mentions. On the ranking of schools, we have no plans to publish a ranking list of surveyed schools, which could be misleading without taking into account other information supplied by schools and local authorities with their PSBP 2 bids.

Young People in Care

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

As has already been said, our report made recommendations on bed-and-breakfast accommodation, on staying closer and on the regulation of all external accommodation—to name but a few. The recommendation I wish to discuss today is on the lack of “Staying Put” arrangements for the 9% of our young people—some would argue that they are the most vulnerable 9%—in residential care homes.

First, let me remind the House of some of statistics about these vulnerable young people, our nation’s 70,000 looked-after children. Everybody will surely agree that this country’s record in helping that most vulnerable group when they leave care has been nothing short of appalling in the past. Of the 7,000 19-year-olds who were in care at 16, 36% were not in education, employment or training and only 6% of all care leavers are in higher education, compared with 43% of their peers. Less than 26% of children in care obtain five good grades at GCSE, compared with more than 70% of their peers, and 23% of the adult population in our jails have had experience of the care system. Around a quarter of those living on the streets have a care background and care leavers are four or five times more likely to commit suicide. About 47% of looked-after children aged between five and 17 show signs of psychosocial adversity and psychiatric disorders, which is higher than the most disadvantaged children living in private households. Physical and mental problems also increase at the time of leaving care.

As we know—the Chairman of the Committee mentioned it in his speech—and to the Government’s huge credit, they have allowed young people who are fostered to remain with their carers until they are 21, if they wish, if their carers agree and if it is considered to be in their best interests. That is in an attempt to address the many serious challenges care leavers face. All young people in foster care are offered enhanced support up to the age of 21. For young people in foster care, that is one of the biggest and most fundamental changes to their support when they leave care, and it has been widely applauded as a significant change in the right direction for that group of young people.

The big scandal, however, is that the extension to foster placements excludes the 9% of young people in care who are in children’s homes. Those young people have a wide range of needs and challenges. What most have in common is that they are vulnerable. That vulnerability is exacerbated by the stigma attached to residential care among politicians, the public and, sadly, some in the social work profession. Ministers appear to see living in a family as the best option for children in care and the only setting in which children will thrive. That is not reflected by some social workers, who see children’s homes as the last resort, as a place for children who have failed family placements and as somewhere the more challenging young people can be placed. Many of the public see children’s homes as places where naughty children are sent. Historically that view was compounded by some local authorities who used children’s homes to accommodate their more challenging young people.

The Education Committee’s recommendation was that young people living in residential children’s homes should have the right to remain there beyond the age of 18, just as young people in foster care now have the right of staying put until the age of 21. We recommend that the Department for Education extends “Staying Put” to residential children’s homes.

Despite the evidence taken in our inquiry, the Government do not agree. They said that too many children’s homes are not of sufficient quality and that the immediate priority is to improve significantly the quality of residential care. To be fair to the Government, they are doing that. They said that the evidence for placing such a duty on supporting the “Staying Put” arrangements for young people in foster care is robust. We do not have the evidence for children’s homes, as they were not covered by the plans.

The Government said that there are a number of practical and legal issues we would need to consider and test out. There would be vulnerable adults living in homes with much younger vulnerable children—despite the fact that that happens in many households throughout Britain. In addition, a children’s home accommodating three care leaders and one child would technically no longer be a children’s home. The Government also mentioned money, and that has to be taken into consideration, particularly in these economic times.

None the less, the Department recognised that those challenges should not be viewed as insurmountable barriers. It said it was working in collaboration with charities to consider some of the issues associated with “Staying Put” and residential children’s homes. Natasha Finlayson, from the Who Cares? Trust, confirmed that that work was in progress. The Minister confirmed all that nearly a year ago, when I secured an Adjournment debate on this very issue.

In fact, a scoping report was requested from the Minister from a collaboration between the National Children’s Bureau, the Who Cares? Trust, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, Together Trust, the Centre for Child and Family Research, and Loughborough university. Their work was published only yesterday, after a year of working on the scoping exercise. A stakeholder workshop identified four different options for residential care “Staying Put” arrangements, which formed the basis of a consultation with young people. Overall, the scoping exercise showed that care leavers from residential homes would prefer to have options, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

[Tim Loughton]

My hon. Friend is making a good case for what is a very difficult solution for kids in residential care homes, but does he not recognise that the “Staying Put” exercise is largely staying put with carers, which is more easily achieved through foster care, for example? In residential homes, workers tend to move on. Indeed, the average stay in residential homes is rather short, so there is not that attachment. Would it therefore not be better to try to establish options, which he is now describing, that form links with foster carers and others to give a proper bonding and link with advice and support, which one does not get from an attachment to a building that is a residential care home? That is rather different to a foster care relationship, which the young person will have been in for many years in many cases.

[Craig Whittaker]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. He raises some valuable points, particularly on the turnover of staff in residential homes. The point is that a lot of young people in residential homes have a stigma attached to them. Not only that, quite often a foster placement has broken down. One could argue quite easily that they are the more vulnerable of our children in care. That being the case, to turf them out by themselves at the age of 18, often with very little support, is not the way forward. That will not be the case for all young people in residential homes—of course not. Some will be robust enough to take that step. For those who choose to stay, we feel strongly that that option should be open.

[Bill Esterson]

One challenge in residential and in foster care of “Staying Put” is that it leaves fewer places for other children to enter the care system. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the very big challenges in foster care is to find more foster carers, and in residential care, as the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) pointed out, it is to find staff who will stay long-term so that we have a more experienced, quality work force?

[Craig Whittaker]

Of course the hon. Gentleman has a point, but it does not make sense to allow young people in foster care to stay on until the age of 21, but exclude the 9% in residential care homes—the most vulnerable young people—particularly given that the 91% are arguably the ones clogging up the system.

The scoping exercise discussed four options, and the results were interesting: 25% of the young people preferred option 1—care leavers live in the same children’s home until they are 21; 13% preferred option 2—care leavers live in a separate building but in the same grounds as the children’s home; another 13% preferred option 3, which was like supported lodgings—care leavers live in a different house and need to be at least 16; and 25% preferred option 4, the staying close agenda—care leavers live independently in their own flat down the road or close to the children’s centre, and they have a key worker. It was clear from the scoping exercise that young children in residential homes would prefer those types of options.

The cost of extending those four options to all children—if we do it for one group, surely we must do it for all young people in care—would be about £75 million a year. It is not a small sum by any stretch of the imagination, but the cost of not giving any such option, particularly to residential care leavers, is many times that amount, and let us not forget the 23% who end up in our penal system, the cost of NEETs, drugs, crime, mental ill health, homelessness—to name just a few aspects.

The scoping exercise made several recommendations, and here are three of them: that the Department for Education develop plans for a new overarching duty of continuing wide-ranging support up to the age of 21 for all young people leaving care and, in doing so, draw on the learning of the Scottish reforms; that Ofsted work with stakeholders to clarify the ability of children’s homes to maintain registration when they routinely cater for young people over 18 and how children’s homes’ provision of accommodation and support for young people over 18 will impact on the inspections process; and that the Department for Education and the Department for Communities and Local Government review the option of extending regulation to a wider range of support and accommodation options for young people.

To summarise, may I ask the Minister when young people in residential homes can expect the Government to remove the discrimination and unfairness in the system and provide a range of options to all young people leaving care, as recommended by the scoping activity, and when he is likely to respond to that exercise?

Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

That is a great relief to all of us to learn.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

17. What assessment she has made of the effect of the introduction of regional schools commissioners.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

In the four months since the eight regional schools commissioners took up their responsibilities for the academies and free schools in their regions, they have been working efficiently with their head teacher boards to inject experience, expertise and valuable local knowledge into the management of the academy system, playing a vital role in the development of a self-improving school system.

[Craig Whittaker]

Prior to the schools commissioners being in place, it was my experience that the Department’s approach to failing academies was sometimes inconsistent. How does the Minister envisage that schools commissioners will apply a consistent approach to drive up standards and make academies more accountable?

[Mr Gibb]

Given their proximity to schools that are underperforming and their local knowledge, regional schools commissioners will act far more swiftly in taking failing schools to academy status than we have seen to date. That is the purpose of the regional schools commissioners, and I am confident that we will see a faster and smoother process of conversion to academy status.

Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

11. When she plans to announce the outcome of the next phase of the Priority School Building programme.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

13. When she plans to announce the successful applicants for the Priority School Building programme 2.

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

Our Department is in the process of analysing the expressions of interest for the next phase of the Priority School Building programme, and we expect to announce successful schools in January.

[Mr Laws]

My hon. Friend is a great champion of all the schools in his constituency and has been lobbying very hard indeed, as I am well aware, for the two schools that he names. I can assure him that we are processing these bids as rapidly as possible and that we will announce the successful schools in January. That will allow the project to move ahead as soon as possible.

[Craig Whittaker]

The previous Secretary of State, when he visited Todmorden and Calder high schools in the Calder Valley, said that they were among the worst that he had seen in England, but they never qualified for rebuilding under Building Schools for the Future because they attained too highly and did not have deprivation. Can the Minister confirm that under the Priority School Building programme, the criteria of attainment and deprivation have been scrapped and that schools that are dilapidated stand a chance of being rebuilt?

[Mr Laws]

I can confirm that. It is right that such a programme should look at the condition of all schools and prioritise those that are in most need of help, rather than targeting either attainment or deprivation. I am aware that there are a number of bids from schools in my hon. Friend’s constituency. We will look at those closely and announce the results in January.