Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Area SEND inspection of Hertfordshire Local Area Partnership report, published on 10 November 2023, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of appointing a Children’s Services Commissioner to assist Hertfordshire County Council with their statutory responsibilities to SEND children and their families.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Every child and young person with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) should have access to high-quality services. Where a council does not meet their requirements to provide appropriate support for these children, the department will act quickly to bring about rapid improvement.
On 10 November 2023, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published their joint local area SEND inspection report of Hertfordshire. Inspectors highlighted two areas of priority action and five areas for improvement.
The local area partnership is required to submit a detailed priority action plan to Ofsted and the CQC by 19 December 2023, within 35 days of receiving the final report. To ensure independent and expert oversight of delivery of this plan, the partnership has appointed Dame Christine Lenehan as the new chair of the partnership’s multi-agency improvement board.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2023 to Question 189672 on Special Educational Needs, when he plans to decide whether to issue additional guidance on school admission for summer born children with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will be publishing additional guidance on school admission for summer born children with an Education, Health and Care Plan in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help schools make adjustments for (a) children and (b) young adults that are on the waiting list for an autism assessment.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All those working with, or commissioning services for children and young people, must have regard to the statutory Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice: 0-25 years. This sets out clearly that early years settings, schools and colleges must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person with Special Educational Needs (SEN) gets the support they need. This includes autistic children and young people. This support should be put in place at the earliest opportunity when a child or young person with SEN has been identified. There is no need to wait for a medical assessment or diagnosis.
The Code states that, where it has been identified that a child or young person needs SEN support, the early years setting, school or college should work with the child or young person and the family to agree the adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place.
Where an assessment of needs indicates that support from specialist services is required, it is important that children and young people receive it as quickly as possible. Agencies across education, health and care should work together to support children and young people.
In the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department set out its vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, including timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings, who is responsible for securing the support and from what budgets.
The department will also develop new practice guides to support frontline professionals. The first three practice guides will be published by the end of 2025, focusing on advice for mainstream settings, and will include a practice guide on autism.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of using air purifying equipment in schools on levels of covid-19 infections in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Good ventilation can reduce the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19.
Evidence from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies demonstrates that CO2 monitoring is an effective method of identifying poor ventilation in spaces with multiple occupants. The Department knows that sufficient ventilation can be challenging, particularly in the winter months when staff sometimes feel they need to choose between fresh air to reduce the risk of airborne illnesses, keeping classrooms warm and the impact of increased heating costs. As such, the Department has provided CO2 monitors for approximately 100% of eligible teaching spaces in England. This will help staff balance good ventilation with energy usage whilst maintaining a comfortable temperature in rooms.
These CO2 monitors enable the ventilation in teaching spaces to be monitored. Where these monitors consistently identified poor ventilation that could not be easily remedied, schools were able to apply for Department funded air cleaning units (ACU). The Department has now provided over 9,000 ACUs to eligible settings.
In general, ACUs can help reduce airborne contaminants in poorly ventilated spaces. ACUs remove particulate matter, including virus particles, from the air to improve indoor air quality. The air purifiers provided by the Department work using high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter technology. There is strong evidence from laboratory studies of the efficacy of HEPA filtration technology at removing airborne viruses from the air. However, although they help improve air quality, ACUs do not reduce CO2 levels or improve ventilation, so it is important that they are not used as a substitute for ventilation or a reason to reduce it.
Department officials sit on the working group for a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology, which is the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology trial. This was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The trial has concluded and the academic leads intend to publish the results in a peer reviewed journal in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July to Question 906018 on Degrees, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of students graduating from universities without receiving their degree classification on their future career prospects.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Unlike some other education sectors where the government has taken part in negotiations with trade unions, universities are autonomous. They are therefore responsible for the pay and pension provision of their staff.
While government plays no formal role in such disputes, the department is deeply concerned about the impact of the marking and assessment boycott on students. It is unacceptable that students, many of whom have already suffered significant disruption to their studies over recent years, face further disruption and uncertainty. This disruption is particularly damaging to those students who are due to graduate and looking to enter the jobs market or progress to further study. The department has made clear that whatever the rights and wrongs of the current dispute, action that damages students' prospects is the wrong thing to do.
Our current understanding is that the vast majority of students have been unaffected by the industrial action and, in most cases, have received their full results on time, and progressed or graduated as normal. However, the department appreciates that, at some higher education (HE) providers, the impact of the boycott has been more significant.
This government believes students should be at the heart of the HE system. This is why the Office for Students (OfS) has been set up to regulate the HE sector in England, protect student rights and ensure the sector is delivering real value for money. The OfS wrote to institutions affected by the boycott on 12 June to reiterate its expectations in relation to its conditions of registration. The OfS have also published guidance to students on their rights during industrial action and will continue to monitor this ongoing situation through their normal regulatory mechanisms.
I have held discussions with the Russell Group, Universities UK and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) to better understand the impact on students and the mitigating actions their members are taking to minimise disruption. I have also written to the Russell Group and Universities UK, encouraging them to continue to do everything within their powers to protect the interests of students during this phase of industrial action. On 11 August, I wrote to UCEA and the University and College Union (UCU) urging them both to resume negotiations which, if successful, will bring an end to the boycott and further industrial action.
Universities have worked to reduce the impact on students in a variety of ways, including reallocating marking to other staff members and hiring external markers. Moreover, many universities have awarded degrees when they have enough evidence of a student’s prior attainment to do so. Others have assigned provisional grades to students to allow them to progress, and, once all papers have been marked, most institutions will award degree classifications that either remain as provisionally assigned or are uplifted to reflect the student’s achievements.
The department strongly urges all parties involved in this industrial dispute to resume negotiations. We will continue to engage with the HE sector to help better understand how students’ interests can be protected during this time.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Food Standards Agency on introducing allergen guidance for schools to help protect children with food allergies.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department works closely with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on all matters relating to school food.
Given the complexity and individual nature of allergies, the Department believes that head teachers, school governors, and their caterers are best placed to make decisions about their allergy handling policies, which consider individual circumstances.
The Department already has statutory guidance for schools to support pupils with medical conditions, which makes clear that schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with allergies and have processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. Parents should be fully consulted and engaged in any discussions in relation to their child’s allergies. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
While the Department keeps these policies under review, and welcomes feedback on how to better support schools’ implementation of them, the Department feels that the existing mix of national requirements and local flexibility is appropriate for this complex issue.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 187808 on Special Educational Needs, and with reference to her Department's guidance Summer born children: advice for admission authorities, published on 27 April 2023, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing additional guidance for summer born children with an Education, health and care plan.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is currently considering whether to issue additional guidance on school admission for summer born children with an Education, Health and Care plan.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing to the hon. Member for St Albans, dated 17 May 2023, on the application of the National Funding Formula (NFF) for special educational needs and disability to Hertfordshire, whether she will publish the analysis which shows that (a) the gap between Hertfordshire and other education authorities' historic levels of spending and their current allocation has significantly narrowed since 2017/18, and (b) adjusting historic spending data used in the NFF calculation would not have a significant effect on the central funding allocation for Hertfordshire.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
I apologise to the hon. Member for St Albans that she has not yet received a response to her request for this analysis. I will write to you within the next week, providing the analysis that you have requested.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 99943 on Special Educational Needs, whether a local education authority has a duty to place a student with an Education, Health and Care Plan in a year group other than the usual for their chronological age when a parent requests it.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
A parent may ask a local authority to place their child with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in a school year group other than the usual for their chronological age. It is then for the local authority to decide whether to do so, taking into account all relevant factors. Such factors will include the views of the parents and of the head teacher, and whether such an arrangement would be considered as ‘special educational provision’ in response to an identified special educational need.
The School Admissions Code is established pursuant to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Decisions about placements of children within EHC Plans are covered by a different legal regime, the Children and Families Act 2014 and Regulations made under that Act. This means that there was no decision to be made about whether to apply the School Admissions Code to children with EHC plans.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 99943 on Special Educational Needs, whether a Public Sector Equality Duty assessment was carried out on the decision to not apply the School Admissions Code to children with Education, Health and Care plans.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
A parent may ask a local authority to place their child with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in a school year group other than the usual for their chronological age. It is then for the local authority to decide whether to do so, taking into account all relevant factors. Such factors will include the views of the parents and of the head teacher, and whether such an arrangement would be considered as ‘special educational provision’ in response to an identified special educational need.
The School Admissions Code is established pursuant to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Decisions about placements of children within EHC Plans are covered by a different legal regime, the Children and Families Act 2014 and Regulations made under that Act. This means that there was no decision to be made about whether to apply the School Admissions Code to children with EHC plans.