Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools are not substantially impacted by rising energy prices.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy and give schools greater certainty over their budgets during the winter months.
Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.
For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.
Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.
There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.
The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.
The Government is also providing schools with the largest cash boost in a decade. Following the 2021 Spending Review, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.
The Department knows that schools are facing higher costs and that these costs impact schools differently depending on their circumstance. The Department will continue to monitor these pressures and support schools in managing them, through our range of school resource management tools. Where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of Ukrainian pupils attending secondary school in (a) England, (b) the North West England region and (c) Southport constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The information requested is not held by the department. However, data is collected on the number of school place applications and offers made for children from outside of the UK, including children from Ukraine. More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-placements-for-children-from-outside-of-the-uk.
Between 1 September 2021 and 26 July 2022, there were an estimated 7,000 applications in England for secondary school places for children from Ukraine. Of these 7,000 applications, 6,200 offers of secondary school places have been made. These figures are adjusted for non-response.
In the North West, there were an estimated 500 applications for secondary school places for children from Ukraine, with 400 offers made. These figures have been adjusted for non-response.
The data is not collected by constituency, however, for Sefton Council, there were 11 applications for secondary school places, with 11 offers made. These figures are as reported by the local authority.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of attainment in (a) GCSE and (b) A-Level this year in England.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Ofqual have previously announced a planned and managed transition back to pre-COVID-19 pandemic grading arrangements, in recognition of the disruption that students experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, 2022 has been described as a transition year and overall, the results have reflected the policy intention for outcomes this year to be between 2019 and 2021. This year’s results are higher than in 2019 and lower than 2021, when teacher assessed grades were used as the method of assessment.
The Joint Council for Qualifications and Ofqual have published further breakdowns of results for GCSE and A levels according to gender, centre type and by region. At a regional level, the trends are broadly stable compared to previous years, with London and the South East having the highest proportion of entries for A level and GCSEs and achieving the highest grades. In 2022, girls continue to outperform boys at all grades overall for GCSEs and A levels.
Results by other pupil characteristics, including disadvantage, are not yet available for GCSEs or A levels. The department publishes this data in as timely a way as possible. This year, improvements to processing mean it is possible bring forward the publishing of this data from January 2023 to October 2022 for GCSEs, and to November 2022 for A levels.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that reform programmes for SEND and children's services are joined up so that the social care needs of disabled children and their families are met.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its final report on 23 May 2022. The Review heard from many families raising disabled children and has made a number of recommendations for disabled children, including around family help and the need to destigmatise support. The government will publish a detailed and ambitious implementation strategy for children’s social care.
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper sets out proposals, including the creation of a single SEND and AP system in England with nationally agreed standards about the support that will be provided. The consultation closed on 22 July 2022, and the department will set out its plan for delivering improvements to the SEND and AP system later this year.
The government wants the best outcomes for children and families, with an approach that aligns the response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care with the reforms to the SEND system, to meet the needs of disabled children and their families. Our plans for children’s social care and SEND reform are being drawn up in parallel and we will continue to work closely so that reforms resulting from these reviews lead to a coherent system that works for all vulnerable children.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the uptake in maritime qualifications in schools and colleges.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
Provision is already available for both those under 16 in a school setting seeking to understand more about the industry, and for post-16 students studying at level 2 and 3, who may be seeking to undertake a qualification to progress into an apprenticeship or into employment and wish to take a qualification which will involve a work-based setting.
There are around 40 qualifications focusing on aspects of maritime studies approved for funding for young people and adults, some of which are available only to adults. Others are available to those of school age or in further education. There are 12 apprenticeship standards in this sector approved for delivery, including Maritime Mechanical and Electrical Mechanic, Marine Surveyor, and Seafarer.
The Careers & Enterprise Company is supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice, and guidance, so young people are aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces, including those in the maritime sector. This will be delivered through the national roll-out of Career Hubs, Careers Leaders training, and the Enterprise Adviser Network.
The department has established the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce (UKSST). This group is made up of representatives from across industry, trade unions, and training providers. It will look to address skills barriers in the sector by utilising and catalysing existing skills provisions. As part of this, existing provision will be reviewed to see how it can best meet the present skills demand and future needs. UKSST’s work will be driven by the needs of stakeholders from across the sector.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the standard of children services provision in Sefton.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
A Statutory Direction was issued to Sefton on 24 May 2022 following the 9 May 2022 Ofsted report that judged children’s services to be inadequate. The direction requires the Council to work with a commissioner appointed by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. In addition, the commissioner is conducting an assessment of the Council’s capacity and capability to improve itself and is in the process of finalising the report for submission to the department on the 30 September and later publication in October 2022. This report will help determine the best next steps to ensure improvements are made for vulnerable children and families.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that Sefton Council improves children's services in Southport following Ofsted rating those services inadequate.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
A Statutory Direction was issued to Sefton on 24 May 2022 following the 9 May 2022 Ofsted report that judged children’s services to be inadequate. The direction requires the Council to work with a commissioner appointed by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. In addition, the commissioner is conducting an assessment of the Council’s capacity and capability to improve itself and is in the process of finalising the report for submission to the department on the 30 September and later publication in October 2022. This report will help determine the best next steps to ensure improvements are made for vulnerable children and families.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what legislative proposals the Government is planning to make to implement the Care Review.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department is now considering the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care carefully with those with care experience and all interested stakeholders. This also includes recommendations relating to legislation.
The department will publish an implementation strategy later this year, which will set out how we will improve children’s social care.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is planning to take in the proposed 10-year suicide prevention strategy that will help tackle suicides among school and university students.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent suicides. We continue to work with experts and to review our plans to ensure they are fit for the future. The mental health and wellbeing of students in schools and universities, including suicide prevention, is a government priority. The department has been working closely with higher education (HE) providers, schools and health colleagues to ensure students are supported.
As part of a coordinated, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, the department is committed to ensuring schools provide safe, calm, and supportive environments, with access to early, targeted support. This is vital in preventing the onset, progression, and escalation of ill mental health. We are enabling schools to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing by committing to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This is backed by £10 million in 2022/23. Over 8,000 schools and colleges, including half of state-funded secondary schools in England, have signed up so far.
The department is also expanding access to early, targeted mental health support by increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges to 400 by 2023, covering around 35% of pupils in England, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
Alongside these initiatives, we are promoting good mental health amongst children and young people through the school curriculum. Health education is compulsory in all schools and has a strong focus on mental wellbeing. Pupils are taught where and how to seek support for themselves as well as others. At secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss issues such as self-harm, addiction, and suicide when teaching these topics.
In addition to this, the department is funding a large-scale randomised control trial of approaches to improve pupil mental health and wellbeing in schools. The ‘Aware’ arm of the trial is testing approaches to mental health awareness teaching, including Youth Aware of Mental Health, which has good international evidence of reducing suicidal ideation. Moreover, colleges funded through the £5.4 million college collaboration fund have developed new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, with resources available to all further education providers online.
We also expect all universities to engage actively with suicide prevention, intervene to support students at risk, and act sensitively when a tragedy occurs.
The department supports the Suicide-Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK (UUK) and Papyrus. This framework supports university leaders to prevent student suicides, and support students and families after the death of a student. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter, led by Student Minds, which aims to raise standards in mental health provision across the sector.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase collaboration between colleges and employers.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
Local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) will place employers at the heart of local skills systems and facilitate direct and more dynamic working arrangements between employers, colleges, and other skills providers.
Building on the experience from last year’s trailblazers, the department is making good progress on rolling out LSIPs. On 1 September, we announced the designation of employer representative bodies to lead on the development of LSIPs in 37 of the 38 areas across the country. Once developed, LSIPs will set out the priorities for a local area to make technical education and skills training more responsive to employers’ needs, and to help people develop the skills they need to get good jobs.
LSIPs will build on the excellent provider-employer collaboration that has already been developed through apprenticeships, T Levels, and our wider skills reforms.