Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the policies in the Schools White Paper.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department remains committed to raising the attainment of all pupils. The Department is committed to its ambitions that by 2030, 90% of children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of primary school. Additionally, in secondary schools, the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in mathematics will increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5.
In the 2022 Autumn Statement, the Government announced an extra £2 billion of funding for schools over each of the next two financial years (2023/24 and 2024/25), over and above totals announced at the Autumn and Budget Spending Review 2021.The additional funding will enable headteachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that encourage educational attainment.
Progress to date on implementing the White Paper includes establishing Oak National Academy as an arm’s length body in September 2022 to provide high quality, adaptable and optional support. Oak reduces workload for teachers and enables pupils to access a high quality curriculum. The Department has introduced a fully funded new suite of National Professional Qualifications to support teacher development, based on the best available research and evidence. The Department is also delivering support to the 55 Education Investment Areas and 24 Priority Education Investment Areas.
The White Paper was clear about delivering a vision for a school system that delivers results for pupils, especially for the most vulnerable young people. The pupil premium helps fund evidence based, targeted interventions, as well as broader improvements that will benefit these pupils and help to raise their attainment. Pupil premium rates will increase by 5% for 2023/24, a £180 million increase from 2022/23, taking total pupil premium funding to £2.9 billion. The Department has made almost £5 billion available to support recovery for children and young people, including nearly £2.5 billion in targeted funding towards the most disadvantaged. This funding includes the Recovery Premium and the creation of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). As of 6 October 2022, nearly 3 million tutoring courses had started through the NTP since November 2020.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase funding for schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Nick Gibb
High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be rising to £10.1 billion in 2023/24, which is an increase of over 50% from the 2019/20 allocations. This extra funding will help Local Authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting them.
Sefton Council’s high needs funding allocation for financial year 2023/24 will be £46 million, which is a 10.9% per head increase compared to the amount of high needs funding allocated in 2022/23. It is not possible to break this funding down to individual constituency level.
The Department does not prescribe in detail how Local Authorities should allocate their high needs funding, but Local Authorities and schools have statutory duties under the Children and Families Act 2014 to support children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact of funding levels on schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Sefton constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be rising to £10.1 billion in 2023/24, which is an increase of over 50% from the 2019/20 allocations. This extra funding will help Local Authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting them.
Sefton Council’s high needs funding allocation for financial year 2023/24 will be £46 million, which is a 10.9% per head increase compared to the amount of high needs funding allocated in 2022/23. It is not possible to break this funding down to individual constituency level.
The Department does not prescribe in detail how Local Authorities should allocate their high needs funding, but Local Authorities and schools have statutory duties under the Children and Families Act 2014 to support children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recent industrial action by teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has made a serious offer to the National Education Union (NEU) to discuss pay and conditions. The only precondition the Department set is that the talks occur in a constructive atmosphere without the distraction of ongoing strikes. The Royal College of Nursing was made the same offer, along with the GMB, Unison, Unite, and CSP, who represent nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists, all of whom have agreed to pause strike action and are currently engaged in intensive talks with Government.
It is therefore disappointing that the NEU proceeded with national strike action on 1 February, and regional strike action between 28 February and 2 March. Many parents and pupils will have faced disruption. The Department is hugely grateful to headteachers, teachers, and support staff who continued to work, ensuring over 90% of schools remained open to some or all pupils during the national strikes, with similar levels seen during the regional strikes.
Young people have suffered more disruption to their education than any generation before and it is the work of teachers that is helping them to get back on track. The Department does not want to see anything that risks undoing that progress. That is why the Department is looking to find a reasonable way to address unions’ concerns that does not exacerbate the rise in inflation and minimises any potential impact on Departmental policy.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has reiterated the offer to the NEU to pause strike action and engage in serious talks with the Government in all areas of their dispute, including pay.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) children with and (b) schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities in seaside towns have an adequate level of support.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
On 2 March 2023, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan in response to the Green Paper published in March last year. The Improvement Plan outlines the government’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children’s potential, build parent’s trust, and provide financial sustainability. It is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.
The department will improve ordinarily available mainstream provision with new national SEND and AP standards to ensure we deliver consistent experience regardless of the school a child attends, where they live, or their family background.
The department will reduce bureaucracy through new standardised education health and care plans, using digital technology wherever possible, and provide strengthened accountability across the system. To increase specialist provision locally, the department is investing £2.6 billion in special and AP places, including opening 33 new special schools, with a further 49 in the pipeline. We are also building a confident expert workforce, training up to 5,000 new early years special educational needs co-ordinators. Furthermore, an over 50% increase in high needs funding to over £10 billion by 2023/24, compared to £6.1 billion in 2018/19, will help children and young people with SEND in both special schools and mainstream schools to receive the right support.
The department will test our key reforms by creating up to nine Regional Expert Partnerships through our £70 million Change Programme. Oversight of reform will be driven by a new national SEND and AP Implementation Board, jointly chaired by Education and Health Ministers.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that pupils not in school due to industrial action are supported in catching up on missed learning.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has made a serious offer to the leaders of the National Education Union (NEU) to pause the planned strikes and to engage with the Government on talks about pay, conditions and reforms.
This same offer has been accepted by unions representing nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists, all of whom have agreed to pause their strike action and meet for talks.
The Department is disappointed the NEU has thus far refused this offer and has not called off strikes.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that it is in the best interests of parents, children and teachers up and down the country for the NEU to take up the offer, like the health unions, and put an end to this dispute.
The Department knows that the best place for pupils to be for their education, physical, and mental health is in schools with their friends and teachers.
The Secretary of State wrote to every school in January setting out the additional funding each school in England would receive following the £2 billion of additional funding announced for schools in the Autumn Statement 2022. This additional funding will support schools with increased costs and was a request from unions, which the Government delivered. The Secretary of State also wrote to union leaders on 27 January, asking the NEU to encourage their members to inform their head teachers if they intended to strike, and on 21 February, requesting the NEU call off future strikes in order to proceed with formal talks on pay, conditions, and reform.
Alongside engaging with unions, the Department has taken steps to mitigate the effects of any disruptive strike action on pupils’ education and wellbeing. In the Department’s updated guidance on handling strike action in schools, the Department confirmed that if a headteacher needed to restrict attendance as a last resort, they should prioritise school places for vulnerable children, children of critical workers and pupils who are due to take public examinations and other formal assessments. Headteachers have also been asked to do all they can to ensure pupils continue to have access to education on strike days, including through online teaching. The Department has also provided advice to schools through bulletins, and to parents through the Department’s Education Hub. To further support pupils not in school due to industrial action, the Department has updated its remote education guidance.
The Department has also made almost £5 billion available to support pupils’ education recovery from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department is funding what it knows works, such as teacher training and evidence based support, including tutoring and extra education opportunities.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that parents of students receive the full financial support to which they are entitled.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government spends around £1.5 billion per year so children have access to nutritious food during the school day and in the holidays.
Around 1.9 million pupils are claiming free school meals (FSM). This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, over one third of school children are now provided with FSM.
The Department provides an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible. The Department continues to use and refine a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM.
The Department also provides guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.
The Department is committed to continuing support for school breakfasts, and in November 2022 the National School Breakfast Programme was extended for an additional year until the end of the 2024 summer term. The Department is funding up to £30 million in this programme and it will support up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas. This means that thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment and wellbeing. Schools are eligible for the programme if they have 40% or more pupils from deprived households, as measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.
The Department has also significantly expanded the Holiday Activities and Food programme and are contributing over £200 million per year in these free holiday club places for children from low income families. The programme provides enriching activities and a healthy meal for disadvantaged children in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. Local Authorities reported that over 685,000 children benefited from the programme last summer.
The Government has announced cost of living support worth £26 billion for the next financial year designed to target the most vulnerable households. This is on top of the £37 billion support provided by the Government this year. Much of this, including the £400 energy bills discount, the £150 Council Tax discount and the Energy Price Guarantee, is being applied automatically, ensuring eligible households receive the support they are entitled to. Cost of living payments are also paid automatically to support eligible people on means-tested benefits.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that children have access to high-quality early years (a) education and (b) childcare in (i) rural and (ii) seaside towns.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare in all areas. We continue to work across government to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and accessible, and to encourage families to use government-funded support they are entitled to.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England and if a local authority raises concerns about sufficiency issues, we will support them with any specific requirements. At present, all local authorities report that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. In 2021, the EYFS framework was reformed. An objective of these 2021 reforms was to improve early years outcomes for all children, particularly disadvantaged children, in the critical areas that build the foundations for later success, such as language development and literacy. A further objective was to reduce unnecessary assessment paperwork for practitioners and teachers so they can spend more valuable classroom time supporting children through rich curriculum activities.
The government is investing up to £180 million in an early years education recovery package of training, qualifications, expert guidance and targeted support for the early years sector to support the learning and development of the youngest and most disadvantaged children.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase funding for schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2022 Autumn Statement announced an additional £2 billion for schools, in addition to the funding announced as part of the 2021 Spending Review.
Taking the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations and the additional funding announced in the Autumn Statement 2022 together, core schools funding, which includes funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, is increasing by £3.5 billion in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. The core schools budget will total £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies have said that this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take per pupil spending back to at least 2010 levels in real terms, meaning 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil.
The additional funding will be allocated to mainstream schools through the new Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) in 2023/24. This will be on top of schools’ core funding allocations.
A typical primary school with 200 pupils will receive approximately £35,000 in additional funding through the MSAG, and a typical secondary school with 900 pupils will receive approximately £200,000.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve educational outcomes in seaside towns.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises that education is a key determinant of young people’s life chances and social mobility.
The Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, set out a long-term vision for a school system that helps every child to fulfil their potential by ensuring that they receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time, founded on achieving world-class literacy and numeracy. The Department’s ambition remains that by 2030, 90% of all primary school children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas will have increased by a third.
The White Paper was clear about the areas the Department needs to drive improvement in to realise this ambition; to ensure an excellent teacher for every child, high standards of curriculum, behaviour and attendance, targeted support for every child who needs it, and a stronger and fairer schools system. The Department will build on plans in the White Paper, delivering real progress that raises educational outcomes. This includes working towards all pupils studying mathematics until the age of 18 and supporting schools with a plan to improve attainment in primary schools, as outlined by my right hon, Friend, the Prime Minister.
Significant support is also being provided for 55 Education Investment Areas (EIA), including the Sefton Local Authority. Over the next 3 years, up to £86 million in trust capacity funding and £150 million for extending the Connect the Classroom programme are being prioritised in EIAs. In EIAs, the Department is also offering delivering the Levelling Up premium, worth up to £3,000 tax free, to eligible teachers.
24 of these areas are Priority Education Investment Areas, including the coastal areas of Blackpool, Hastings and Scarborough, where the Department will offer further funding, in addition to the significant support available to all EIAs, to address local needs and drive improvement.