Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve awareness of (a) blockchains and (b) Non-Fungible Tokens in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed. Pupils receive financial education through the National Curriculum for mathematics and citizenship which, for secondary school-aged pupils, includes compulsory content covering the functions and uses of money, financial products and services, and the need to understand financial risk.
Schools have flexibility over how they design their curricula, and can tailor it to the needs of their pupils.
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPs) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England in November 2021 to support school leaders to enhance their financial education provision.
The department will continue to work closely with the MaPs and other stakeholders such as HM Treasury to support the teaching of financial education to children and young people, including novel financial products.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 September 2023 to Question 195003 on Further Education: Regulation, for what reason colleges are required to produce an annual accountability statement; and if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of (a) strategic plans (b) financial plans, (c) operational plans and (d) annual strategic conversations for setting out colleges’ accountability duties.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has introduced a new accountability agreement through the Funding and Accountability Reforms. Following a consultation, the agreement is a two-part document setting out the overall expectations of providers in return for funding. The agreement forms part of the wider set of reforms to better support young people and adults to develop the skills they need to get a good job and ensure a clearer focus on the delivery of outcomes. The accountability statement encourages colleges to think strategically about how they best deliver to support local, regional and national skills needs. These strategic plans will be used to inform the Annual Strategic Conversations.
The Annual Strategic Conversation is a strategically focussed conversation with college leadership that enables the department, and the Further Education Commissioner, to understand how a college is responding to the skills agenda, and to how it is meeting the needs of the learners and communities that it serves.
College accounts, financial returns, and delivery reports are also regularly reviewed to understand how effectively policy intent is being delivered and support risk-based intervention, which helps target support where it is most needed.
The department is currently working with colleges to simplify the system and minimise the administrative burdens, whilst maintaining confidence and ensuring public funds are used for the purposes intended.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of annual regulatory compliance costs for colleges.
Answered by Robert Halfon
There are multiple areas of regulation applicable to colleges in addition to departmental requirements. These include Ofsted, Office for Students, Charity Commission, Companies Law Act and Health and Safety and Equalities Law. The department is therefore unable to make estimates of the annual regulatory compliance costs for colleges.
Throughout this Parliament, the department has increased overall funding for the sector, making an extra £125 million available in 2023/24 and an extra £1.6 billion in 2024/25 financial years for 16 to 19 education, which is the biggest increase in 16 to 19 funding in a decade.
On top of this, on 13 July 2023 the department announced a further investment of £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. This funding will help colleges and other 16 to 19 providers to address key priorities as they see fit, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high value technical, vocational and academic provision which are of critical importance to our national economic growth and prosperity.
The department is aware that the cost to colleges in staff time and associated expenditure of meeting regulatory requirements is an issue for colleges. The department is therefore undertaking work to reduce burdens on colleges, such as modernising and simplifying data returns and streamlining processes by, for example, using a single Development Fund to deliver funding for improvement and new investment purposes, moving to multi year and more flexible funding approaches and simplifying financial oversight mechanisms.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce regulatory compliance costs for colleges.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Reducing costs by minimising burdens on colleges is critical. The department want to see money spent on quality provision, rather than on back-office overheads.
Through our recent further education funding and accountability reforms, we have been simplifying the requirements we place on colleges, This has included streamlining funding pots and rules for apprenticeships. However, the department acknowledges that there is more to do. We are exploring how we can go further on funding simplification, as well as taking forward work to streamline our asks on data and audit.
The department will continue to work closely with the sector and key partners, such as the Mayoral Combined Authorities, National Audit Office, and Office for Students to reduce activity and costs where possible.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether funding is available for the employment of child counsellors in secondary schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
School-based counsellors can play an important role in supporting pupil mental wellbeing, alongside wider pastoral support.
Schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support to offer to meet pupil need and they have the flexibility to use a number of funding streams to provide this support, which can include counselling. Funding streams include core schools funding, which is set to increase to the highest ever level in real terms per pupil in the 2024/25 financial year, following the additional investment of £2 billion in each of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, as announced in the Autumn Statement 2022.
Schools can also use pupil premium and recovery premium funding to support pupil wellbeing, including through employing counsellors, in line with an evidence-based menu of approaches. Pupil premium rates have increased by 5% for 2023/24, to a total of £2.9 billion, and recovery premium will provide a further £1 billion of funding across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, following over £300 million delivered in 2022/23.
To support the provision of counselling in schools, in addition to increasing the funding available, the department has published a blueprint for school counselling services, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools. This provides schools with practical, evidence-based advice on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) tackle staff shortages in primary schools and (b) improve recruitment in all areas of schooling after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent (FTE) working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010.
2021 saw an increase of more than 4,400 in FTE teachers in state funded schools in England. This has resulted in the largest qualified number of teachers since the school workforce census began in the 2010/11 academic year.
One of the Department’s priorities is to ensure that it continues to attract, retain and develop highly skilled teachers. The Department launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’ last year, enabling a more streamlined, user-friendly application route, to make it easier for people to become teachers. The Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the best teachers.
The Department is also taking action to enable teachers to succeed through transforming its training and support. The Department will deliver 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and head teachers access to evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career.
The Department’s reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment across all areas, but also at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession. The Department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, and support all schools to introduce flexible working practices. These resources include the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing, and the school workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside head teachers. The Charter is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter, and the toolkit is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.
This year, the number of new postgraduate entrants to primary teaching was below target by 7%. Despite this, the Department has seen strong recruitment in primary in recent years, achieving 131% of the postgraduate teacher training target in the 2021/22 academic year, and 125% in the 2020/21 academic year.
The Department recognises there is further to go in key secondary subjects. For those starting initial teacher training in the 2023/24 academic year, the Department is offering bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects. The Department has increased bursaries and scholarships for trainees in key subjects and has expanded the offer to international trainees in languages and physics.
The Department also offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps her Department is taking to promote rural vocational educational courses.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department wants all students to have access to high-quality vocational and technical learning wherever they are based. That is why the department is reforming technical education to ensure that all post-16 students have access to high-quality technical options that support progression and meet employer needs.
This includes the introduction of T Levels which are substantial, rigorous, and focused on high quality learning and include a substantial industry placement element of around 9 weeks. They will provide the knowledge and experience needed for skilled employment, further study (including higher education) or a higher apprenticeship.
We will have 23 T Levels available from 2023 and the major providers of vocational education, many of whom operate in very rural areas, are already fully engaged with T Level planning and delivery, with over 200 schools also either planning or already offering T Levels.
We are also working closely with employers and employer groups nationally to build their awareness about T Levels and the importance of vocational education and to encourage them to offer industry placements as we know that this will be one of the big challenges in rural areas.
Apprenticeships are a core part of the government’s skills agenda, helping to drive economic growth by improving the skills pipeline. They give employees high-quality, hands-on training to start and progress in work and give employers the skills they need to grow, helping them fill their vacancies and train their workforces to address industry skills gaps. They offer a high-quality route into more than 650 occupations, from entry-level to expert roles, spanning Levels 2 to 7. To support more employers across the country to access apprenticeships, including in rural areas, we are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 financial year.
The department has introduced Skills Bootcamps which offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and the offer of a job interview with an employer. They are currently available across the country and deliver training in key areas such as digital, technical (including engineering and manufacturing), construction, logistics and green skills. Bootcamps are available both in rural areas and delivering skills for rural economies
The free Courses for Jobs offer allows eligible adults to access over 400 Level 3 qualifications (A level equivalent) for free in a wide range of sector subject areas that can support the rural economy, including Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care. Free Courses for Jobs are delivered through colleges and training providers across the country, including those that serve learners in rural areas.
We fund and support land-based colleges in rural locations and which specialise in education and training in the skills needed for rural economies. There are 12 designated land based colleges across the country. In addition, land-based provision is delivered by a number of and providers with land-based status across the country.
Further education providers, including those in rural areas, are able to deliver provision to 16-19 year old learners by combining both time in the classroom with remote delivery, having regard to funding regulations for 16-19 provision. For Adult learners, providers decide upon the mode of delivery for Adult Education Budget funded courses, to best meet learners’ needs and this can include on-line delivery.
The department recognises that the cost and availability of transport can be difficult for some students in rural areas. It is the responsibility of local authorities to put in place transport arrangements to help young people aged 16 to 18 to access education or training.
Many young people in rural areas have access to a discount or concession on local bus or train travel, either from their local authority or local transport providers. The government also supports local bus travel, including in rural areas, through the Bus Service Operators Grant.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his Department's policy to continue to fund the core salary of academic mentors beyond 31 July 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) was developed at speed to respond to a very immediate need to support pupils to catch up on education lost because of restrictions to schools and colleges. The programme has deployed academic mentors to provide tailored support to schools, including subject specific work, revision lessons, and additional support available outside of schools. Since October 2020, academic mentors have provided significant support to young people to catch up on lost education. The programme has reached over 60,000 pupils in the most disadvantaged schools through placement of academic mentors.
In year one of the programme, schools received funding to cover the core salary of academic mentors between October 2020 and 31 July 2021. Where mentors had made agreements with schools to continue delivery over the summer holidays, arrangements were made for them also to receive a payment to cover August 2021.
Next academic year, mentor contracts will run until the end of August as standard to bring consistency between mentors and others in the school community.
Applications are now open for individuals interested in becoming an academic mentor in the academic year 2021/22. Further information is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/ntp-academic-mentors/application-process and here https://tuitionhub.nationaltutoring.org.uk/NTP/s/ntp-academic-mentor-registration.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the level of funding was per pupil in Shropshire in (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is increasing core schools funding nationally by £2.6 billion this year, £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion by the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years respectively, compared to 2019-20.
The national funding formula continues to distribute funding fairly to schools, based on the needs of the schools and their pupil cohorts, levelling up school funding and delivering resources where they are needed most. This year, every primary school will receive at least £4,000 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,150 per pupil, delivering on the Government’s pledge to level up the lowest funded schools. On top of that, all schools will receive additional funds to cover additional teachers’ pay and pension costs. This adds a further £180 and £265 respectively to the minimum per pupil amounts.
The table below sets out the per pupil levels of funding for 5-16 schools in Shropshire local authority over the past four financial years.
Financial year | Per pupil funding |
2021-22 | £5,036 |
2020-21 | £4,652 |
2019-20 | £4,467 |
2018-19 | £4,454* |
*This includes funding for growth (ie, to support schools facing significant growth in their number of pupils), which is not included in figures from 2019-20 because from that point, growth funding was allocated separately.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students who have pre-settled status will be categorised as home students and required to the pay the same tuition fees as home students.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals, and their family members who are covered by the Withdrawal Agreements will continue to have access to home fee status and student financial support on broadly the same basis as now. Generally, this covers those who:
Such persons will generally have applied for pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme before 30 June 2021, apart from Irish citizens, who are not required to apply as their rights will be protected by the Common Travel Area arrangements.
In practice, the Student Loans Company will accept pre-settled status, together with identification documentation, as evidence for the purposes of awarding student support to EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members. We anticipate that providers will take the same approach when awarding home fee status where the student has 3 years’ residence in the UK, Gibraltar, EEA, Switzerland, or the British/EU overseas territories.