Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what amount of expired Apprenticeship Levy funding has been reclaimed from each NHS foundation trust in the East of England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
As the NHS is made up of a large number of diverse employers, it is not possible to identify the amount of expired apprenticeship levy funds for the NHS in England as a whole. This information is therefore not held centrally.
Moreover, due to taxpayer confidentiality, we are unable to publish the amount that individual employers, including individual NHS Trusts, have contributed through the apprenticeship levy or the amount of funds that have been spent or have expired.
The funds in apprenticeship service accounts are available for levy-paying employers to use for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month-by-month basis.
Employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many apprenticeships they offer and when they offer the apprenticeships. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to do so if they wish. Funds raised by the levy are used to support the whole apprenticeship system. This means that employers’ unused funds are not lost but are used to support apprenticeships in smaller employers and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training.
As we set out in the Spending Review, we will again be making available £2.5 billion for investment in apprenticeships in the 2021-22 financial year, which is double that spent in the 2010-11 financial year.
We are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, employers and stakeholders to make sure the NHS is fully supported to recruit the apprentices it needs to deliver high-quality care. There are 74 high-quality apprenticeship standards in the health and science sector, including a complete nursing apprentice pathway from entry-level through to postgraduate level.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to introduce an NHS apprenticeship fund to ensure that unused apprenticeship levy funds are retained in NHS budgets; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The funds in apprenticeship service accounts are available for levy-paying employers, including those in the NHS, to use for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month-by-month basis. Employers in the NHS can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many apprenticeships they offer and when they offer the apprenticeships.
We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to do so if they wish. Funds raised by the levy are used to support the whole apprenticeship system. This means that employers’ unused funds are not lost but are used to support apprenticeships in smaller employers and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training. There are no plans to introduce an NHS apprenticeship fund to retain unused apprenticeship levy funds in NHS budgets.
We will again be making available £2.5 billion for investment in apprenticeships in the 2021-22 financial year, which is double that spent in the 2010-11 financial year.
In August 2020, the government announced a new financial package worth £172 million to support healthcare employers increase participation in nursing degree apprenticeships.
In addition to this funding, NHS employers in England will benefit from £2,000 for each apprentice they hire as a new employee aged under 25, and £1,500 for those aged 25 and over, up until 31 March 2021 as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs.
We continue to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care, employers, and stakeholders to make sure the NHS is fully supported to recruit the apprentices it needs to deliver high-quality care.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding for costs arising from the covid-19 outbreak has been made available to schools in Cambridgeshire during the 2020-21 academic year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first window for schools to claim funding back for exceptional costs due to COVID-19 incurred between March and July 2020 closed on 21 July 2020. Payments against claims made within the scope of the fund were made for schools and academies in September and November 2020.
In the first window, claims were also permitted for costs outside of the published scope of the fund. After a period of assessment, it was decided that the Department would not reimburse costs made outside of the standard categories.
A second claims window, covering the same period for the standard categories but with the additional category of summer holiday food, closed on 22 December 2020. Claims made in this window are due to be paid in March 2021.
The data in the following table shows the total value of claims made by schools in Cambridgeshire. The table also shows the value of payments made against these payments to date, the amount due to be paid, and the total amount of funding the Department will have paid to schools in Cambridgeshire following the payment of claims made in the second window.
| Value of claims received | Value of claims paid | Value of claims due to be paid in March | Total value of funding |
Cambridgeshire | £1,899,769 | £1,201,730 | £448,733 | £1,650,463 |
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide urgent guidance on how home-educated students who cannot access teacher assessments will receive A-level and GCSE qualifications.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Although exams are the fairest way we have of assessing what a student knows, we cannot guarantee all students will be in a position to fairly sit their exams this summer. In line with other UK nations, the Department has taken the decision to cancel this year's GCSEs, A and AS level exams.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, confirmed in his statement on 6 January 2021 that the grades awarded to pupils will be based on a form of teacher assessment. The department and Ofqual have launched a two-week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives, including consulting specifically on four different approaches for private candidates to receive a grade. The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether applicants to higher education whose families are settled in the UK through the EU Settlement Scheme (pre-settled and settled) will be eligible for (a) home fee status and (b) undergraduate, postgraduate, and advanced learner financial support from Student Finance England for courses starting in the academic year 2021-22.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Current EU principles of equal treatment will continue to apply for those covered by the citizens’ rights provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement, the European Economic Area-European Free Trade Association (EEA-EFTA) Separation Agreement and the Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement. This means that EEA and Swiss nationals, and their family members, who are covered by the relevant agreements, and who have been granted settled or presettled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, will be eligible for support on broadly the same basis as now, subject to meeting the residency requirements. Close family members living overseas will be able to join an EEA or Swiss citizen resident here after the end of the transition period, where the relationship existed on 31 December 2020 and continues to exist when the person wishes to come to the UK. Children born or adopted after December 2020 are also eligible if their parent is covered by one of the Withdrawal Agreements.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have made successful bids for additional funding from the fund for exceptional costs associated with coronavirus in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) the UK from March to July 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first window for schools to claim funding back for exceptional costs due to the COVID-19 outbreak incurred between March and July closed on 21 July. Payments against claims made within the scope of the fund were made for schools and academies in September.
Claims were also permitted for costs outside of the published scope of the fund. An assessment is currently being undertaken to determine which of these other costs can be included. To avoid a further delay in paying the standard costs in any claim still being assessed, we paid those to schools and academies in November. We expect to write out to schools and academies in November to confirm the outcome of the assessment and will arrange further payments at that time.
The data in the following table shows the number of claims made in total in both England and Cambridgeshire. The table also shows how many of those claims have had some level of payment made against them, and how many claims contain an element that is currently being assessed. As such, there are no unsuccessful claims at this stage. As education is a devolved power, the claims data is only representative of schools in England.
| Total number of claims received | Number of claims with some level of payment made | Number of claims with some element of ongoing assessment |
Cambridgeshire | 189 | 184 | 56 |
England | 14,075 | 13,420 | 6,435 |
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether EU citizens with (a) pre-settled and (b) settled status will be eligible for home fee status, undergraduate, postgraduate and advanced learner financial support from Student Finance England for courses starting in the academic year 2021-22.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
EU nationals with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, and who meet the relevant eligibility requirements in force at the time of course commencement, will have access to home fee status and student financial support.
We have agreed with the EU that current EU principles of equal treatment will continue to apply for those covered by the citizens’ rights provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement. This means that EU nationals resident in the UK before the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 will be eligible for support on a similar basis to domestic students. They have until 30 June 2021 to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
EU nationals (and their family members) living in the UK before the end of the transition period who are migrant or frontier workers, or who are self-employed, as well as those who have the right of permanent residence (settled status), will also be eligible for maintenance support, subject to meeting the usual residence requirements.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to mandate universities to publish publicly their covid-19 risk assessments.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Higher education (HE) providers have a legal responsibility to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees, students and other people on site.
As part of the process of opening buildings and campuses to staff and students, HE providers should produce risk assessments for both working and communal environments. These will vary significantly based on the needs and circumstances of individual providers. Risk assessments will inform the risk mitigations to ensure all areas of the institution are COVID-19 secure.
HE providers are autonomous institutions and it is not for the government to mandate publication of these risk assessments. However, on 10 September, the department published updated guidance for providers on reopening buildings and campuses which states that providers should share their risk assessments with staff and staff unions. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses#risk-assessments.