Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

My right hon. Friend raises an important point. We do believe that the subject level changes to the content of assessment that was confirmed by Ofqual recently will reduce the pressure on students and free up teaching time. Combined with the timing changes to exams announced today, this does free up more teaching time to help address any unfairness. On top of that, as I have said before, there is the £1 billion catch-up fund, and we will have more to say later in the autumn about the issue of grading.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

What steps he is taking to (a) improve the wellbeing of disadvantaged children and (b) close the educational attainment gap.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

What steps he is taking to (a) improve the wellbeing of disadvantaged children and (b) close the educational attainment gap.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson)]

We are taking unprecedented action to help schools support wellbeing, including wellbeing for education return training, and world-leading trials on ways to promote mental health wellbeing. Disadvantaged pupils will receive high-quality tuition through the £350 million national tutoring programme, and we continue to provide schools with the £2.4 billion pupil premium.

[Debbie Abrahams]

We have seen the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged and advantaged children widen over the past decade, especially for children with special educational needs and disabilities. On top of this, earlier this year we heard from the Education Policy Institute that this attainment gap had widened during covid. What is the Secretary of State’s assessment of the impact of covid on levelling up for SEND children?

[Gavin Williamson]

I think the hon. Lady and I have a shared passion to make sure that we close that gap, making sure that children, wherever they are born anywhere in the United Kingdom, have the very best opportunities in life. As the Prime Minister himself said, talent and ability are evenly spread in this country, but opportunity has not always been so. In an earlier answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South West (Stuart Anderson), I touched on the fact that there is a three times weighting for children with special educational needs in terms of the covid catch-up fund, making sure that extra support is channelled that way. I am sure that the hon. Lady has welcomed the announcements we made not just last year but this year which saw a total of £1.5 billion-worth of extra funding being channelled into high need funding in this country over this year and next year.

Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Bill

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 13th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to speak in today’s debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale (Mike Amesbury) on bringing forward this Bill.

I grew up in a family shop that also sold school uniforms for local schools in Hounslow. Interestingly, I remember how as a child the relationship that my parents had with other parents was important as was the relationship that they had with the local schools.

This Bill requires the Government to make new statutory guidance for all schools on the costs aspect of school uniforms, and it is right to ensure that schools give priority to the consideration of cost and affordability when setting and implementing school uniform policy. The Bill is rightly pro-uniform, because uniform acts as an equaliser between pupils, and many charities also support the campaign.

In preparing for the debate, I conducted a short survey of my schools, local suppliers and parents. I am also grateful to Prashant at School Bells, a local company providing uniforms for many local schools, for his input.

The Bill seeks to make school uniforms more affordable for parents, and I thank the Children’s Society for its work, although its research on costs is worrying. It is also important to note that costs show great variation across the country. The schools I consulted suggested that the cost of their uniforms was considerably lower than the average, but an average is an average, and it shows high rates being charged across the country. We have to have a much more level playing field.

Schools sometimes foot the bill for school uniforms. A few years ago, I undertook some research covered by The Guardian. Schools were hiding the fact that parents could not afford the school uniform and—from the experience of shops in my constituency—telling the supplier to cover the cost for them, allowing the parents to have the uniforms with the school paying later. In recent years, that has got worse, as family incomes have been squeezed. That is another example of the hidden costs and price of austerity.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Is my hon. Friend aware of the Children’s Society research that has just been published? It shows that one in five families on lower incomes are struggling to pay for school uniforms. Given that the average cost is about £300 a year, that means they are cutting back on other things—[Interruption.] According to the research.

[Seema Malhotra]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I, too, wanted to look at the detail of the costs, so when I did the research in my local schools, I asked about the individual items included. The costs were considerably lower than the full average coming through the Children’s Society, but I am sure that as the debate goes on, the details of how that was calculated will be looked at closely. The point my hon. Friend makes, however, about one in five families struggling, is important. There is also variation across the country. We cannot allow that to be hidden.

Local authorities are another part of the picture. Sometimes they help in cases of hardship, but in Hounslow the grant has been cut from £120 to £60, which is not enough to cover the whole cost of a school uniform, even where it is cheaper. That is another example of the impact of austerity and its effect on children in our society collectively. The Bill will place a duty on the Secretary of State, as we have discussed.

In Feltham and Heston, almost 5,000 households depend on universal credit and have child dependants, with about 66% of them being lone parents. It is not surprising, therefore, when we look at the economics being dealt with by families, that thousands of parents are struggling to make ends meet. Anything we can do to reduce the costs of purchasing school uniforms for their children will be a positive step. For any parent to have to cut back on food or other basic essentials in order to afford school uniform—it happens at particular times of the year—is completely unacceptable.

I welcome the Bill. I look forward to the consultation on how to implement the guidance to get the long-term answer to this, with the input of schools, parents and providers.

Over the past few weeks, I have been contacted by many constituents. At first glance, the Bill seems uncontroversial, asking the important question of how we move forward. I want to make a few points for consideration on that. The first is about the quality and durability of school uniforms. That has to be considered because of the way uniforms might be supplied. None of us wants to see a situation in which school uniforms are produced cheaply, imported and sold in local supermarkets. We want to see a different way, in which durability and quality are also considered, with guidance on that as well.

Secondly, the single supplier arrangements have been much discussed. The Bill does not rule those out, but understanding in more detail whether schools should be allowed to have single suppliers is important. The analysis is mixed on the use of single supplier contracts and whether they drive up prices for parents. Some analysis and examples show that the contracts can add value, as long as robust tendering processes are in place. A number of the schools that came back to me have single supplier relationships which, when they run well, can provide better for families because they ensure better year-round availability of products for all. Single suppliers also tend to overstock, allowing for tailored affordability and other relationships with the school in the interests of parents.

Equality of Funding: Post-16 Education

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2020 Westminster Hall

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle]

My hon. Friend is quite right. We have debated T-levels previously, and there is the difficulty of transition as we go forward. I hope that we will eventually get to a situation where we have A-levels; good general vocational training, with BTECs continuing as a strong component of that; and T-levels. They all offer something different and important.

Until 2011, the funding for a student at a sixth form in a school continued at the school rate, not at the college rate. Given the concerns about the inequality that that caused, there was quite rightly a campaign. Organisations such as the Institute for Public Policy Research said that we needed to equalise the funding. The Government did that but they equalised it down, meaning that we took away about £800 per pupil in today’s terms from the budget, rather than adding to the college budget. That hurts sixth-form colleges even more, as they generally pay teachers’ terms and conditions and do not get additional remuneration for it. For many years, general FE colleges have got away with underpaying their staff, or rather, the Government have got away without giving them additional resources.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend comment on the impact on the availability of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects and modern language courses, as well as on our competitiveness? The 15 hours per week contact time compares very poorly with, for example, the 25 to 30 hours per week in Canada, Singapore and elsewhere.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

21. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

22. What steps he is taking to support children with special educational needs and disabilities in their education.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nadhim Zahawi]

There are clearly funding pressures on the system, which is why we have announced £250 million in additional funding to take the funding to £6.3 billion. We are in the middle of a spending review and I will be putting my best foot forward to make sure that we get the funding in place.

[Debbie Abrahams]

The £1.2 billion shortfall in SEND funding means that children with an education, health and care plan may be refused a local place because schools cannot afford to provide the support that these children need. Does the Minister agree that all children, regardless of their disability, should have the support that they need to reach their potential?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I do; all children should have the ability to reach their potential, which is why we introduced the reforms in the first place in 2014. We are beginning to see really good practice in places such as Wiltshire and elsewhere, and we learn from best practice and try to scale it to other parts of the country.

Relationships and Sex Education

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2019 Westminster Hall

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Moon. I commend Members on an excellent debate. There have been some outstanding speeches, particularly that of my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones), who opened the debate.

When we are seeing growing intolerance and even hatred across our country, the importance of good-quality relationships and sex education cannot be overstated. I came into politics because I want a fairer, more equal and just society, and good-quality education, including RSE, is vital to achieving that. We have already mentioned the importance of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010 in enshrining in law that, as human beings, we are all equal. We have the same rights and freedoms, whether we are female, male, non-binary or trans. Whatever our race or colour, whether we are disabled or non-disabled, whether we are of faith or none, however old we are, whatever our sexual orientation, our marital status or whether we are pregnant, our laws demand that we behave in line with them. However, they cannot dictate our attitudes, beliefs or values. That comes from formal and informal education.

The reality is that hate crime, including against Jews, Muslims, disabled people, gay people and other minorities, is on the rise. There is evidence from Stonewall that nearly half of LGBT pupils are bullied at school for being LGBT. That has a dreadful effect on their mental health, which includes one in eight attempting to take their own life. We have seen some horrendous videos of Muslim schoolgirls having their hijabs pulled off by baying mobs of their peers. I have been told about adults shouting abuse at Jewish children as they make their way to school.

The horror of child sexual exploitation and abuse has unfolded across all our communities. One in 20 children is sexually abused and one in three of those children did not tell an adult. It is vital that all children learn the difference between what is a healthy relationship and what is not. RSE has a key role in teaching our children and young people to treat each other with kindness, respect and integrity so that they can grow into happy, confident and caring adults. As a former public health professional, there is overwhelming evidence about the importance of providing high-quality, age-appropriate RSE in preventing sexually transmitted infections and unplanned teenage pregnancies. While I respect the views of those parents who believe they should be the ones who teach their children RSE, according to the PSHE Association more than nine out of 10 parents want schools to teach RSE, whether that is because they feel they do not have the necessary skills or knowledge or they are too embarrassed. We should not forget the 400,000 or so children in care, too.

RSE should be taught at school in partnership with children’s parents or guardians. RSE should be high-quality, age-appropriate and taught by well-trained staff following consultation and agreement between parents and schools. As has been so well enunciated today, where there is difficulty, we need a resolution process to ensure that we can agree something. Where we have not been clear as parliamentarians, we need a process to enable that clarity. Parents need to have confidence in what their children are being taught. That will also allow key messages to be reinforced at home and at school.

For those reasons, I do not believe an opt-out from RSE at school would be helpful. If that policy goes ahead, opt-outs should be the exception rather than the rule. My hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) made an excellent point about ensuring that we monitor the level of opt-out. I want to mention my gratitude to the faith leaders in Oldham who have been in touch and have shown great leadership. They share my concern about the intolerant tone and misleading information of some of the campaigns expressing a counter view. There is strong evidence to show that babies are not born hating people who may be different from themselves. They learn those attitudes, and sometimes those attitudes manifest into intolerant, hateful and even unlawful behaviour. Good-quality RSE at home and at school can help to prevent that.

[Sir David Amess in the Chair]

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Jones]

rose—

[Debbie Abrahams]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Imran Hussain]

Not at the moment, because we are on the clock and I have a number of points that I want to get on the record. I may give way later.

Throughout the existing education system, the age-appropriateness of the curriculum is woven in alongside the maturity, understanding and preparedness of the children in question. To some degree, that question of preparedness and maturity is why primary school children do not sit GCSEs or A-levels. That is just one example; hon. Members have given a number of others that demonstrate that point. Age-appropriateness and preparedness must be central, yet right now there is no indication or absolute guarantee that content will be age-appropriate and suitable for primary school children.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Skidmore]

The hon. Gentleman and I have a mutual interest in history, particularly the reign of Henry VII, and I hope that we can continue to be civil in our conversations on HE funding, but I reiterate on the loan package that we have seen not only a 10.3% increase compared with the previous grant system in 2016-17 but in November a further 2.8% increase, which means there is currently a maximum loan of £8,944. On accommodation costs, I am interested in looking in particular at the private rented sector. We have been working with the British Property Federation to develop advice on protocols that will encourage collaborative working between universities and private providers. I do want to go further and I hope that we can work together to look at this issue.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

14. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of support for SEND learners.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

A programme of local area inspections is under way to ensure that the SEND reforms are being implemented effectively and weaknesses addressed. Yesterday, we announced an additional £250 million to local authorities for higher needs budgets to support those with more complex needs across this year and next. The core schools and higher needs budget will increase from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £43.5 billion in 2019-20.

[Debbie Abrahams]

Although the additional funding is welcome, I am sure that the Minister recognises the absolute crisis in support for children with special educational needs and disabilities and the absolute desperation that the parents who are taking legal action on this very matter feel, so will he announce an early new year resolution to plug the gap—estimated to be £1.6 billion by 2020, which these children will need?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I attended the conference that the Parents and Carers Network held in Coventry. It is important to listen to the sector. Many local authorities are co-creating their SEND provision with parents, and it is important that we listen and deliver the £250 million additional funding announced yesterday, and of course the £100 million in capital funding as well, taking the funding to over £6 billion per annum on SEND students. I know you take a great interest in this matter, Mr Speaker, as well.

Budget Resolutions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

1st reading: House of Commons
Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Early this afternoon, the Government published a letter from the Social Security Advisory Committee regarding the Government’s emergency legislation to cut personal independence payment support for more than 160,000 chronically ill and disabled people. You will recall that the Government did not consult the Social Security Advisory Committee before introducing these regulations on 23 February, and they are due to come into force in just two days’ time. The Committee subsequently examined the regulations, and in its damning finding, it highlights the need for the Government to consult more widely on these PIP changes and to test the proposed changes. Crucially, it also warns that they could have an impact on existing PIP awards, in direct contradiction to Ministers, who have repeatedly claimed that no current recipient of PIP would lose out.

Mr Deputy Speaker, could you tell me whether you have received any indication from Ministers as to when they plan to make a statement on this issue and on how, in two days’ time, they intend to action the Committee’s recommendations? I also seek guidance on how I can ensure that this policy is effectively scrutinised and that the Government are properly held to account on this issue.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

The Social Security Advisory Committee decided not to take the regulations on formal reference or to consult further. It made two recommendations, which we are considering and will respond to in due course. As the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has said from the Dispatch Box, there is no change to our policy, our budget or the award amounts. We can be confident that no one’s award will be altered, all things being equal, if and when they are reassessed, because prior to the relevant case, the case law was conflated and confused, and therefore no assessment providers changed their scoring and no DWP decision makers altered or increased the award amounts. It is very important that we reassure people on that benefit that there is no change to the policy, to the budget or to the award amounts, and that if their condition is the same, they will continue to receive the award.

[Debbie Abrahams]

Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Minister’s statement is in direct contradiction to the letter that she has received, and I seek further—[Interruption.]

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Order. We cannot have the debate now, but if the hon. Lady is unsatisfied with that response, she knows how to use the usual channels and that would be the best way forward.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Thursday 27th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Nokes]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, we will soon publish a Green Paper that will explore a whole range of options for long-term reform across different sectors. The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), is working incredibly hard to ensure that that happens soon. We are going to target the factors that contribute to the disability employment gap and engage with disabled people, their representative organisations and a wide range of other stakeholders. There will be an opportunity for hon. Members to feed into that consultation process, and I urge the hon. Gentleman to do so.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as a result of their condition, and the situation has been made worse by this Government’s £28 billion social security cuts, which have affected 3.7 million disabled people since 2012. Sick and disabled people are also more likely to be hit by social security sanctions and forced to use food banks, as the film “I, Daniel Blake” so poignantly showed. Today’s report by Oxford University proves the link between the Government’s punitive sanctions and the rise in food bank use. What action are the Minister and her DWP colleagues taking to tackle these injustices, as the Prime Minister calls them?

[Caroline Nokes]

This Government are committed to providing support to the people who need it, which is reflected in the fact that spending to support disabled people and people with health conditions will be higher than in 2010 in real terms in every year until 2020.

The hon. Lady mentions “I, Daniel Blake”. I have seen the film. My first visit as a Department for Work and Pensions Minister was to a jobcentre in Newcastle, and I can tell her that the front-line DWP workers whom I met do not recognise their portrayal in the film. The film raises important issues, which we shall debate, but we must remember that it is a dramatic interpretation. I also recognise none of its portrayals of DWP staff.

Key Stage 2 Tests

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 10th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

Again, I think the hon. Lady overstates her case. The primary curriculum was published in final form in July 2013, sample questions were available as early as March 2014, and there were later sample questions in 2015. In reference to her point about changes being made to materials on-site, the Standards and Testing Agency has responded to telephone queries from teachers about certain aspects of the curriculum and the sample materials. To help teachers, it revised some of that material so that it responded to those concerns. There were other, very minor changes—for example, when, in response to representations from the NAHT, I changed the date on which the STA collected the teacher assessment materials. That decision was taken in response to the concerns expressed. There were real reasons why we wanted the date to be earlier to ensure fairness between the schools that were moderated by the local authority and those that were not. Of course, that required all the documents online to have a date change. The hon. Lady can make a song and dance about these changes, but they were all done for professional reasons by the very experienced professionals of the Standards and Testing Agency, and they were the right thing to do.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Labour Members are most concerned about the fact that this is the second case in a matter of weeks of major pupil testing errors, and that suggests quite strongly that the Government have taken their eye off the ball. How has their preoccupation with enforced academisation affected their ability to monitor their contractors?

[Mr Gibb]

We monitor contractors very carefully. The Standards and Testing Agency monitors these issues. This error was made by an individual who put the marking scheme and the test papers for one of the tests—the key stage 2 spelling, punctuation and grammar test—on to a secure site 24 hours before they should have done. As soon as one of the markers alerted them to that fact, they took it down. Ninety-three people had seen that material on-site, but all those 93 people were subject to a confidentiality agreement with Pearson, so this is not some widespread breach. We checked to see whether the individual who leaked this to a journalist had succeeded in spreading the test further. We saw no evidence overnight, through social media or other platforms, that some of that material leaked. The Standards and Testing Agency believes that the test has not been compromised, and we are continuing with it. These are very important assessments and this is a very complex operation. I believe that parents, teachers and the public can have confidence in the tests that have been set this week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Monday 25th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman wished to give the Minister his views, which he has done, but now that he has I am afraid his question is not really suitable for a ministerial answer at this time.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

7. What steps she is taking to improve special educational needs and disability services.

[The Minister for Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

The 2014 special educational needs and disabilities reforms represent the biggest change to the system in a generation, helping to transform support by joining up services across education, health, and social care, and focusing on positive outcomes for education, employment, housing, health and community participation. We have invested heavily in practical and financial support for implementation, including an extra £80 million in 2016-17, and from May 2016, all areas will be inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

[Debbie Abrahams]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but I have been contacted by a constituent who has raised concerns about the potential effect that forcing schools to become academies will have on her autistic son in terms of his being marginalised. Will the Minister tell me what assessment has been undertaken of how forcing schools to become academies will affect disabled children?

[Edward Timpson]

I am happy to meet the hon. Lady to give her a lot more detail about exactly how the system operates. I can reassure her that, under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the new special educational needs system, academies have exactly the same duties to pupils with special educational needs as all other schools, and must co-operate with their local council, whether in developing their local offer or publishing details of their SEN provision. That will not change. We are confident that it is the right approach so that every child gets the right school with the right support for them, irrespective of what type of school that is.