Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is his Department taking to ensure implementation of statutory relationships and sex education guidance in schools includes factual-based discussion of the full range of contraceptive options.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe and to equip them for adult life.
From September 2020, relationships education became compulsory for all primary school pupils, relationships and sex education (RSE) became compulsory for all secondary school pupils, and health education became compulsory for pupils in all state-funded schools. The statutory guidance sets out that as part of relationships, sex and health education, secondary pupils should be taught about contraception, wellbeing and the key facts about the menstrual cycle. The statutory guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Under the topic of intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health, secondary school pupils will be taught how the different sexually transmitted infections are transmitted, how risk can be reduced, and the importance of and facts about testing. Pupils should also know how to get further advice, including how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health advice and treatment.
The Department is committed to supporting schools to teach the new subjects and has published non-statutory implementation guidance titled ‘Plan your Relationships, Sex and Health Education Curriculum’, alongside teacher training materials. Both are designed to provide teachers with further clarity and practical advice on how to implement the RSHE curriculum, to help all teachers increase their confidence and quality of teaching. The support is available on a one-stop page for teachers on GOV.UK and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to implement sharia-compliant alternative finance product, first proposed by the Government in 2014.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
I refer the right hon. Member for Kingston Upon Hull North to the answer I gave on 9 June 2021 to Question 10312.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of funding additional respite care for the families of disabled children to help alleviate exhaustion and social isolation.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I refer the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North to the answer I gave on 2 June 2021 to Question 7328.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allocating funding to the provision of additional therapies for disabled children.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We know how important access to therapy services are for pupils and students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which is why we are clear in our guidance that specialists, therapists, clinicians and other support staff should provide interventions as usual. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.
Additionally, in the Chief Nurse’s letter of 7 October 2020 to Directors of Nursing, she made it clear that maintaining support for families is a priority and that professionals supporting children and families should not be redeployed to other services.
We are committed to helping all children and young people with SEND and have prioritised those who attend specialist settings by providing additional uplifts both in the 2020 Catch-up Premium and in the 2021 Recovery Premium. They, along with the pupil premium funding, can be used to support disadvantaged children and young people’s wider needs if required, including the provision of therapies. Additionally, specialist settings will also receive an uplift to deliver summer schools and will have the flexibility to plan provision based on pupils need.
We continue to encourage schools and colleges to work collaboratively with their local authority, clinical commissioning group and health providers to ensure that children and young people with SEND have access to appropriate therapies and support.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to invest in improving the (a) emotional well-being and (b) mental health of school children as part of the schools recovery plan.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is a priority for this government. The support schools are providing to their pupils following the return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting mental health and wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting recovery. We want schools to have the freedom to decide what wider pastoral and extra-curricular activity to put in place, based on the needs of their pupils and drawing on evidence of effective practice. The return to education settings was supported by a £700 million package, which includes a new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary, secondary and special schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students. This will help schools to provide their disadvantaged pupils with a one-off boost to the support, both academic and pastoral, that has been proved most effective in helping them recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and can be used for mental health and wellbeing support.
We have supported schools to put the right pastoral support in place through the Wellbeing for Education Return scheme in academic year 2020/21, which funded expert advisors in every English local authority to offer training, support and resources for staff dealing with children and young people experiencing additional pressures from the last year – including trauma, anxiety, or grief. Our Mental Health in Education Action Group highlighted that schools and colleges continue to need help to understand, navigate and access the range of provision available locally, so we provided an additional £7 million funding to local authorities to provide further expert support to do this through the Wellbeing for Education Recovery programme.
On 10 May 2021 we confirmed that up to 7,800 schools and colleges in England will be offered funding worth £9.5 million to train a senior mental health lead from their staff in the next academic year, which is part of the government’s commitment to offering this training to all state schools and colleges by 2025. Training will provide senior leads with the knowledge and skills to develop or introduce a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing in their setting, which encourages staff to develop their own understanding of issues affecting their pupils, giving young people a voice in how their school or college addresses wellbeing and working with parents and monitoring pupils where appropriate. We will also fund an adapted ‘Link' programme which is designed to improve partnerships between health and education leaders in local areas, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed.
This is in addition to the £79 million funding boost for NHS England children and young people’s mental health support announced in March, which will include increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams. The number of support teams will grow from the 59 set up by last March to around 400 by April 2023, supporting nearly 3 million children. This increase, on top of the investment in mental health services set out in the NHS 10-year plan, means that millions of children and young people will have access to significantly expanded mental health services.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is he taking to help disabled children recover lost progress in managing their conditions as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We recognise that extended school and college restrictions have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s learning, health and wellbeing, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We are committed to supporting them and their families.
On 2 June 2021 we announced £1.4 billion new funding in addition to the £1.7 billion already committed, bringing total investment announced for education recovery over the past year to over £3 billion.
We have consistently prioritised children who attend specialist settings by providing additional uplifts to these settings, both in the 2020 Catch-up Premium and in the 2021 Recovery Premium, where specialist settings will also receive an uplift to deliver summer schools, at 3 times the normal rate. In mainstream settings, school leaders are able to target these initiatives to vulnerable children and are able to use the recovery premium to meet wider non-academic needs.
New funding for school-led tutoring will provide greater flexibility to schools to take on local tutors or use existing staff to supplement those employed through the existing National Tutoring Programme. We anticipate that this will especially benefit children and young people with SEND in all settings, where tutors familiar to these children can support them to realise the benefits of tuition.
Additional funding for training will ensure that teachers in schools and early years settings are able to access high quality training and professional development, designed around how to support all pupils to succeed. This includes children and young people with SEND in all settings. We know that high quality teaching is the best way to support all students, including those with SEND.
The 16-19 Tuition Fund will continue to support students with SEND as at present through small group tuition. Pupils with SEND in year 13 with an education, health and care plan will also be eligible to repeat up to a year where they have missed out due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Given the importance of therapists (such as speech and language or occupational therapy) and other health professionals in supporting children and young people with SEND, we are reminding settings that specialists, therapists, clinicians and other support staff for pupils and students with SEND should provide interventions as usual.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when all university students will be able to return to campus and resume in-person teaching as lockdown restrictions are eased during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Following the review into when the remaining higher education students can return to in-person teaching and learning, the government has announced that the remaining students should return to in-person teaching no earlier than 17 May 2021, alongside Step 3 of the roadmap. Students and institutions will be given at least a week’s notice of any further return in accordance with the timing of Step 3 of the roadmap.
The government roadmap is designed to maintain a cautious approach to the easing of restrictions to reduce public health risks and ensure that we can maintain progress towards full reopening. However, the government recognises the difficulties and disruption that this may cause for many students and their families and that is why the government is making a further £15 million of additional student hardship funding available for this academic year 2020/21. In total we have made an additional £85 million of funding available for student hardship.
We are supporting universities to provide regular twice weekly asymptomatic testing for all students and staff on-site and, from May, at home. This will help break chains of transmission of the virus.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 19 year old students attracted (a) Disadvantage Block 1 funding, (b) Disadvantage Block 2 funding and (c) Disadvantage Block 1 and 2 funding in the latest year for which figures are available.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The table below sets out the number of funded 16-19 students attracting disadvantage block 1 and block 2 funding.
The numbers are taken from the latest full year data we hold (2019 to 2020 individualised learner record R14 and 2019 to 2020 school census).
16-19 students attracting Disadvantage Block 1 funding only | 16-19 students attracting Disadvantage Block 2 funding only | 16-19 students attracting both Disadvantage Block 1 & 2 funding |
177,084 | 242,822 | 180,294 |
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the provision of tutors reaches all pupils that require additional tuition due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has been developed to support some of our most disadvantaged children and young people who are at risk of falling further behind due to lost time in education.
Our delivery partner, the Education Endowment Foundation, has approved 33 Tuition Partners who offer high-quality, subsidised tuition to schools. There is a good blend of both national and regional providers that can offer support to schools across all regions in England and 16 of the Tuition Partners are national providers. The Tuition Partners offer a variety of tuition models for schools to choose from, including online, face-to-face, small-group and one-to-one tuition.
Schools in the most disadvantaged areas of England have also been supported by Teach First to employ in-house Academic Mentors to provide intensive small group and one-to-one tuition.
The Department has undergone an extensive communications and engagement process with schools to ensure that as many as possible know about the programme and understand how to apply.
Tuition has continued throughout the national lockdown, with the majority of Tuition Partners offering online tuition at home. Academic Mentors have also continued to work with pupils in line with their individual school policy. Where it has been appropriate to do so, support has also continued for vulnerable and critical worker children at the school.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2021 to Question 156534 on the 16 to 19 Tuition Fund, how many 16 to 19 year olds are studying in (a) further education colleges, (b) sixth form colleges, (c) 16 to 19 academies and free schools, (d) school and academy sixth forms and (e) other institutions in the 2020-21 academic year.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
National statistics showing the numbers of young people aged 16 to 18 who are participating in education and training in 2020/21 are scheduled to be published at the end of June 2021, as part of a series on participation in education and training, and employment. More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/participation-in-education-and-training-and-employment.
The latest data published is for the academic year 2019/20:
Participation of 16 to 18 year olds in education by institution type, England, end 2019 (provisional)
Full- and part-time education | End 2019 (provisional) |
State funded schools | 450,200 |
Local Authority Maintained schools | 78,000 |
Sponsor Academies and City Technology Colleges | 52,800 |
Converter Academies | 294,600 |
Free schools | 24,100 |
Special schools | 16,500 |
Independent schools | 87,100 |
Sixth form colleges | 109,100 |
General further education, tertiary and specialist colleges | 515,300 |
Higher education institutions | 219,400 |
Total | 1,397,600 |