Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a specialist school for music, film and digital design in the north of England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All pupils are entitled to a broad and ambitious cultural education, irrespective of where they live. The Department is currently assessing a number of applications for new free schools, including one in Bradford, linked to the BRIT school in London. This is a competitive process and the Department will announce approved schools later this year.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to change the (a) application and (b) approval process for the second round of funding for the voluntary-aided schools: capital scheme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first round of the voluntary-aided (VA) capital scheme ran from November 2018 to February 2019. The successful bid, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA) for a Catholic primary school in Peterborough, was announced in June 2019. Following receipt of in-principle agreement from the Department to provide capital funding, proposers are required to complete the statutory process to establish new VA schools. Peterborough City Council approved the statutory proposals from RCDEA on 27 January 2020.
A feasibility study will now be carried out before the Department gives final agreement to provide funding. We will announce further information about round two of the scheme in due course, taking into account lessons from the first round.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the most recent round of funding granted through the voluntary-aided schools: capital scheme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first round of the voluntary-aided (VA) capital scheme ran from November 2018 to February 2019. The successful bid, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA) for a Catholic primary school in Peterborough, was announced in June 2019. Following receipt of in-principle agreement from the Department to provide capital funding, proposers are required to complete the statutory process to establish new VA schools. Peterborough City Council approved the statutory proposals from RCDEA on 27 January 2020.
A feasibility study will now be carried out before the Department gives final agreement to provide funding. We will announce further information about round two of the scheme in due course, taking into account lessons from the first round.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to launch the second round of the voluntary-aided schools capital scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first round of the voluntary-aided (VA) capital scheme ran from November 2018 to February 2019. The successful bid, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA) for a Catholic primary school in Peterborough, was announced in June 2019. Following receipt of in-principle agreement from the Department to provide capital funding, proposers are required to complete the statutory process to establish new VA schools. Peterborough City Council approved the statutory proposals from RCDEA on 27 January 2020.
A feasibility study will now be carried out before the Department gives final agreement to provide funding. We will announce further information about round two of the scheme in due course, taking into account lessons from the first round.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's press release, Prime Minister boosts schools with £14 billion package, published on 30 August 2019, when the £700 million for children with special educational needs will be allocated; and whether that funding will be ring-fenced.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
On 11 October 2019 we notified local authorities of their provisional allocations of high needs funding for the next financial year 2020-21, which included an additional £780 million, compared to their 2019-20 allocations. This additional £780 million will not be ring-fenced within the total high needs funding allocations to local authorities, which will rise to over £7 billion next year. The high needs allocations will form part of the dedicated schools grant to local authorities, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2020-to-2021.
The dedicated schools grant is ring-fenced and has to be spent by local authorities on education in accordance with the regulations and conditions of the grant.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timescale is for the completion of the proposed rebuild project of New Leaf Pupil Referral Unit in Walsall.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The New Leaf Centre is a local authority maintained Pupil Referral Unit. Walsall local authority is responsible for the building project, so the department is unable to confirm timescales.
Ofsted judged the school as inadequate following an inspection in April 2018. As a result, an Academy Order was issued by the Regional School’s Commissioner (RSC) on 28 June 2018. The Forward Education Trust were approved as sponsor of the school by the RSC in April 2019. The department is working closely with the local authority and the Forward Education Trust regarding the site issue.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) effect of the £60 fine per child or young person for unauthorised absences on the level of those absences and (b) potential effect of an increase in that fine on the level of absences.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Parents have a duty, under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that their child of compulsory school age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education either by attendance at school or otherwise.
If parents register their child at school, the law places a duty on parents to ensure their child of compulsory school age attends school regularly.
A penalty notice is a fine issued to parents for failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school. The Parental Responsibility Measures Attendance census collects data from local authorities annually on parental responsibility measures issued to address poor attendance in state-funded schools. It is a matter for schools and local authorities to decide whether to issue a penalty notice for unauthorised term time absence.
The Department has not formally assessed the impact of penalty notices, but comparable data shows overall absence rates have remained fairly stable across recent years, following a generally downward trend since 2006/07 (4.8% in 2017/18, compared to 6.5% in 2006/07).
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to review the 3000 pupil threshold for academy capital funding; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools and those responsible for school buildings receive condition funding through different routes depending on their size and type. All schools receive funding to spend on their capital priorities through an annual Devolved Formula Capital allocation. In addition, local authorities and larger multi-academy trusts (MATs) receive a School Condition Allocation (SCA) to invest in their priorities across the schools for which they are responsible. MATs are eligible for SCA if they have five or more academies and at least 3,000 pupils. The Department also offers an allocation to academy chains (groups of more than one trust) where they meet the size criteria as a group and have opted in. Smaller or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges can bid for funding to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF). The funding available through CIF and SCA is calculated on the same basis per pupil.
For financial year 2020-21, condition allocations, the eligibility threshold for SCA will remain the same. The Department keeps funding policy under review, and we are undertaking a new school Condition Data Collection (CDC), due to complete later this year. The CDC will provide a high-level assessment of the condition of state funded schools in England and will help inform future capital funding policy.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to help ensure that schools take the leading role in deciding whether to (a) form and (b) join a multi-academy trust.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The process to become an academy is school led, with schools’ Local Governing Bodies taking the initiative to apply to their Regional School Commissioners’ office on whether to join an existing academy trust, or form one with partner schools. The only exception to this, where the department takes a leading role, is where a school is judged as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, as the law requires the Secretary of State to make an order enabling the school to become an academy.
The department aims to ensure that all schools considering becoming academies are able to join strong academy trusts, and this has historically been supported through trust capacity funding. Ultimately, our ambition is for every school that wants to, to benefit from the autonomy and freedom to innovate that academy status offers, and for schools to collaborate through strong academy trusts.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to review the 3,000 pupil threshold for academy capital funding; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Condition funding is allocated each year to those responsible for school buildings to improve and maintain the condition of the school estate. Schools and those responsible for school buildings receive condition funding through different routes depending on their size and type.
Local authorities and larger multi-academy trusts (MATs) receive a school condition allocation to invest in condition priorities across their schools. School condition allocations for 2019-20 are available online at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding.
MATs and opted in academy chains currently receive school condition allocations if they have 5 or more academies and at least 3,000 pupils. Smaller and stand-alone academy trusts instead apply for capital funding to the Condition Improvement Fund. All schools also receive an allocation of devolved formula capital to invest in smaller capital projects to meet their own priorities.
The department keeps condition funding policy under review and plans to publish the methodology for school condition allocations for the 2020-21 financial year in autumn 2019. The eligibility for school condition allocations in 2020-21 will remain consistent with previous years.