Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her oral contribution of 4 November 2024, Official Report, col. 46, (a) on what date the leak inquiry commenced, (b) on what date the inquiry concluded and (c) when its findings will be made public.
Answered by Janet Daby
The investigation remains ongoing, and all reasonable lines of inquiry will be pursued.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many vacant state secondary school places there were in (a) Leicestershire County Council LA area, (b) Melton Borough and (c) Melton and Syston constituency on 6 September 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department does not hold data on places vacant on 6 September 2024.
Information on unfilled state secondary school places, as at May 2023, is published in the School Capacity statistics publication at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. For ease, local authority level information within the publication for Leicestershire can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a00d6b70-f8fc-4392-b2a8-08dccd7b0275 and can be aggregated to Borough and Parliamentary Constituency level by linking to information at the following link: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
For Melton Borough, there were zero secondary school places unfilled in May 2023. For Melton and Syston parliamentary constituency, there were 531 secondary school places (11%) unfilled in May 2023.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which state secondary schools in Leicestershire county council area have no school places available.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department does not hold data on places currently available.
Information on unfilled state secondary school places, as at May 2023, is published in the School Capacity statistics publication at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. School level information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/5f26c269-bf72-41ab-8292-e17b58ed7c98.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total capital investment by his Department was in schools in Charnwood constituency in the financial year 2021-22, by school.
Answered by Will Quince
For the 2021/22 financial year, Leicestershire local authority, which covers Charnwood constituency, received a School Condition Allocation (SCA) of £4,090,736 to spend on improving the condition of its maintained schools. As SCA is allocated to responsible bodies, not individual schools, we cannot provide a school or constituency level breakdown of this funding.
Large multi-academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies, such as dioceses, also receive SCA. These allocations can cover schools across multiple local authority boundaries, so are not included in the figure above. All SCA funding is published on GOV.UK.
Smaller multi-academy or stand-alone trusts, voluntary-aided schools not part of SCA eligible bodies, and sixth form colleges are instead able to bid to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year. In the 2021-22 CIF round, there were six successful projects across four schools in Charnwood, totalling £1,110,079.52.
There were three projects included in the second phase of the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP2) in Charnwood Constituency. They are: Highcliffe Primary School and Community Centre, The Cedars Academy, and Bishop Ellis Catholic Voluntary Academy. All three projects began prior to the financial year 2021/22 and were handed over before the start of the financial year, with one school, The Cedars Academy, completing construction in the financial year 2021/22. These schools have benefitted from a combined total of £17,845,842 of funding.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure that practitioners working in alternative provision are able to access schools to identify and support language and communication needs in children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises the importance of early assessment and identification of pupil needs within mainstream school settings. The Department’s statutory guidance on Alternative Provision (AP) also sets out that commissioners of AP should recognise any issues or barriers experienced by the pupils and carry out a thorough assessment of their needs. The full guidance can be viewed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268940/alternative_provision_statutory_guidance_pdf_version.pdf.
On 16 March, the Government published the policy paper ‘Creating Opportunity for All: Our Vision for Alternative Provision’, setting out how it will reform AP. A key element of this paper is the importance of developing and sharing effective practice within AP. The policy paper can be viewed in full here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/690940/Creating_opportunity_for_all.pdf.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve the identification of and support for speech, language, and communications needs, as part of the Green paper on transforming children and young people's mental health provision.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government introduced, through the Children and Families Act 2014, a framework for ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), are identified early and receive the support they require to succeed in education and successfully move into independent adult life.
For a number of years, the Department has also funded I CAN, on behalf of The Communication Trust, and several other organisations, to produce materials for use by schools and colleges. These materials and resources are freely available online on the SEND and Education Training Foundation Gateways.
The Department of Health and Social Care is also working with the Department and Public Health England to enable early years professionals to identify and support children’s early speech, language and communication needs.
The Department is currently considering the responses to the consultation on the green paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’. It will be determined how new mental health support teams, proposed in the green paper, can work with other professionals such as speech and language therapists, including support of delivering schools responsibilities for pupils with SEND. The aim is to improve identification of mental health needs, and to provide more comprehensive support for their full range of needs.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps his Department is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have been strengthening the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system through the biggest programme of reforms in a generation. We have legislated to improve the system and have invested £341 million since 2014 to help ensure the reforms make a real difference. We will continue to build on this, so that every child has the chance to fulfil their potential.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of schools in England have access to a defibrillator; and if she will make an assessment of how that proportion compares to the equivalent proportions in each other constituent part of the UK.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is encouraging schools to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as part of their first aid equipment. To help them do this, on 26 November 2014 we announced new arrangements to allow schools to purchase AEDs at a competitive price. This is the result of a unique agreement between the Department for Education and the Department of Health in which devices are bought in bulk and the savings of around 50% are passed on to schools.
Since the launch of this policy, 1389 defibrillators have been provided to schools across the following regions:
England – 1326
Wales – 62
Scotland – 0
Northern Ireland – 1
These figures include 654 defibrillators purchased by schools since my answer to parliamentary question 13301 in October 2015. Taking into account all of the devices sold to schools through these arrangements, the estimated accumulative saving for schools is approximately £470,000.
Schools do not have to purchase a defibrillator through the government scheme, and the Department does not collect information on how many schools have access to a defibrillator.
To help schools in considering whether to purchase a defibrillator, the Department has published advice on installing and maintaining AEDs on school premises. This has been developed drawing on the expertise of NHS ambulance services and voluntary and community sector organisations.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to increase the proportion of schools with access to a defibrillator.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is encouraging schools to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as part of their first aid equipment. To help them do this, on 26 November 2014 we announced new arrangements to allow schools to purchase AEDs at a competitive price. This is the result of a unique agreement between the Department for Education and the Department of Health in which devices are bought in bulk and the savings of around 50% are passed on to schools.
Since the launch of this policy, 1389 defibrillators have been provided to schools across the following regions:
England – 1326
Wales – 62
Scotland – 0
Northern Ireland – 1
These figures include 654 defibrillators purchased by schools since my answer to parliamentary question 13301 in October 2015. Taking into account all of the devices sold to schools through these arrangements, the estimated accumulative saving for schools is approximately £470,000.
Schools do not have to purchase a defibrillator through the government scheme, and the Department does not collect information on how many schools have access to a defibrillator.
To help schools in considering whether to purchase a defibrillator, the Department has published advice on installing and maintaining AEDs on school premises. This has been developed drawing on the expertise of NHS ambulance services and voluntary and community sector organisations.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to work with local authorities to support the expansion of over-subsidised rural primary schools.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Supporting local authorities to create school places where they are needed most is one of the Department’s top priorities. In the last Parliament we spent £5 billion on capital funding for new school places, more than double what was spent between 2007-2011. In this Parliament we have committed £7 billion in capital funding between 2015 and 2021 to help local authorities create places. Local authorities will want to consider the specific challenges facing schools in rural areas when planning new school places.