Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish his revised timetable for the (a) delivery of The Futures Academy school on the Sheen Way site and (b) decamp of staff and pupils from the Carew Manor site.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is working closely with the Orchard Hill College and Academy Trust and the local authority to build the new special free school, Carew Academy (formerly known as The Futures Academy). The school will provide high quality, modern facilities that will give young people with special needs in Sutton the best possible start to their lives.
The department will be able to provide greater certainty on the delivery of the school and proposed opening date once the outstanding planning conditions have been satisfactorily resolved with the local authority.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to revisit the decision on funding for Sutton Free School 1 in the event that data demonstrates a need for further secondary school places in the London Borough of Sutton.
Answered by Robin Walker
Sutton Free School 1 was cancelled because opening the school would have resulted in a large surplus of secondary places over the medium to long term, undermining the viability of other good schools in the area. Once a project has been formally cancelled by ministers, that decision cannot be revisited.
However, should pupil forecasts change and demonstrate the need for a new school there is still the opportunity for a new secondary free school to be established in Sutton. Indeed, where a local authority thinks there is a demographic need for a new school in its area, it must seek proposals to establish an academy. This is known as the free school presumption process. The department also approves new academies through a central free school application route. The Schools White Paper set out our intention to seek proposals for new mainstream free schools in the areas of greatest need for additional places, prioritising proposals located in Education Investment Areas. This process will take account of the latest data on the need for additional school places. We will set out more details on this process in due course.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps he is taking to build new schools.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
Through the free schools programme, this government has funded thousands of high quality new school places across the country.
We have approved 225 applications from groups that we are now working with to establish new free schools. This includes 73 special and 9 alternative provision free schools.
The Priority Schools Building Programme is replacing or refurbishing buildings at 537 schools.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled, Build build build: Prime Minister announces New Deal for Britain, how much funding he plans to allocate to school building upgrade projects in Carshalton and Wallington constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has announced a transformative, ten-year programme to rebuild school buildings. This will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.
We have committed over £1 billion to fund the first 50 projects of the ten-year programme. These projects will be confirmed in the autumn, and construction on the first sites is expected to begin in autumn 2021. Further details of the new ten-year rebuilding programme, including additional funding, will be set out following the Spending Review.
We are also providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to support essential maintenance projects. This comes on top of over £1.4 billion capital funding already provided for school maintenance in the financial year 2020-21. We will set out details of how the additional capital funding will be allocated shortly.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to issue guidance to special educational needs co-ordinators on (a) the services they are expected to provide from the mainstream budget, (b) when an Education, Health and Care Plan is required and (c) other aspects of the Children and Families Act 2014.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We recognise the important role that Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) play in schools in supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We do not currently have plans to issue specific guidance to SENCOs as the role and responsibilities of SENCOs are set out in the SEND Code of Practice, which is the statutory guidance that schools must have due regard to.
In addition, we have provided funding to the Whole School SEND Consortium (WSS) to develop resources specifically to support SENCOs. This includes a SENCO Induction Pack to help new SENCOs in their role, which can be accessed at: www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/sencos-area. The induction pack includes further information on the statutory framework; Education, Health and Care Plans; and managing SEND provision.
The WSS is also developing an ‘Effective SENCO Deployment Guide’ to help school leaders consider how they can best support the SENCO in their school. Furthermore, we are reviewing the learning outcomes for the National Award in SEN Co-ordination to ensure it best prepares SENCOs for their role.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the provision in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice for local authorities to use their own criteria to decide when it is necessary to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice states that local authorities may develop criteria as guidelines to help them decide when it is necessary to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment. However, as set out in the Code, local authorities must also be prepared to depart from those criteria where there is a compelling reason to do so in any particular case and demonstrate their willingness to do so where individual circumstances warrant such a departure. Local authorities must not apply a ‘blanket’ policy to particular groups of children or certain types of need, as this would prevent the consideration of a child’s or young person’s needs individually and on their merits as is required under the Children and Families Act 2014.
The Code of Practice also requires that the health care provision specified in section G of the EHC plan must be agreed by the relevant Clinical Commissioning Group (or, where relevant, NHS England) and any health care provision should be agreed in time to be included in the draft EHC plan sent to the child’s parent or to the young person for whom the plan has been created. As part of the joint commissioning arrangements, partners must have clear disagreement resolution procedures where there is disagreement on the services to be included in an EHC plan.
Ultimately, it is for local authorities to ensure that EHC plans are produced in a timely manner and that they include all relevant information to ensure the needs of the child or young person who is subject to the plan are clearly defined, that appropriate support is identified, and that appropriate outcomes are included.
However, we recognise that there are concerns with the SEND system. We announced the SEND Review in September 2019 to ensure the system is working best for all families, and that support in different areas is consistent, available and joined up across health, care and education services.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities do not dictate to medical professionals what to write in Education, Health and Care Plans.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice states that local authorities may develop criteria as guidelines to help them decide when it is necessary to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment. However, as set out in the Code, local authorities must also be prepared to depart from those criteria where there is a compelling reason to do so in any particular case and demonstrate their willingness to do so where individual circumstances warrant such a departure. Local authorities must not apply a ‘blanket’ policy to particular groups of children or certain types of need, as this would prevent the consideration of a child’s or young person’s needs individually and on their merits as is required under the Children and Families Act 2014.
The Code of Practice also requires that the health care provision specified in section G of the EHC plan must be agreed by the relevant Clinical Commissioning Group (or, where relevant, NHS England) and any health care provision should be agreed in time to be included in the draft EHC plan sent to the child’s parent or to the young person for whom the plan has been created. As part of the joint commissioning arrangements, partners must have clear disagreement resolution procedures where there is disagreement on the services to be included in an EHC plan.
Ultimately, it is for local authorities to ensure that EHC plans are produced in a timely manner and that they include all relevant information to ensure the needs of the child or young person who is subject to the plan are clearly defined, that appropriate support is identified, and that appropriate outcomes are included.
However, we recognise that there are concerns with the SEND system. We announced the SEND Review in September 2019 to ensure the system is working best for all families, and that support in different areas is consistent, available and joined up across health, care and education services.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department's implementation guidance on statutory Relationships and Sex Education will be released to all schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to supporting all schools in their preparations for the introduction of relationships education (RE), relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education from September 2020.
In July 2018, as part of the consultation on the draft regulations and statutory guidance, the Department published a draft impact assessment, which set out the assessment the Department had made of the impact of the requirement to teach compulsory RE and RSE on independent and maintained schools. The assessment was made in line with requirements set out in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and responses to the consultation helped finalise the regulations, statutory guidance and impact assessment. The Government response can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/780768/Government_Response_to_RSE_Consultation.pdf.
The Department is investing in a central support package to support all schools to increase the confidence and quality of their teaching practice. We are currently developing a new online service featuring training materials, case studies and support to access resources. This will be available from April 2020 with additional content added through the summer term, covering all of the teaching requirements in the statutory guidance. The implementation guide will also be provided to all schools as part of this service, and training offers will be available for schools that need additional support.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what impact assessment his Department has carried out to assess the amount of work required by schools to implement the statutory teaching of Relationships and Sex Education from September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to supporting all schools in their preparations for the introduction of relationships education (RE), relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education from September 2020.
In July 2018, as part of the consultation on the draft regulations and statutory guidance, the Department published a draft impact assessment, which set out the assessment the Department had made of the impact of the requirement to teach compulsory RE and RSE on independent and maintained schools. The assessment was made in line with requirements set out in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and responses to the consultation helped finalise the regulations, statutory guidance and impact assessment. The Government response can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/780768/Government_Response_to_RSE_Consultation.pdf.
The Department is investing in a central support package to support all schools to increase the confidence and quality of their teaching practice. We are currently developing a new online service featuring training materials, case studies and support to access resources. This will be available from April 2020 with additional content added through the summer term, covering all of the teaching requirements in the statutory guidance. The implementation guide will also be provided to all schools as part of this service, and training offers will be available for schools that need additional support.