Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Public Bodies Review Programme 2023-24 will report on its review of the Office for Students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Cabinet Office has not yet published the list of public bodies to be prioritised for review in the 2023/24 financial year.
It is currently the intention that the Office for Students will be reviewed under the Public Bodies Review Programme from autumn 2023, with findings likely published by the end of the financial year. These timings may change.
Cabinet Office guidance outlines the requirements for reviews of public bodies, including the new requirements covering governance, accountability, efficacy and efficiency of arm’s length bodies.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614, Schools: Buildings, which schools in Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle constituency have at least one construction element in (a) condition grade C and (b) condition grade D.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) was one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body in the Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle constituency to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. This data is being prepared and will be published as soon as possible.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has provided additional funding to (a) further and (b) higher education providers to help them prepare for the introduction of the lifelong loan entitlement in the period since that policy was announced; whether her Department plans to provide additional funding for this purpose in future financial years; and what recent estimate she had made of whether the lifelong loan entitlement will be available from 2025.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Additional funding has been provided to Further and Higher Education providers as part of the Higher Education Short Course trial in the period since the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) was announced. The Government is considering other activities required to ensure providers are ready to respond to the LLE for launch in 2025, a timeline which the Government remains committed to and is on track to deliver.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications there have been to date for places on the Higher Education Short Courses trial; how many and what proportion of those applications were accepted; and how many and what proportion of those that were accepted applied for (a) fee and (b) maintenance loans.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Higher Education Short Courses trial, which will be rolling out over the course of the 2022/23 academic year, has seen 22 providers develop over 100 short courses. The department will be monitoring the overall number of students and number of applications for loans as part of the trial, which is due to run for three years in total.
The department is developing bespoke engagement activity to further engage trial providers. We are keen to explore how they can maximise their relationships with employers to ensure steady uptake of the new short courses opening throughout the year and beyond. We will continue to work closely with those providers to maximise the number of applications.
We are only offering tuition fee loans for the courses within this trial. This is the first time that a tuition fee loan from the Student Loans Company has been available to students applying for Higher Education short courses. Those who need additional support may be eligible for a study-costs bursary which can be used towards study-related costs, such as childcare, books, and travel, and is distributed directly by their provider.
The department is gathering and evaluating data throughout the trial alongside the Student Loan Company, Office for Students and providers, and will use this to inform the development of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement. We currently have no plans to publish any specific data.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what accessible formats her Department has considered for the 2023 exam season; and whether her Department has considered making modified exam papers consistent across all exam boards and qualifications.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, to write to the Honourable Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that exam boards consistently provide current and past exam papers in accessible formats for candidates with vision impairment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, to write to the Honourable Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the implications of the needs of candidates with vision impairments for the development of electronic examinations.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, to write to the Honourable Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) people in total and (b) employees in total have participated Skills Bootcamps; and what data she holds on how many (i) employees have been requested to participate by their employer in and (ii) employers have requested that their employees participate in Skills Bootcamps.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Data published in December 2021 shows that in the 2020/21 financial year, 2,800 learners participated in a Skills Bootcamp. Learner employment status was captured as part of an evaluation published in October 2021 and of those who reported their employment status, 61% were employed and 6% were self-employed.
In the 2021/22 financial year, there were 16,120 Skills Bootcamps learner starts. An implementation evaluation report for Skills Bootcamps delivery during financial year 2021/22, which will be published later this year, will provide further detail on learner starts, their employment status and whether a learner’s employer has contributed to the cost of the Skills Bootcamp.
The department does not hold information on how many employees have been requested to participate by their employer in a Skills Bootcamp or on how many employers have requested that their employees participate in Skills Bootcamps.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has he made of the impact of inflation on the average incomes of (a) parents supporting 16 to19 year olds in full-time (i) further education colleges and (ii) school sixth forms, (b) adults in part-time further education and (c) post-16 apprentices; and whether his Department is taking steps to help mitigate the impact of inflation on these groups.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has carried out research in these areas. We have collected survey data on the impact of rising cost of living on households, including whether parents have cut back on household costs to fund education-related costs, and whether affordability has impacted their child’s participation in educational activities in the 2021/22 academic year. This data relates to parents of secondary school pupils in England, but those who responded to the survey could also be parents of learners in further education. The same surveys also asked pupils and learners in post-16 education in classroom settings in England about some facets of cost of living, in particular whether the rising cost of living has led to those pupils and learners changing their plans for education or training.
The survey data from the 2021/22 academic year has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/parent-pupil-and-learner-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2021-to-2022. The department intends to collect similar data for the 2022/23 academic year and we will publish this data in due course.
The government appreciates the difficulties caused by the rising cost of living and inflation, and is focused on levelling up so that young people and adults, regardless of their background or geographic location, can get the skills and training they need to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs and move up the ladder of opportunity.
The department provides a number of financial support programmes for those students who need the most help with the costs associated with staying in post-16 education. This includes extra funding to providers for disadvantaged students aged 16 to 19 with low prior attainment, or those who live in the most disadvantaged areas. In addition, the 16 to 19 bursary fund targets support towards young people who need the most help with education-related costs. In the 2022/23 academic year the department is providing £164 million to help financially disadvantaged students participate in post-16 education to cover such costs as travel, meals, books and course equipment, and over £31 million for free meals.
The department also provided over £550 million in the 2021/22 academic year to enable providers of 16 to 19 education to recruit, support, and retain disadvantaged students, and support those with special education needs and disabilities.
For those learners aged 19 and over, providers receive disadvantage uplift so that there is increased funding for learners living in deprived areas. In addition, funds are made available to providers to help adults overcome barriers to learning. This includes Learner Support, which is available to colleges and providers to support learners aged 19 and over with a specific financial hardship which is preventing them from taking part and/or continuing in learning, and learning support which is available to meet the cost of putting in place reasonable adjustments, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, for learners who have an identified learning difficulty and/or disability, to achieve their learning goal.
The department has also taken steps to improve apprentice pay, including aligning the apprentice national minimum wage rate with the national minimum wage rate for under 18s, and accepting in full the recommendations of the Independent Low Pay Commission to increase the apprentice national minimum wage by 9.7% from April 2023.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Office for National Statistics publication entitled Cost of living and higher education students, England: 24 October to 7 November 2022, published on 23 November 2022, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting research into the effect of the cost of living on further education students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has carried out research in these areas. We have collected survey data on the impact of rising cost of living on households, including whether parents have cut back on household costs to fund education-related costs, and whether affordability has impacted their child’s participation in educational activities in the 2021/22 academic year. This data relates to parents of secondary school pupils in England, but those who responded to the survey could also be parents of learners in further education. The same surveys also asked pupils and learners in post-16 education in classroom settings in England about some facets of cost of living, in particular whether the rising cost of living has led to those pupils and learners changing their plans for education or training.
The survey data from the 2021/22 academic year has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/parent-pupil-and-learner-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2021-to-2022. The department intends to collect similar data for the 2022/23 academic year and we will publish this data in due course.
The government appreciates the difficulties caused by the rising cost of living and inflation, and is focused on levelling up so that young people and adults, regardless of their background or geographic location, can get the skills and training they need to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs and move up the ladder of opportunity.
The department provides a number of financial support programmes for those students who need the most help with the costs associated with staying in post-16 education. This includes extra funding to providers for disadvantaged students aged 16 to 19 with low prior attainment, or those who live in the most disadvantaged areas. In addition, the 16 to 19 bursary fund targets support towards young people who need the most help with education-related costs. In the 2022/23 academic year the department is providing £164 million to help financially disadvantaged students participate in post-16 education to cover such costs as travel, meals, books and course equipment, and over £31 million for free meals.
The department also provided over £550 million in the 2021/22 academic year to enable providers of 16 to 19 education to recruit, support, and retain disadvantaged students, and support those with special education needs and disabilities.
For those learners aged 19 and over, providers receive disadvantage uplift so that there is increased funding for learners living in deprived areas. In addition, funds are made available to providers to help adults overcome barriers to learning. This includes Learner Support, which is available to colleges and providers to support learners aged 19 and over with a specific financial hardship which is preventing them from taking part and/or continuing in learning, and learning support which is available to meet the cost of putting in place reasonable adjustments, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, for learners who have an identified learning difficulty and/or disability, to achieve their learning goal.
The department has also taken steps to improve apprentice pay, including aligning the apprentice national minimum wage rate with the national minimum wage rate for under 18s, and accepting in full the recommendations of the Independent Low Pay Commission to increase the apprentice national minimum wage by 9.7% from April 2023.