Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether parental alienation is a category on children's services assessments.
Answered by Will Quince
All social workers in England must meet the professional standards set by the regulator, Social Work England. Providers of initial training must meet the education and training standards, also set by the regulator, to ensure their students can meet the professional standards. The department has also introduced clear post-qualifying standards, setting out the knowledge and skills expected of child and family social workers.
These standards cover working with parents, including managing tensions between parents and family members, the effect of different parenting styles and assessing parental capacity and capability to change.
It is for providers of initial education, ongoing training and local authority employers to decide specific areas of focus, for example, parental alienation, within social worker training, with reference to the relevant standards. This enables training at all levels to be tailored to the needs of individuals, responsive and up to date.
The definitions and risk factor categories defined in the department’s data collection on initial and end of assessments are not intended to be exhaustive, and parental alienation is not a specific category. However, all potential risk factors will be assessed including the impact of such behaviours on a child and the extent to which they may be considered harmful.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether legislation is in place to prevent local authorities from not paying the minimum foster care allowance to foster carers.
Answered by Will Quince
There is no legislation in place setting a minimum foster allowance to be paid for foster carers. However, the Fostering National Minimum Standards are issued by the Secretary of State under the Care Standards Act 2000 and state at standard 28 ‘Each foster carer receives at least the national minimum allowance for the child, plus any necessary agreed expenses for the care, education, and reasonable leisure interests of the child, including insurance, holidays, birthdays, school trips, religious festivals etc, which cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with her/him.’
Fostering agencies are regulated by Ofsted under the Care Standards Act and under section 23 of the Care Standards Act 2000, the National Minimum Standards are applicable to them. Local authorities are inspected by Ofsted and under section 49 of the Care Standards Act, the National Minimum Standards apply to them also.
The department publishes a minimum allowance annually, which sets out the weekly amount a foster carer can expect to receive to cover such costs: https://www.gov.uk/support-for-foster-parents/help-with-the-cost-of-fostering.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what legislation is in place to ensure that family members who look after children in care are appropriately remunerated; and what steps he is taking to prevent the use of time limited arrangement orders as a substitute for foster care arrangements.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities are responsible for placing looked-after children in the most appropriate placement according to their needs. If the local authority wants to place looked after child with a family member or friend, the carer must be assessed and approved as a foster carer, although in an emergency time limited approval can be given on a temporary basis. Local authorities have duties to ensure they provide all carers of looked after children with appropriate support. Ofsted inspect local authorities with regard to their performance on placing and supporting looked after children.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to publish information on how the Soft Drinks Industry Levy has been allocated in each year since 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2016 Budget announced that, alongside the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, the Department for Education would receive funding to invest in a number of related programmes. The funding has been used as follows.
The Primary PE and sport premium was increased to £320 million per year and has been maintained at that level. The Department publishes annual allocations, which can be accessed here: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/PSG/2020-to-2021.
£100 million was used for the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund in the 2018/19 financial year. Allocations for each local authority and multi-academy trust who were eligible to receive a direct allocation were published in March 2018 and are available here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20190212204720/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations. Details of successful Healthy Pupils Capital Fund projects funded through the Condition Improvement Fund have been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/condition-improvement-fund-2018-to-2019-outcome.
Funding of nearly £22 million was allocated between 2017 and 2019 for an Essential Life Skills programme to enable disadvantaged children and young people living in some of the most deprived parts of the country to participate in regular extra-curricular activities. The Essential Life Skills programme targeted disadvantaged children and young people aged five to 18 across 12 opportunity areas. Areas received £7.95 million in financial year 2017/18 and £13.8 million in financial year 2018/19. Details of the grants are published here:
The Department has funded £38 million for the National School Breakfast Programme between March 2018 and July 2021, to help set up or improve breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools in disadvantaged areas and sustain them in the longer term.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary schools have received funding from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in each year since 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2016 Budget announced that, alongside the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, the Department for Education would receive funding to invest in a number of related programmes. The funding has been used as follows.
The Primary PE and sport premium was increased to £320 million per year and has been maintained at that level. The Department publishes annual allocations, which can be accessed here: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/PSG/2020-to-2021.
£100 million was used for the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund in the 2018/19 financial year. Allocations for each local authority and multi-academy trust who were eligible to receive a direct allocation were published in March 2018 and are available here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20190212204720/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations. Details of successful Healthy Pupils Capital Fund projects funded through the Condition Improvement Fund have been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/condition-improvement-fund-2018-to-2019-outcome.
Funding of nearly £22 million was allocated between 2017 and 2019 for an Essential Life Skills programme to enable disadvantaged children and young people living in some of the most deprived parts of the country to participate in regular extra-curricular activities. The Essential Life Skills programme targeted disadvantaged children and young people aged five to 18 across 12 opportunity areas. Areas received £7.95 million in financial year 2017/18 and £13.8 million in financial year 2018/19. Details of the grants are published here:
The Department has funded £38 million for the National School Breakfast Programme between March 2018 and July 2021, to help set up or improve breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools in disadvantaged areas and sustain them in the longer term.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to South Tyneside Council to provide (a) the holiday activities and food programme and (b) for food and fuel poverty emergency assistance in the last 12 months.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Department for Education-funded Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children, has been expanded to every local authority across England this year – backed by up to £220 million. It builds on previous programmes, including last summer’s programme, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.
South Tyneside Council has been allocated a maximum of £831,630 to deliver HAF programmes over Easter, summer and Christmas 2021.
In summer 2020, South Tyneside received £220,000 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ £63 million grant.
Since 1 December 2020, the Department for Work and Pensions has operated the COVID Winter Grant Scheme, which has subsequently been renamed as the COVID Local Support Grant. Funding has been provided to local authorities in England to support families with food and essential utility bills. On 21 June, the government extended this temporary scheme for a final time, with an additional £160 million in funding through to 30 September, taking total funding under the scheme to £429 million. This funding recognises that, while restrictions are planned to end in July, families might need additional help to get back on their feet as the vaccine rollout continues and our economy recovers. South Tyneside Council has received £1,506,852.06 since 1 December through this scheme.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the successful applicants for the School Breakfast Club Programme 2021-23 tender are planned to be announced.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Breakfast Clubs procurement has only recently been completed and is currently undergoing final checks. These details will be made available upon conclusion of the procurement process, through Contract Award Notices via the usual channels. We hope to inform the successful applicants as soon as proper procedure will allow.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the successful applicants of the Further Education Capital Transformation Fund bid are planned to be announced.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
All further education (FE) colleges and designated institutions in England were invited to apply to stage 1 of the two stage FE Capital Transformation Fund in January, by setting out proposals for investment to tackle poor condition across their estates.
Stage 1 of the bidding process closed to colleges on 22 March and the department is assessing bid applications. We received a high number of applications, and the planned announcement of the stage 1 outcomes has been delayed.
We hope to inform colleges of the outcomes of stage 1, and publish the stage 2 guidance this summer. We will assess bids submitted at stage 2 before making final decisions on award of funding.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many organisations have expressed an interest in the Breakfast Clubs Programme Tender 2021-23.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Breakfast Clubs procurement remains ongoing. Therefore, we are unable to disclose this information at this time. These details will be made available upon conclusion of the procurement process, through Contract Award Notices via the usual channels.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are registered as having SEND; how many children with SEND are enrolled in schools; and what information his Department holds on attendance rates of children with SEND.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department collects data on school children who have special educational needs (SEN), but does not collect data on those with disabilities specifically.
We publish annual figures on the number of children and young people (aged 0 to 25 years) for whom local authorities have issued education, health and care (EHC) plans, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. Data relating to January 2021 was published on 13 May 2021.
We publish annual figures on school pupils with SEN based on January school census data, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. Data relating to January 2021 will be published in June 2021.
Our routine absence statistics include figures for pupils with SEN at state-funded schools.
The most recent full-year absence statistics are for academic year 2018/19 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. The most recently published part-year absence statistics are for autumn term 2019 which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term. Data relating to autumn term 2020 will be published on 27 May 2021.
Data on the attendance of pupils with EHC plans during the COVID-19 outbreak has also been collected on a daily basis via the Education Settings Survey and published weekly at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.