Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2024 to Question 13172 on Pre-school Education, what reforms to the early years system her Department plans; and whether she plans to publish a consultation on these reforms.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s long term intention is to reform the early years system as the foundation of opportunity and life chances for children. Giving children the best start in life is key to the government’s Opportunity Mission. We will consider what reforms, if any, and what consultation are necessary, and then set out our vision for reforming the early years sector next year.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to release an Early Years strategy.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s long term intention is to reform the early years system as the foundation of opportunity and life chances for children. We will set out our vision for reforming the early years sector next year.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the proportion of schools that celebrate Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month; and what steps she is taking to help support the inclusion of this history on the National Curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold data on the proportion of schools that celebrate Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month.
Schools are free to decide which events to commemorate and what activities to put in place to support pupils’ understanding of significant events and particular months or days dedicated to specific communities, such as the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller history month in June.
Schools are already able to teach about Gypsy, Roma and Travellers’ history as part of offering a broad and rich curriculum, for example, through subjects such as history and citizenship. Resources are available from experts in the communities themselves and bodies such as the Historical Association.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support local authorities in delivering education health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes annual data from the SEN2 survey in relation to every educational, health and care plan maintained by individual local authorities.
The department closely monitors the information from the annual SEN2 data collection and uses it to inform discussions with local areas.
Where a council does not meet its duties, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. The department offers a range of universal, targeted and intensive support through department’s managed programmes, such as the Sector Led Improvement Partners which provide peer-to-peer tailored support.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission introduced a strengthened area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection framework in January 2023 leading to a greater emphasis on the outcomes being achieved for children and young people. It is the primary tool to maintain a focus on high standards in the SEND system across all partners.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of implementing mandatory education on antisemitism in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to tackling antisemitism and all forms of prejudice. Education is a key component of building a fairer and more equal society.
As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, there are many opportunities in the existing curriculum for schools to teach about antisemitism, including through:
Young people should be taught the history of the Holocaust. Effective Holocaust education, and learning about other genocides, supports pupils to learn about the possible consequences of antisemitism and other forms of extremism and to help reduce the spread of antisemitism, religious intolerance and other forms of intolerance and extremism.
The department has been supporting greater understanding of the Holocaust by providing funding to the Holocaust Educational Trust to provide the Lessons from Auschwitz programme, and to UCL Centre for Holocaust Education which provides a programme of continuing professional development for teachers.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 mandating education on islamophobia in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to tackling all forms of prejudice, including religious prejudice, and education is a key component of building a fairer and more equal society.
As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, there are many opportunities in the existing curriculum for schools to teach about islamophobia, including through:
The department’s ‘Educate Against Hate’ campaign also provides teachers, school leaders and parents with guidance, advice and trusted resources to help them safeguard students from radicalisation and build students’ resilience to all forms of extremism. Further information can be found here: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.
The government will keep the effectiveness of this approach under review and will consider the issue further in the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on making funding available to Leeds City Council to ensure the continuation of Little Owls nursery provision.
Answered by David Johnston
The department funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements. Local authorities are then responsible for funding early years providers at a local level, setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their local funding formula.
Local authorities receive their government funding via the early years block of the Dedicated Schools Grant. For 2024/25, Leeds local authority’s indicative allocation for delivering the early years entitlements is £96,966,731, which has increased from £63,075,651.
The department maintain a regular dialogue with local authorities, who are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Leeds City Council has not informed the department of any current sufficiency issues in its area.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 ending the cap on faith school admissions.
Answered by Damian Hinds
My Rt. Hon. friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced on 1 May 2024 that the department are consulting on faith designation reforms for new and existing free schools and special academies. This is available on Hansard at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-05-01/hcws437.
The consultation will run for seven weeks, closing on 20 June 2024. The department will then carefully consider all responses to the consultation and use them to inform the department’s recommendations for better meeting the policy objectives of faith schools.
The government’s response will be published on the GOV.UK website within twelve weeks following closure of the consultation.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there will be any new funding for local authorities to deliver 15 hours of free childcare.
Answered by David Johnston
The department is delivering the largest expansion of childcare in England’s history. By the 2027/28 financial year, this government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year, double what it currently does on childcare, on free hours and early education to help working families with their childcare costs.
The department has provided local authorities with £12 million of delivery support funding in the 2023/24 financial year to help them plan and prepare for the entitlement’s expansion, as well as £100 million of capital funding to help expand or refurbish facilities.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the press release on childcare costs published by Pregnant Then Screwed on 18 February 2024.
Answered by David Johnston
By the 2027/2028 financial year, this government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education. This is the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2 year olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks of the year) from the term after the child’s 2nd birthday. Over 100,000 parents have already applied for the expansion starting in April, and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has confirmed that our latest projections show that more than 150,000 new funded places will be secured by early April.
From September 2024, the department will provide working parents with 15 hours of free childcare a week from when their child is 9 months until they start school. This will increase to 30 hours from September 2025.
Delivering that ambition includes increasing childcare funding rates, with an additional £204 million in this financial year, an additional £400 million in the coming financial year and guaranteed uplifts in line with cost pressures for two years after that. The department is providing grants to help new childminders enter the sector and, to make it easier for the sector, making changes to the early years foundation stage to provide more flexibility.
The department hears every day from families how significant this policy will be for their finances. Once the roll-out is completed, eligible families will save up to £6,500 per year. The roll out will help parents to return to work or increase their hours, and tens of thousands of parents have already successfully applied for their codes, ready to take up their places in April. To see the full range of support they are entitled to, parents should visit: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
Hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are already registered for a 30-hour place, which can save eligible working parents up to £6,500 per child per year. Expanding this entitlement to younger children across the country will help even more working parents with the cost of childcare and make a real difference to the lives of those families.
In addition to the expanded entitlements, the government has also taken action to support parents on Universal Credit with childcare costs upfront when they need it, rather than in arrears. The department has increased support for these parents by increasing the childcare cost maximum amounts to £950 for one child and £1,629 for two children.
Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0-11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children. This can save parents up to £2,000 per year, or up to £4,000 for eligible children with disabilities and has the same income criteria as 30 hours free childcare.