Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve staff wellbeing and retention in the education sector.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Supporting our expert education workforce is critical to this government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for children and young people at every stage.
Improving the wellbeing of staff in the education sector, including teachers, is key to this. The department is working in partnership with the sector, and mental health experts, to make commitments to improve staff mental health and wellbeing and boost retention.
These commitments include the creation of the education staff wellbeing charter which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges. The charter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.
The charter can be used to inform a whole school or college approach to wellbeing or to develop a staff wellbeing strategy. So far, over 3,900 schools and colleges have signed up to it. In January 2024, the department published a progress report on its commitments in the charter, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-staff-wellbeing-and-teacher-retention.
The department is funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting the Education Support website, which can be found at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/.
The department has made available a range of resources to help schools address teacher workload issues, prioritise staff wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. For example, the department’s improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service, which was developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload. More information about this service can be found here: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.
The department also recently clarified that planning, preparation and assessment time can be done from home. The department has also removed the requirement for performance related pay and bureaucracy that went with it and has abolished one-word Ofsted judgements to deliver a system which provides better information for parents and is proportionate for staff.
Fair pay is key to ensuring teaching is an attractive and respected profession, which is why this government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September 2024. This will be fully funded at a national level.
School support staff play a vital role in all our schools. They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances and the department wants to ensure they are paid fairly for the work they do. This is why the department set out its plans to reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, which was introduced on 10 October. Establishing the SSSNB will help ensure that schools can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver high-quality, inclusive education.
Additionally, to boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department has agreed to double the targeted retention incentive from 2024/25, which will give eligible early career teachers in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and in all colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually, on top of their normal pay.
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 implement the 5.5% pay award for teachers in all sixth form colleges.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government does not set or recommend pay in further education (FE) providers, which have the freedom to make their own arrangements in line with their local circumstances.
This government recognises the vital role that FE teachers and providers play in equipping learners with the opportunities and skills that they need to succeed in their education and throughout life.
That is why the October Budget set out the government’s commitment to skills, by providing an additional £300 million revenue funding for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. The department will set out in due course how this funding will be distributed.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to spend the £300 million allocated to her Department for further education in the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to driving economic growth and supporting opportunity for all, and further education (FE) is central to this. The government is providing the additional £300 million for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed and a further £300 million to support colleges to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estate. The department will set out how the additional funding will be distributed in due course.
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.