Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he will take to ensure that every child between the ages of five and fourteen years has access (a) in school and (b) close to home to play equipment to improve the mental wellbeing and emotional development of children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2018-19, £100 million was made available for schools through the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund for improving access to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing – including playgrounds and sports facilities.
The Department allocates approximately £200 million in capital funding each year directly to schools in England to invest in small capital projects to meet the needs of their pupils and school. This could, for example, include investing in improving the provision of playgrounds and equipment to support health and well-being. On top of this, at Budget 2018, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer allocated an additional £400 million in capital funding for schools to spend on their own priorities.
Local authorities continue to be the biggest investors in community sport and leisure infrastructure in England, which is important for delivering wider community and health benefits. In addition, Sport England is investing over £194 million (between 2016-21) into projects focusing on improving children’s capability and enjoyment of physical activity as well as providing opportunities for talented athletes to develop their potential. It is important that all children have access to high-quality facilities and spaces in their local areas, so that they can be active in safe and well-designed places. In order to support this, Sport England are investing £40 million through their strategic facilities and £15 million per year on improving Community Sport facilities for the benefit of local communities.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care on a new cross-government action plan, to get children active both in and out of school.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were referred to children’s social care services in the last five years to 1 April 2018; and how much funding local authorities received to provide those services over that time period.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The table below shows the number of children referred to children’s social care, England, 2013-14 to 2017-18:
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Number of children referred | 570,790 | 553,500 | 547,330 | 571,000 | 581,280 |
Source: Characteristics of children in need: 2017 to 2018, Table A1, found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.
Funding made available to local authorities is largely not ring-fenced, enabling local authorities to target spending according to local needs.
Over the five year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20 councils will have had access to more than £200 billion, after last month’s budget.
At the Autumn Budget the government announced over £1 billion of extra funding for local authorities, this year and next, to help them deliver the services their communities need and support their most vulnerable residents.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure that steering groups include an assessment of the provision of support for disabled students in final area-based review reports; and what steps it plans to take where such provision is not covered in those reports.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Joint Area Review Delivery Unit which supports the individual reviews and works with the local steering groups, including local authorities as commissioners, oversee the reviews to make sure that the learning needs of all residents, including those with additional learning needs or disabilities are considered. A summary of the steering group consideration is included in each report. We will amend all of the published reports where required to properly reflect that disability as well as additional learning needs has been considered in each of the reviews.
In some cases the consideration of need may result in recommendations for the development of additional learning provision or structural change and this will be reflected in the reports.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that school pupils are taught the dangers of gambling addiction; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Schools can choose to teach about gambling in their personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons. The non-statutory PSHE programme of study, published by the PSHE Association, includes teaching about gambling (including online gambling), and its psychological and financial impact. The programme of study is available online at: https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/
The government expects all schools to teach PSHE and made this expectation clear in the introduction to the national curriculum. It is for schools to tailor their personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) programme to reflect the needs of their pupils.