Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the results of the fourth covid-19 survey conducted by Parentkind, published 17 November 2020; and if he will increase the frequency of parent consultation on the Government's response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department works with, and uses information provided from, a wide range of stakeholder organisations, including those that represent the views of parents, to inform its response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes organisations such as Parentkind.
The Department is continuing to do all that it can to support schools and to reassure parents that schools are the best place for children to be. We have published guidance for parents, together with online information leaflets, and delivered online live Q&As with parents. Relevant guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-in-the-autumn-term. Further to this, the Department has carried out parent consultation in the form of various pieces of research.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who will be responsible for (a) setting up and (b) managing the Parent and Pupil Online Panel to help monitor the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on children and young people.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Researchers at the Department for Education are currently developing a research panel with pupils and parents. We will confirm how this will be set up and managed in due course.
As is standard practice, the research data and analysis will be used to underpin policy decisions and communications. Data from pupils and parents will also help us monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on these groups.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how information from the Parent and Pupil Online Panel will be used to inform education policy.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Researchers at the Department for Education are currently developing a research panel with pupils and parents. We will confirm how this will be set up and managed in due course.
As is standard practice, the research data and analysis will be used to underpin policy decisions and communications. Data from pupils and parents will also help us monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on these groups.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his announcement in June 2020 that parents will not be fined for the non-attendance of children in school during the covid-19 outbreak, what his policy is on the length of time that moratorium will be in operation for.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In March when the COVID-19 outbreak was worsening, we made clear no parent would be penalised or sanctioned for their child’s non-attendance at school.
Now the circumstances have changed and it is vital for all children to return to school to minimise as far as possible the longer-term impact of the outbreak on children’s education, wellbeing and wider development.
This means that from the beginning of the autumn term, the usual rules on school attendance will apply. This includes parents’ duty to ensure their child attends school regularly, where the child is a registered pupil at school and they are of compulsory school age, and the availability to issue sanctions, including fixed penalty notices, in line with local authorities’ codes of conduct.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled Rapid evidence assessment examining the potential impact of school closures on the attainment gap, published on 2 June 2020 by the Education Endowment Foundation, what steps he is taking to mitigate any attainment gap among students due to school closures during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
As plans continue for a full return to education from September, we have announced a £1 billion COVID-19 ‘catch-up’ package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time.
£650 million will be provided to schools over the 2020-21 academic year. This one-off grant to support pupils recognises that all young people have lost time in education as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of their income or background.
Whilst school leaders will decide how it is used, the intention is that this money will be spent on the most effective interventions. On 19 June, the Education Endowment Foundation published a guide to help school leaders and staff decide how to use this universal funding to best support their pupils:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Covid-19_Resources/Covid-19_support_guide_for_schools.pdf.
In addition, a National Tutoring Programme, worth £350 million, will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people. This will help to accelerate their academic progress and tackle the attainment gap between them and their peers.
This £1 billion package is on top of the £14.4 billion three-year funding increase announced last year – recognising the additional work schools will need to do to help pupils to catch up. Schools continue to receive pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion this year, to help them support their disadvantaged pupils.
Our commitment of over £100 million to support remote education and social care is providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10 and those receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, and care leavers. Where these pupils do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers so that they can learn at home. Over 200,000 laptops and tablets have been ordered. We started deliveries to local authorities and academy trusts in May and these deliveries are continuing throughout June. To date, we have shipped over 150,000 devices.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled Rapid evidence assessment examining the potential impact of school closures on the attainment gap, published on 2 June 2020 by the Education Endowment Foundation, whether his Department plans to offer additional home-learning resources to disadvantaged families to mitigate any attainment gap following school closures during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
As plans continue for a full return to education from September, we have announced a £1 billion COVID-19 ‘catch-up’ package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time.
£650 million will be provided to schools over the 2020-21 academic year. This one-off grant to support pupils recognises that all young people have lost time in education as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of their income or background.
Whilst school leaders will decide how it is used, the intention is that this money will be spent on the most effective interventions. On 19 June, the Education Endowment Foundation published a guide to help school leaders and staff decide how to use this universal funding to best support their pupils:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Covid-19_Resources/Covid-19_support_guide_for_schools.pdf.
In addition, a National Tutoring Programme, worth £350 million, will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people. This will help to accelerate their academic progress and tackle the attainment gap between them and their peers.
This £1 billion package is on top of the £14.4 billion three-year funding increase announced last year – recognising the additional work schools will need to do to help pupils to catch up. Schools continue to receive pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion this year, to help them support their disadvantaged pupils.
Our commitment of over £100 million to support remote education and social care is providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10 and those receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, and care leavers. Where these pupils do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers so that they can learn at home. Over 200,000 laptops and tablets have been ordered. We started deliveries to local authorities and academy trusts in May and these deliveries are continuing throughout June. To date, we have shipped over 150,000 devices.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to make an announcement on Schools Sport Premium funding for 2020-21.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government will confirm arrangements for the PE and Sport Premium in the 2020/21 academic year as soon as possible.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to enable parents to request that their child resits the current school year in the event that educational progress has been significantly affected by the covid-19 outbreak and subsequent school closure.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We want to get all children and young people back into education as soon as the scientific advice allows because it is the best place for them to learn, and because we know how important it is for their mental wellbeing to have social interactions with their peers, carers and teachers.
We do not currently anticipate that children and young people will need to repeat a school year as a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak. We continue to look at all options to make sure children and young people get the support they need to continue their education and make up for time spent out of school. However, it remains possible for headteachers to agree this in individual cases, if they think it is appropriate.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the medical and scientific advice on covid-19 transmission that indicates it will be safe to re-open schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) established the Children’s Task and Finish Working Group to provide consolidated scientific health advice to the Government. This advice has been used, alongside other sources of information, to inform decision making on potential schools’ reopening options.
SAGE are publishing papers from SAGE meetings in tranches. The first batch was released on 20 March 2020 and a second on 5 May 2020. Further batches will be released regularly.
The list of papers to be released to date are available by following the link below, including several schools-related papers. This list will be updated to reflect papers considered at future meetings:
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons different rules on social distancing are being applied in schools compared to other sectors.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Keeping people safe continues to be the Government’s main priority. We want all children and young people to be able to get back into school as soon as the scientific advice allows – it is the best place for them to be educated and we know how important it is for their mental wellbeing to have social interactions with their peers and teachers.
Our approach for education and childcare settings to prepare for a gradual returning of pupils from 1 June is underpinned by our latest understanding of the science, which indicates that we need to take a phased approach to limit the risk of increasing the rate of transmission. We have specifically factored in:
Early years and primary age children cannot be expected, unlike older children and adults, to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff. In deciding to bring more children back to early years and schools, we have also taken this into account. Protective measures are possible which, when implemented, substantially reduce the risk of transmission of infection.
It is still important to reduce contact between people as much as possible, and we can achieve that and reduce transmission risk by ensuring children, young people and staff where possible, only mix in a small, consistent group; and that small group stays away from other people and groups. Public Health England is clear that if early years settings, schools and colleges do this, and crucially if they are also applying regular hand cleaning, hygiene and cleaning measures and handling potential cases of the virus as per the advice, then the risk of transmission will be lowered. Where settings are able to keep children and young people in those small groups 2 metres away from each other, they should do so. We have published guidance on implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings to support settings to get this right, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings.