Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department identifies educational attainment outcomes for Sikhs as a distinct group.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not identify educational attainment outcomes for Sikhs as a distinct group in its measurements of outcomes across key stages. This is because the department does not collect data and report on religion as a pupil characteristic in the way that it does for other characteristics such as ethnicity or sex.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. These data are reported annually and shared with the department and include information on student outcomes by religion.
The Office for Students, the independent regulator of HE in England, annually report on student outcomes including religion in their ‘Outcomes data dashboard’, which can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/student-characteristics-data/outcomes-data-dashboard/.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to enrichment activities in Huddersfield.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to ensuring all young people across England can access a wide range of enrichment opportunities at school and college, as part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
In the ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper, we set out our ambition to introduce an enrichment entitlement for every pupil, underpinned by a core enrichment offer that every school and college should aim to provide.
This is supported by a new Enrichment Framework, published on Monday 15 June, setting out benchmarks, case studies and practical tools to help schools plan high-quality enrichment more strategically. The ‘Every Child Can’ programme, funded through the Dormant Assets Scheme, will deliver £132.5 million for new activities programmes delivered through schools, community programmes, weekend activities and holiday provision. It is structured around the same five categories as the Enrichment Framework.
We are also putting in place support for wider provision, including through PE and School Sport Partnerships, Music Hubs, and the £22.5 million Enrichment Expansion Programme, delivered with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, supporting up to 400 schools in the most deprived areas of England to meet these benchmarks.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with her Cabinet colleagues to promote equality as part of the Government mission entitled Break Down Barriers to Opportunity.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter where they are from. However, we know educational inequalities exists across the country. This is not acceptable in Huddersfield or nationally.
The department is tackling inequalities in the system head-on through our Plan for Change. In September, we rolled out 30 hours of funded childcare for working parents, saving eligible parents using their full entitlement an average of £75,000 a year.
We are also rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded primary school, expanding free school meals to all children on Universal Credit, and have delivered the largest ever uplift to early years pupil premium.
We are recruiting an additional 6,500 expert teachers in our schools and colleges and are making good progress, with over 2,000 more teachers in our secondary and special schools.
The department will spend close to £1.5 billion over the next three years on improving family services and early years education to begin the hard work needed.
We will fund Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to ensure that children and families who need support the most, especially those from low-income backgrounds or with additional vulnerabilities, can access it. These hubs will be open to all families but will be located in disadvantaged communities where support is most needed, ensuring services are both inclusive and targeted.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to promote green skills programmes as part of the national skills strategy in Huddersfield.
Answered by Janet Daby
Green skills are crucial to economic growth and the government’s net zero by 2050 target. Clean energy industries have been identified as a priority sector in the Industrial Strategy, alongside other sectors fundamental to clean energy like advanced manufacturing.
Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) are employer-led plans setting out priorities to better meet local skills needs. LSIPs must consider the skills needed to meet net zero, climate adaptation, and wider environmental goals. The West Yorkshire LSIP identifies clean energy and green construction as priority sectors. West Yorkshire’s Local Growth Plan reinforces the green economy as a local priority, embedding sustainability as a core principle and setting out actions to achieve net zero.
The government will set out a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education and skills later this year, including steps to strengthen the skills pipeline in key sectors. The strategy will set out how the skills system will support the delivery of the Plan for Change.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take with (a) colleges, (b) universities and (c) employers to increase the number of (i) apprenticeships and (ii) skills-based training places for young people from Huddersfield.
Answered by Janet Daby
As part of our plan to Get Britain Working, the government will launch a new Youth Guarantee for young people aged 18 to 21 in England to ensure that they are supported to access high quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work.
This is alongside the launch of Skills England, which will support skills training opportunities for young people, and local skills improvement plans which bring employers, providers and local leaders together to collaboratively identify and address skills needs of local areas.
The government supports colleges to provide skills training, including through over £7.5 billion of 16 to 19 programme funding which will be invested during the 2024/25 academic year to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed in work and in life.
The government is working with universities on access and participation and we will support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background, where they live and their personal circumstances.
We are also widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer which will include new foundation apprenticeships, giving more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with (a) the University of Huddersfield and (b) other local universities to help promote (i) innovation and (ii) skills development in that region.
Answered by Janet Daby
Skills development is crucial for economic growth and breaking down the barriers to opportunity.
The government is developing a Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy which will set out how the skills system will work to deliver on our Plan for Change, moving towards a more responsive and flexible education system that can adapt to the evolving demands of the economy. This will help ensure that students and workers have access to the training and education they need to thrive in work and life.
Through Skills England, the department also oversees local skills improvement plans which provide an ongoing mechanism through which local employers, strategic authorities, further education and higher education providers and other stakeholders can come together locally to identify and resolve skills needs and issues.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of persistent absence on (a) SEND pupils and (b) their families.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling absence, including persistent absence, is a critical priority for the government, and is at the heart of our mission is to break down the barriers to opportunity. If children are not in school, it does not matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Whilst rates of overall and persistent absence are reducing year on year, they remain too high both overall and for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Evidence is clear that being absent from school is strongly linked to pupils’ attainment and later life chances and can significantly affect families, for example, limiting parental ability to work. Further, for pupils with SEND in particular, schools provide vital services including specialised teaching, therapy, and counselling, that absent students are unable to access. The department’s statutory guidance to schools, trusts, and local authorities recognises that pupils with additional needs may face more complex barriers to school attendance. Schools should take a sensitive, ‘support first’ approach to ensuring pupils’ attendance. This includes working with the child and their family to remove any barriers to attendance, additional support from wider services and external partners and, where appropriate, providing adjustments such as individual healthcare plans and greater pastoral support. While some pupils may face additional challenges, we expect schools to have the same attendance ambitions for all pupils, and to put support in place to facilitate their attendance.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school have been identified as having special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department publishes figures from the school census on pupil absence in state-funded schools. The latest data, including breakdowns by characteristic, covers the 2023/24 academic year and is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.
The following table provides the number of pupils who were persistently absent, by special educational needs provision: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b158c055-7dcf-49ad-938b-08dd6ba01329.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support children with (a) SEND and (b) mental health needs to return to school after a period of absence.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
School absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and young people. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed.
The department recognises that some pupils, such as pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or mental health problems, may face additional challenges to attendance. We expect schools to have the same attendance ambitions for these pupils as they do for all pupils, and to put support in place where required to facilitate their attendance.
To support children and young people to attend school, the department has introduced statutory guidance which sets clear expectations for schools, trusts and local authorities. The guidance is clear that schools and local authorities should take a sensitive, ‘support-first’ approach to enabling attendance, working with the child and their family to remove any barriers to attendance. For pupils with SEND or mental health needs this may include:
After a period of absence, schools may also consider phased returns if needed, as well as offering support to catch up on missed learning.
This government is also committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. As of April 2024, NHS-funded Mental Health Support Teams covered 44% of pupils and learners in schools and further education in England and are expected to cover at least 50% by April 2025.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what accountability mechanisms are in place for local authorities that miss statutory deadlines for Education, Health and Care plans processes after being required to produce a Written Statement of Action.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As set out in the current Area SEND Inspection Framework, local areas with a Written Statement of Action that were not revisited by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission under the previous framework will have a full inspection within the first three years of the new inspection cycle, meaning that they should receive a full inspection under the current framework by the end of 2025.
As part of Area SEND inspections, inspectors assess the extent to which the local area partners are complying with relevant legal duties relating to arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
For any local area that has an active Written Statement of Action, the department works to monitor, support and challenge local authorities as needed, working closely with NHS England to tackle any weaknesses that sit with health partners. Where a council does not meet its duties, including around timeliness of education, health and care plans, we offer a range of universal, targeted and intensive support through departmentally-managed programmes, such as our sector led improvement partners, which provides peer-to-peer tailored support. Councils identified as having issues with 20 week timeliness specifically are subject to additional monitoring by the department. Where we have concerns about their capacity to make the required improvements, we secure specialist SEND advisor support to help identify barriers and improve the service.