Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support (a) schools and (b) local authorities in providing additional services to help young people with early signs of mental ill health.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is working with NHS England and Department of Health and Social Care to help schools and colleges provide support for children and young people with emerging mental health issues and secure specialist treatment where it is needed.
The NHS Long Term Plan set out that by 2023/24 an extra 345,000 children and young people in England aged up to 25 will receive mental health support via NHS-funded mental health services including new Mental Health Support Teams linked to groups of schools and colleges. The teams will work with groups of schools and colleges to provide swift access to support for children and young people, especially those with emerging, mild and moderate needs. Teams will also support referrals to more specialist treatment. Roll-out is starting with a trailblazer programme to test how teams can be effectively delivered, including how they can work effectively with local authority services to provide coordinated support for children and young people. Staff for the new teams are currently be being trained and the first 59 teams will be fully operational in 25 areas of the country by the end of the year.
Directors of Children’s Services and Directors of Public Health in Local Authorities will play an important role in supporting local implementation of the new teams. The Department for Education is working with Public Health England to ensure that local authorities are kept informed and are invited to contribute to local plans for implementation.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the adequacy of the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the national funding rate for sixth form students.
Answered by Anne Milton
The departmental budget for spending on sixth form funding in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set in the 2015 Spending Review. As with other areas of departmental spending, sixth form funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.
We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020 and overall, the government plans to invest nearly £7 billion during 2018-19, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19 year old who wants one. We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the sector and are assessing how far the current funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision for young people.
The department works closely with HM Treasury in considering sixth form funding at ministerial and official level, and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of teachers that are on the (i) main, (ii) upper, and (iii) leadership pay scales in South Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Please see the attached table which provides the number and proportion[1],[2] of full and part-time regular teachers in service in state funded schools who are paid on the main, upper, leadership, other and unknown pay ranges in South Cambridgeshire constituency and in England in November 2017. Within the table, the ‘Other’ column includes the leading practitioners[3] and unqualified teachers[4] pay ranges and the ‘Unknown’ column relates to invalid codes entered by schools during the collection process that were not amended by the schools after being identified as invalid.
[1] Excludes centrally employed staff.
[2] Figures 3 or less have been suppressed.
[3] Leading practitioners are qualified teachers who are employed in posts that the relevant body has determined have the primary purpose of modelling and leading improvement of teaching skills.
[4] Unqualified teachers are teachers who are not a qualified teacher and who is prescribed by Order under section 122(5) of the Act as a school teacher for the purposes of that section.
[5] Includes leading practitioner and unqualified pay ranges.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what date his Department plans to publish the application criteria for the construction skills fund announced in the Autumn Budget 2017.
Answered by Anne Milton
We plan that the construction skills fund will open for bids next month.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Autumn Budget 2017, what the criteria is for the allocation of the £34 million fund for teaching construction skills.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department will publish criteria for the fund early next year. The fund will help to build construction training facilities attached to housing developments, and will support adult students to retrain as construction workers. We will welcome bids from colleges and developers from across the country.
The funding for construction skills was announced in the Budget, as part of the National Retraining Scheme. Most of the funding will be a construction skills fund for England, which will support government’s ambition to build new homes during the Parliament.
There will also be £5 million for construction skills in the West Midlands, as part of the second devolution deal.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Family Hubs.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We welcome the development of family hubs. We know that many areas are already moving towards this model of support for children and families.
However, it is up to local councils to decide how to organise and commission services in their areas. Local councils are best placed to understand local needs and how best to meet them, and they should be the ones to determine the effectiveness of their services to children and families.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department is making on updating relationship and sex education guidance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We want to help all schools to deliver high quality Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education so that all young people are equipped to have healthy and respectful relationships, and leave school with the knowledge to prepare them for adult life.
The Department is currently conducting thorough and wide-ranging engagement with stakeholders, which will help us to reach an evidence-based decision on PSHE, as well as to determine the content of the regulations and statutory guidance.
We will consult on draft regulations and guidance and the regulations will then be laid in the House allowing for a full and considered debate. We are working towards schools teaching the new subjects from September 2019.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Oral contribution of the Minister of State for Education of 18 July 2017, Official Report, column 713, what discussions her Department has had with HM Revenue and Customs to resolve the issues identified with the digital childcare service; and what progress her Department has made on steps identified in those discussions to resolve those issues.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
As of 31 August, over 216,000 30 hours eligibility codes have been issued for the Autumn term. Whilst the majority of parents applied with no issue, some parents experienced difficulties. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are working with National Savings & Investments (and their supplier Atos) to make a range of improvements to the childcare service. The department maintains continuous contact with HMRC and are involved in key discussions.
HMRC put in place arrangements to ensure parents were able to access a place in the Autumn term. For example, they provided 30 hours free childcare codes manually to all parents who reported experiencing difficulties applying through the digital route. The department then encouraged all local authorities to fund 30 hours places for the autumn term where the parent applied on 31 August or before, but received their code after the deadline.
We are committed to working with colleagues to ensure we continue to improve the customer experience as we deliver this important programme nationally.