Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential safeguarding dangers to children from low-income families resulting from the end of the holiday activities and food programme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the department will communicate the outcome of that process in due course.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the end of the holiday activities and food programme on lower-income families.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the department will communicate the outcome of that process in due course.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the change to real terms spending on services for disabled children by Shropshire Council since 2016.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
From the 2015/16 financial year to 2022/23, the most recent year for which information is available, the increase in net spending by Shropshire Council on provision and services for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including on those children’s home-to-school transport, has been 37% in real terms (67% in cash terms) and the increase in gross spending has been 32% in real terms (61% in cash terms).
The basis for this calculation uses high needs and home-to-school transport spending data provided to the department by Shropshire Council, which is broadly comparable from year-to-year, as follows:
Financial year | Gross spend | 2022/23 terms | Net spend | 2022/23 terms |
2015/16 | £21.2 million | £25.9 million | £19.6 million | £23.9 million |
2016/17 | £18.9 million | £22.5 million | £17.9 million | £21.3 million |
2017/18 | £24.0 million | £28.2 million | £23.2 million | £27.3 million |
2018/19 | £25.0 million | £28.7 million | £24.6 million | £28.3 million |
2019/20 | £25.0 million | £28.1 million | £24.8 million | £27.8 million |
2020/21 | £27.5 million | £29.3 million | £26.1 million | £27.8 million |
2021/22 | £28.9 million | £31.0 million | £28.0 million | £30.0 million |
2022/23 | £34.2 million | £34.2 million | £32.8 million | £32.8 million |
To note:
High needs budget expenditure:
1.2.1 Top-up funding – maintained schools
1.2.2 Top-up funding – academies, free schools and colleges
1.2.3 Top-up and other funding – non-maintained and independent providers
1.2.4 Additional high needs targeted funding for mainstream schools and academies
1.2.5 Special educational needs (SEN) support service
1.2.6 Hospital education services
1.2.8 Support for inclusion
1.2.9 Special schools and pupil referral units (PRUs) in financial difficulty
1.2.10 Private finance initiative/ Building Schools for the Future costs at special schools, AP/ PRUs and Post 16 institutions only
1.2.11 Direct payments (SEN and disability)
1.2.12 Carbon reduction commitment allowances (PRUs)
1.2.13 Therapies and other health related services
1.4.11 SEN transport
Additional home-to-school transport expenditure:
2.1.4 Home-to-school transport (pre-16): SEN transport expenditure
2.1.6 Home-to-post-16 provision: SEN transport expenditure (aged 16-18)
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle mental health challenges in children from low-income families during school holidays.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has invested over £200 million every year since 2022 in free holiday club places for children from low-income families through the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme with all 153 local authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.
The HAF programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, provides them with healthy food, helps them to learn new things, improves socialisation and benefits their health and wellbeing during school holidays.
The right support should be available to every young person that needs it, which is why the department will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of applying VAT to private school fees on state-funded special educational needs provision.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister has been clear that if a child has an education, health and care plan that requires them to attend a private school because their needs cannot be met in the state sector, they will not feel an impact from this policy.
The department will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for children that need them, and that appropriate support is provided where pupils with special educational needs require a place at a state-funded school.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of spending by schools on using recruitment agencies to fill teaching vacancies in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold or collect the data to provide the requested estimate.
For state-funded schools wishing to recruit teachers on a permanent or fixed term basis, Teaching Vacancies is a free national listing service which removes the cost for schools to list vacancies. 87% of schools are signed up to use the service.
Schools have the autonomy to decide whether to use private supply agencies to fill temporary posts or cover teacher absence and are best placed to make decisions on their approach to recruitment. The department, in conjunction with the Crown Commercial Service, has established the agency supply deal, which supports schools to obtain value for money when hiring agency supply teachers and other temporary school staff. For more information, please visit the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of mandating regular welfare checks for home educated children.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The government supports the right of parents to educate their children at home. The department knows that many who do so are very committed and educate their children well, sometimes in difficult circumstances.
However, this government is committed to ensuring local authorities ensure all of these children are in receipt of suitable education.
The government is committed to legislating for statutory registers. Thanks to my honourable friend, the member for Meon Valley, for her work on her Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which the department is supporting as it progresses through Parliament.
The bill will introduce statutory, local authority-maintained registers of children not in school and help local authorities undertake their existing duties to ensure all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated.
It is important to note that elective home education in itself is not considered an inherent safeguarding risk. Most parents who take up the weighty responsibility of home education do a great job, and many children benefit from being educated at home. It is the government’s view that, when used correctly and in line with guidance, local authorities have sufficient existing powers to investigate and take action in cases where there is concern for the welfare of any child, including those who are educated at home. The department therefore does not have any plans to introduce regular mandatory welfare checks for these children.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to establish a register of children who are home educated.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The government supports the right of parents to educate their children at home. The department knows that many who do so are very committed and educate their children well, sometimes in difficult circumstances.
However, this government is committed to ensuring local authorities ensure all of these children are in receipt of suitable education.
The government is committed to legislating for statutory registers. Thanks to my honourable friend, the member for Meon Valley, for her work on her Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which the department is supporting as it progresses through Parliament.
The bill will introduce statutory, local authority-maintained registers of children not in school and help local authorities undertake their existing duties to ensure all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated.
It is important to note that elective home education in itself is not considered an inherent safeguarding risk. Most parents who take up the weighty responsibility of home education do a great job, and many children benefit from being educated at home. It is the government’s view that, when used correctly and in line with guidance, local authorities have sufficient existing powers to investigate and take action in cases where there is concern for the welfare of any child, including those who are educated at home. The department therefore does not have any plans to introduce regular mandatory welfare checks for these children.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department accounted for additional (a) heating and (b) travel costs experienced in rural areas in calculating the minimum funding floor for the early years supplementary grant for September 2023.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The government recognises the current pressures faced by early years providers. That is why we are providing additional funding, through the early years supplementary grant (EYSG) from September 2023, for local authorities to increase the amount of funding paid to childcare providers for delivering the existing childcare entitlement offers.
With the additional funding provided through the EYSG, the minimum funding floor for the 3 and 4-year-old hourly funding rate will increase from £4.87 to an effective £5.20 per hour, in line with the expected increase in the effective combined national average rate (which will increase from £5.29 to £5.62 per hour).
The EYSG will be subject to conditions of grant which we expect to publish in September. The department’s intention is that local authorities must pass on the EYSG in full to early years providers.
In order to recognise cost variations between local authority areas, the department has used the existing funding formulae for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds to determine the EYSG rates for individual local authorities. This means there will be variation around the average increases stated below.
The existing funding system for 3 and 4-year-olds requires local authorities to set a local funding formula, which includes additional funding supplements. In their local formula, local authorities must have a deprivation supplement for 3 and 4-year-olds and are permitted to use other discretionary funding supplements, one of which is to recognise additional costs associated with rurality or sparsity, to enable local authorities to support providers serving rural areas less likely to benefit from economies of scale.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to offer additional funding to areas where the Early Years Supplementary Grant results in below national average funding for early years education.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
At the Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor announced an increase to the funding for the existing early years entitlements for two, three and four-year-olds of £204 million from this September, and £288 million in 2024/25, for local authorities to increase the rates paid to childcare providers.
On 7 July 2023, the department confirmed that the £204 million for 2023/24 would be distributed via a new Early Years Supplementary Grant (EYSG), and the hourly funding rates that each local authority will receive from September 2023.
This additional funding through the EYSG, coming on top of local authorities’ existing allocations, will allow an increase to an average of 32% for the current two year old entitlement, and by an average of 6.3% for the three and four-year-old entitlements. For two-year-olds, this means that the average hourly rate received by local authorities will rise from the current £6 per hour in 2023/24, to an effective £7.95 per hour. The three and four-year-old national average hourly rate will rise from £5.29, to an effective £5.62 from September 2023.
In order to recognise cost variations between local authority areas, the existing funding formulae for two, three and four-year-olds has been used to determine the EYSG rates for individual local authorities. This means there will be variation around the average increases stated above.
For three and four-year-olds, as with the 2023/24 early years national funding formula (EYNFF) rates, the department is including protections to ensure that all local authorities see an increase in the effective combined hourly funding rate (September to March) they receive. The minimum increase that local authorities can see between their effective combined hourly rate (September to March) and their 2023/24 EYNFF hourly rate is +1%. Without this protection, some areas would see very low percentage increases, or decreases, compared to their 2023/24 rates based on the pre-protection calculation.
For two-year-olds, no protection or gains cap have been applied in calculating the effective combined hourly funding rates, because all local authorities will see a substantial increase to their hourly funding rates.