Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve (a) (i) basic and (ii) general literacy and (b) (A) times tables and (B) general numeracy rates.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The government knows that increases in mathematics and English skills also benefit family life, children’s development and education, civic participation, and have a positive impact on relationships between employees and employers.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18. This is chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE, an expert in education policy, including curriculum and social inequality. The review will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, and the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve. In particular, children who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, or with special educational needs or disabilities.
To support basic literacy from the early years, we are investing over £20 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme. This programme targets reception aged children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months of additional progress for those eligible for free school meals.
Additionally, programmes such as the English Hubs and Maths Hubs aim to improve the teaching of literacy and mathematics, as the department knows that the quality of teaching is the biggest educational factor in determining children’s outcomes. All eligible year 4 pupils in England are required to take the multiplication table check which is an on-screen assessment testing pupils' ability to fluently recall their knowledge of multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. 29% of eligible children scored full marks in 2023 and the average attainment score was 20.2 marks out of 25.
The department’s ‘essential skills’ legal entitlements funded through the adult skills fund provide the opportunity for fully funded study for eligible adults who do not have essential literacy and numeracy skills, up to and including Level 2.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that there are sufficient school places to meet demand in new housing developments in the countryside; and whether she is taking steps with the Secretary of State for Transport to ensure that there are sufficient buses to enable children in rural areas to travel to school.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for children in their area. The department engages with local authorities on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional primary and pre-16 secondary school places, and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department offers support and advice.
The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. Nearly £1.5 billion of allocations have been confirmed to support local authorities to create school places needed over the current and next two academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026.
Developer contributions are also an important way of helping to meet demand for new school places when housing developments are increasing pupil numbers. It is for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to secure developer contributions through section 106 agreements or through the Community Infrastructure Levy, and to decide on the local infrastructure needs that this contribution should support. The department would encourage LPAs to secure significant contributions for new school places and to work closely with colleagues planning school places in their area, including county councils when the local authority responsible for education is not the LPA.
Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities and provide access to schools and other services. This government has set out an action plan to deliver better bus services and drive opportunity across the country-served regions. The government will introduce the Buses Bill to put the power over local bus services in the hands of local leaders to ensure networks can meet the needs of the communities who rely on them.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on improving the support to young carers in schools.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to helping children and young people, including young carers, thrive and wants the best for every child and family. This department, the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England work closely together, along with other government departments and key stakeholders, to ensure support is provided for young carers across all aspects of their wellbeing, education and development and are currently giving careful consideration to the recently published report by the Carer’s Trust: ‘Caring and classes: the education gap for young carers’. This report can be accessed here: https://carers.org/downloads/young-carers-in-education-reportfinal.pdf.
Young carers as a specific group within the education system were added to the school census in the 2022/23 academic year. Ofsted has committed to developing and consulting upon a revised schools’ inspection framework for September 2025. This will support the new school report card, which will also be in place from that time. A consultation on the framework and report card is scheduled to launch early in the new year.
The department and Ofsted are engaging closely to take this forward and will consider how schools are to be assessed in the future in terms of their contribution to inclusion, bearing in mind the government’s mission to ensure that all children, including young carers, can achieve and thrive at school.
The Children’s Social Care National Framework, issued in December 2023, is statutory guidance for local authorities. It provides clarity on the outcomes that leaders and practitioners should achieve when supporting children, young people, and families, including young carers. Safeguarding partners, and other relevant agencies including education, should read and engage with the National Framework as they have an important role in supporting positive outcomes and improving access to opportunities.
The department is clear that everyone working within children’s social care should use the National Framework to understand how they can improve the outcomes and breakdown barriers for opportunity for children, young people, and families. Specific expectations have been included in the framework for practice for senior leaders, practice supervisors and practitioners to draw on the range of expertise from virtual school heads, designated safeguarding leads or designated teachers when providing help to children, young people and families, including young carers.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve support to young carers in schools.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to helping children and young people, including young carers, thrive and wants the best for every child and family. This department, the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England work closely together, along with other government departments and key stakeholders, to ensure support is provided for young carers across all aspects of their wellbeing, education and development and are currently giving careful consideration to the recently published report by the Carer’s Trust: ‘Caring and classes: the education gap for young carers’. This report can be accessed here: https://carers.org/downloads/young-carers-in-education-reportfinal.pdf.
Young carers as a specific group within the education system were added to the school census in the 2022/23 academic year. Ofsted has committed to developing and consulting upon a revised schools’ inspection framework for September 2025. This will support the new school report card, which will also be in place from that time. A consultation on the framework and report card is scheduled to launch early in the new year.
The department and Ofsted are engaging closely to take this forward and will consider how schools are to be assessed in the future in terms of their contribution to inclusion, bearing in mind the government’s mission to ensure that all children, including young carers, can achieve and thrive at school.
The Children’s Social Care National Framework, issued in December 2023, is statutory guidance for local authorities. It provides clarity on the outcomes that leaders and practitioners should achieve when supporting children, young people, and families, including young carers. Safeguarding partners, and other relevant agencies including education, should read and engage with the National Framework as they have an important role in supporting positive outcomes and improving access to opportunities.
The department is clear that everyone working within children’s social care should use the National Framework to understand how they can improve the outcomes and breakdown barriers for opportunity for children, young people, and families. Specific expectations have been included in the framework for practice for senior leaders, practice supervisors and practitioners to draw on the range of expertise from virtual school heads, designated safeguarding leads or designated teachers when providing help to children, young people and families, including young carers.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on private schools on state schools in Kent.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In line with research from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, the government does not anticipate the ending of the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy to prompt notable movement into the state sector, and any movement is expected to take place over several years. This research can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
The department collects pupil forecasts and school capacity data from local authorities annually through the school capacity survey and this data shows that in May 2023, 11.7% of primary capacity and 11.5% of secondary capacity was unfilled nationally, meaning school places are available in many parts of the country. The department will monitor demand and capacity using its normal processes and continue to work with local authorities to meet any pressures.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to ensure sufficient school places in Kent; and what support she plans to provide to help children in (a) towns and (b) rural areas get to and from school by public transport.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government wants to ensure all children have fair access to a school place, where they can achieve and thrive.
Kent County Council is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places for children in Kent. The department engages with local authorities, including Kent County Council, on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional primary and pre-16 secondary school places, and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department offers support and advice.
The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide the needed mainstream school places for year groups from reception to year 11, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. Kent will receive just over £134 million to support the provision of new school places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just over £462 million. Local authorities’ allocations are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations.
Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities and provide access to schools and other services. This government has set out an action plan to deliver better bus services, grow passenger numbers and drive opportunity to under-served regions. As announced in the King’s Speech, the government will introduce the Buses Bill to put the power over local bus services in the hands of local leaders to ensure networks can meet the needs of the communities who rely on them. The government also plans to empower local transport authorities by reforming bus funding to give local leaders more control and flexibility over their funding so they can plan ahead to deliver their local transport priorities.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to fund improvements to academy school buildings which are not fit for purpose.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring schools have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of the department’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The department remains committed to improving the condition of the school estate and to the continuing School Rebuilding Programme as part of that.
Responsibility for keeping buildings safe and well-maintained lies with schools and their responsible bodies, such as academy trusts and local authorities. The department supports them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support.
The department has allocated £1.8 billion in capital funding for the 2024/25 financial year to improve the condition of the estate, which is informed by consistent data on the condition of buildings. This included a capital allocation for large multi-academy trusts, large voluntary aided bodies and local authorities. Small and stand-alone academy trusts were able to apply to the Condition Improvement Fund for specific projects. Academies and other schools also received their own allocation to support small capital projects to improve facilities. Allocations and the outcome of the Condition Improvement Fund are published on GOV.UK.
The department is also fixing the problem of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) as quickly as possible, permanently removing RAAC either through grant funding or rebuilding.
All future decisions on spending plans, including for capital funding, remain subject to the Spending Review and further details will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the next steps are for schools which have been approved for funding under the Rebuilding Schools programme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All the schools selected for the School Rebuilding Programme have been notified of indicative start dates and are either in delivery or ensuring they are prepared for when they do start delivery.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children are unaccompanied asylum seeking children in each local authority area.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The latest information on the number of looked-after children who were unaccompanied asylum seeking children, by local authority, can be found in table LAA4 of the statistical release ‘Children Looked-After in England: Including Adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018. These figures show the numbers at 31 March 2018.
The available population estimates for the number of children in each local authority are mid-year estimates published by the Office for National Statistics and these are reproduced in the underlying data that accompany this release.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures her Department has in place to support those of its staff who have mental health problems.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Education has an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan, which is updated annually. The plan includes a section on support for people with mental health problems, and to help people to manage staff with mental health problems.
Support provided includes mental health awareness training and an employee assistance service which staff can call at any time to obtain confidential support and advice.
In September 2014, the Permanent Secretary signed the Time to Change pledge to affirm the Department’s commitment to ending stigma about mental health. The Department also has an active Wellbeing network, with over 100 members, which has promoted events to raise awareness of mental health issues.
In early 2017, mental health first aiders will be available in each of the Department’s buildings and will receive training to help them recognise the signs and symptoms of mental health problems and offer appropriate support. They will also act as a source of advice and help for staff.