Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the salaries of executives of academy schools earning more than £150,000 a year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Academy trusts must exercise effective control over the use of public funding. That is why the Department has taken sustained action over the last two years to ensure executive pay is proportionate and justifiable.
Academy trusts are free to set their own salaries. Therefore, our challenge, and the consideration of the justification of any high executive salaries, takes into account factors including: educational performance, financial performance, the strength of the trust’s governance and the number of pupils being educated by the trust.
To date, the Department has challenged 278 academy trusts, both those paying a salary over £150,000 and those paying two or more over £100,000. The names of all these trusts are available on GOV.UK, along with guidance on the setting of executive pay. Since the Department commenced the challenge, 51 trusts have reduced salaries.
Most recently, the Department has strengthened the criteria for next year’s Condition Improvement Fund, which will incentivise academies and trusts to improve finances and governance. Bids will be assessed on a points based criteria and applicants outside of London will get a four-point deduction (a one-point deduction for trusts and academies in the greater London area) if they pay one salary over £150,000 or two or more salaries in excess of £100,000 and have failed to take appropriate action in response to our high pay challenge.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many councils have reduced funding for educational support for visually impaired children in England in the last three years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Spending by local authorities on children and young people with additional needs is recorded in the local authority’s section 251 return. That does not break down spending by type of need, so we are unable to confirm the level of spending on visual impairment.
Since 2015-16, our high needs funding has risen from £5.2 billion to £6.3 billion. Next year, high needs funding will rise by £780 million to over £7 billion, with every local authority seeing a minimum funding increase of 8% per head of population aged 2 to 18 years old.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that universities investigate all complaints made by students and staff about racism at universities.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Racial harassment is unacceptable and we cannot tolerate staff and students being victims of it at our world-leading universities. There is no place in our society - including within higher education (HE) – for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism. Universities have clear responsibilities in this regard.
HE providers in England are independent and autonomous. They are responsible for addressing student complaints and for meeting their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. The government expects providers to discharge their responsibilities fully and have robust policies and procedures in place to handle student complaints, comply with the law and to investigate and swiftly address incidents reported to them.
Where a student complaint cannot be resolved through the institution’s complaint processes, the student can ask for their complaint to be reviewed by the Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for HE in England. As a result of the government‘s recent HE reforms, all HE providers on the HE Regulator’s register, the Office for Students (OfS), are required to join the OIA.
The government will continue to work closely with partners, including Universities UK and the OfS, to drive progress on matters of racial harassment in HE.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the (a) quantity and (b) quality of employment and training opportunities for SEND students over the age of 16.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice explicitly states that all children and young people with SEND, whether or not they have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, should be prepared for adulthood, including employment. We know that with the right preparation and support, the overwhelming majority of young people with SEND are capable of sustained paid employment. All professionals working with them should share that presumption and should provide the career advice and support that help young people to develop the skills and experience, and achieve the qualifications, that they need to succeed in their careers.
Work-based learning is available through personalised study programmes for all young people aged 16 to 19, or up to age 25 if the young person has an EHC plan. This includes:
However, we know there is more to do and that is why in September, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a cross-government review of provision for children and young people with SEND, to ensure that they are supported to thrive and prepare for adulthood, including employment.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support improved provision of services by local authorities for vulnerable children.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
All children, no matter where they live, should have access to the support they need to keep them safe, provide them with a stable and nurturing home, and overcome challenges to achieve their potential. That is why, at the Spending Round 2019, the government confirmed an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care in 2020-21. Overall, core spending power is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21, an estimated 4.3% real terms increase.
However, funding to local government is only part of the solution. We are also implementing an extensive programme of reforms designed to deliver improved outcomes for these children, young people and families. This includes investing £84 million over the next 5 years in targeted, evidence-based interventions to improve the support provided to vulnerable children and their families and enable more children to stay at home thriving in stable family environments. On top of this, we have committed nearly £270 million since 2014 to drive improvement and innovation in children’s social care.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whats steps the Government is taking to increase the proportion of students in pupil referral units achieving passes in GCSE (a) English and (b) Maths.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There are many reasons why children who attend alternative provision (AP) at Key Stage 4 may face challenges gaining good GCSE grades in English and maths. The Department is currently looking closely at what we need to do to ensure AP provides high quality education and the right support for these children that will enable them to succeed. The Department wants to be as ambitious for them as we are for all children and young people.
As part of this the Department has already launched a £4 million AP Innovation Fund which is delivering nine projects focused on testing ways to improve outcomes for children in AP.
The Department will build on the best practice that my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and I have seen on visits to schools like Everton Free School and London East Alternative Provision school in Tower Hamlets.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the adoption of children (a) from BAME backgrounds and (b) over the age of five.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The government has invested £645,000 to boost adoption recruitment during 2019-20. We have funded the sector through the National Adoption Recruitment Steering Group, which has run both the National Adoption Week campaign and wider recruitment projects to target potential adopters in their areas for the children they have waiting. This will include children from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and children over the age of 5. Part of this work has included work with churches and mosques to encourage adopters from a range of different backgrounds.
We are commissioning behavioural insights research to better understand the motivations and barriers for people who are interested in becoming foster carers or adopters. This piece of work is focused on wider recruitment but should give us insight into how we better engage adopters for children who are harder to place.
In addition, at a recent No 10 roundtable, I gave commitments that the department will be:
Exploring through the Adoption & Special Guardianship Leadership Board decision making at Local Authority level and reported barriers to BAME families becoming adopters;
Reviewing how we can improve support in schools and in particular how designated teachers for adopted children and Virtual School Heads can best support adopted BAME children;
Improving working with BAME stakeholders, to ensure their viewpoints are included in policy development and implementation;
Asking Regional Adoption Agencies to create a national BAME recruitment strategy in collaboration with key stakeholders such as the voluntary sector organisation Homes for Good; and
Considering how best to ensure all their frontline social workers understand the law and are supportive of BAME families coming forward to adopt.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whats steps the Government is taking to support children with disabilities (a) before and (b) after they are adopted.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Our ambition is for every child, no matter what challenges they face, to have access to a world-class education that sets them up for life. We introduced Education, Health and Care plans to provide personalised and tailored support for those children with more complex needs and have also announced £780 million additional funding in 2020-21, bringing the total funding for high needs to £7.2 billion.
All children who were adopted, including children with disabilities, are also entitled to access the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) which can pay for essential therapeutic services. The ASF aims to ensure that these families receive good, timely support. Adopted children also attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,300 per pupil for their schools, which can be used to support their educational outcomes.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of secondary school teachers that have taken on private tuition outside school in the last two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of secondary school children who receive private tuition.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally. The Department does not collect data on the receipt of private tuition by children.