Asked by: Jodie Gosling (Labour - Nuneaton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase funding for skills-based education in Nuneaton constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to offering skills training to learners to help them acquire the necessary skills for employment or further training. The Adult Skills Fund (ASF), previously the Adult Education Budget (AEB), is worth £1.34 billion this academic year and fully funds or co-funds education and skills training for eligible adults aged 19 and over.
In 2024/25, as part of the AEB transition to the ASF, the department introduced five new funding rates, which has seen 78% of qualifications funded through the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
The department is investing in level 3 learning via the ‘free courses for jobs’ offer, which allows eligible learners to access a high value level 3 qualification for free. An additional funding uplift is paid by the department, at two different rates, for providers that offer a wide range of sector subjects.
The total ASF allocation for a provider in the Nuneaton constituency for the 2024/25 academic year is approximately £4.6 million. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2024-to-2025.
Over £7.5 billion in 16 to 19 programme funding will be invested during the 2024/25 academic year as part of the department’s drive for all young people to access high quality education and training that meets their needs and helps them to thrive. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced at Budget a further boost of £300 million in the 2025/26 financial year for further education (FE) to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed and a further £300 million to support colleges to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estate.
Information on 16 to 19 funding allocations received by institutions in Nuneaton is available in the published allocations, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/funding-education-for-16-to-19-year-olds#published-allocations.
For the 2023/24 academic year, 16 to 19 funded institutions in the Nuneaton constituency were allocated £31.23 million in 16 to 19 funding. This includes high needs student funding, student support funding and funding for the FE teachers pension scheme employer contribution grant. For the 2024/25 academic year, they received £33.96 million. This is an increase of £2.73 million, or 8.7%.
Asked by: Jodie Gosling (Labour - Nuneaton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) ensuring that academy schools publish full SEND information reports and (b) sanctioning schools that do not.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Maintained and Academy schools are required to publish special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) information reports according to the Children and Families Act 2014, s69. The specific information required is set out in the SEND regulations 2014 and the SEND code of practice, which can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/part/3 and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.
The department welcomes the publication of the response to the Big Listen, which stated that Ofsted will consult on introducing a new inspection judgement area for inclusion across education settings. The department will continue to work with Ofsted to consider how outcomes for children and young people with SEND, or in alternative provision, are better reflected in the Education Inspection and the Area SEND inspection frameworks.
Asked by: Jodie Gosling (Labour - Nuneaton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision services in Nuneaton constituency; and what steps she is taking to work with local authorities in Nuneaton to improve SEND provision.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Following the last Ofsted inspection, departmental officials have been working with Warwickshire County Council to closely monitor progress against the areas for improvement identified by inspectors.
The areas were:
(i) Autism spectrum disorder waiting times, assessments and support following diagnosis.
(ii) Co-production.
(iii) Placement of children and young people with an education, health and care plan.
(iv) Uptake of training for school staff working with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
(v) And the quality of the online local offer.
The department has appointed a SEND advisor to support and work alongside Warwickshire County Council and the local area partnership.
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with local area partnerships to improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Jodie Gosling (Labour - Nuneaton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real-terms funding per pupil in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Nuneaton constituency has been in each financial year since 2010.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities receive their core funding for schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). Local authorities are then responsible for designing a local formula, within certain parameters, to distribute the funding that they receive from the department to schools in their area. This local formula is used to determine funding for both the maintained schools and academies in each area.
As the DSG is allocated at local authority level DSG allocations are not available broken down to the level of individual constituencies. The individual allocations that schools within Nuneaton constituency receive are determined, each year, by the local funding formula set by Warwickshire local authority.
The table below provides the per pupil funding units from the 2018/19 academic year to the 2024/25 academic year for Warwickshire local authority. The department cannot provide comparable funding data back to 2010, due to the changes in the funding system since that time. In particular, funding for schools was only identified separately from funding for high needs or early years in 2013, and funding for central school services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in the 2018/2019 academic year.
The figures below represent the core funding schools receive through the schools block of the DSG. All the figures in the table exclude growth and premises funding. They also do not include additional funding that schools have received for pay and pensions, or other funding streams such as the pupil premium.
DSG Schools Block Per Pupil Funding: Warwickshire Local Authority | ||
Year | Primary per pupil funding | Secondary per pupil funding |
2018/19 | £3,764 | £4,924 |
2019/20 | £3,828 | £4,958 |
2020/21 | £4,050 | £5,139 |
2021/22 | £4,395 | £5,574 |
2022/23 | £4,516 | £5,737 |
2023/24 | £4,729 | £6,046 |
2024/25 | £4,992 | £6,365 |