Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure school children are provided with age-appropriate (a) discussions and (b) materials on gender self-identification.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Relationships and Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
It is for schools to make decisions about the content they teach and the materials they use when teaching RSHE. However, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been concerned to hear reports of inappropriate materials being used in schools and that contested topics are being taught as fact. This is why the department has brought forward the first review of the RSHE statutory guidance, including appointing an independent panel to provide expert advice on what is appropriate to be taught in RSHE and at what age. Details of the independent review panel are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/relationships-health-and-sex-education-independent-review.
In March 2023, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to schools to remind them that copyright law does not prevent them sharing external resources with parents. In October 2023, she wrote again to clarify that any contractual clause that prevents schools from sharing materials is void and unenforceable, and to provide practical advice on how to share materials with parents in a way that is in line with copyright legislation. The department will ensure that the updated guidance fully reflects this very clear position. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secretary-of-state-letter-to-schools-about-sharing-curriculum-resources-with-parents.
A draft of the amended guidance will be published for consultation, at the earliest opportunity, in the new year.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many youth apprenticeship starts there have been in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Under 19 apprenticeship starts in South Holland and the Deepings constituency can be found via the following links:
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with local authorities to reduce the time taken to adopt children in the care system.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is providing £19.5 million between 2022/2025 to regional adoption agencies to develop high-quality adoption services so that children waiting to be adopted can be placed with a loving family as quickly as possible. This includes £5 million dedicated to developing national matching activities that will help speed up the process of matching adopters with children. In addition, £1.5 million is being used for national campaigns to recruit the adopters needed who are willing to take the children who wait the longest to be adopted. The department has seen a decrease since 2020 in waiting times for those children who wait the longest. Those who wait 18 months since placement order have dropped from 390 in 2020 to 250 in 2023.
The full range of work is set out in the government’s national adoption strategy, ‘Achieving Excellence Everywhere’, which was published in 2021. The strategy can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adoption-strategy-achieving-excellence-everywhere.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to help adults with poor literacy skills.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department recognises the importance of good literacy skills, both in work and everyday life. That is why the department has taken steps to support adults to have the essential skills they need for life, work and further study, including literacy. Through our legal entitlement, the department provides the opportunity of fully funded study for adults who do not have essential literacy skills up to the equivalent of a GCSE grade 4/C or higher. In the 2021/22 academic year, around 239,000 learners participated in an English course funded through the entitlement. Further details can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-november-2022.
The department also supports all adults for whom English is not their first language to secure the English language skills they need. Adults are fully funded or co-funded to study English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses and qualifications up to and including GCSE 4/C equivalent. The number of learners participating in ESOL courses and qualifications continues to grow, with around 123,000 learners in the 2021/22 academic year and the department has already seen around 139,000 learners participate in the first three quarters of this academic year. Further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-november-2022.
The department also recognises that community learning within the adult education budget (AEB) can play a valuable role in helping individuals improve their English, particularly for learners where a qualification is not the most appropriate first step.
Currently 60% of the AEB has been devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities and delegated to the Mayor of London (working where appropriate through the Greater London Authority). These authorities are responsible for the provision of adult education and allocation of the AEB in their local areas, including funding of English and maths statutory entitlements. The Education and Skills Funding Agency is responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas where colleges and other training providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their AEB to best meet the needs of their communities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on reform of the Apprenticeship Levy to support training needs in the road haulage sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This department continues to work closely with the Department for Transport and across government to ensure that the road haulage sector has access to the skills training that employers need. This engagement has led to important improvements to apprenticeships and skills bootcamps. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not met with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss reform of the apprenticeship levy.
The apprenticeship levy has enabled the department to increase investment to a total of £2.7 billion by 2024/25, which will support apprenticeship starts across every sector, including road haulage. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education regularly reviews the funding for apprenticeship standards. The department has recently increased funding for the heavy goods vehicle service and maintenance technician apprenticeship standard by 33% (from £15,000 to £20,000), the large goods vehicle apprenticeship standard by 14% (£7,000 to £8,000) and the motor vehicle service technician apprenticeship standard by 7% (£15,000 to £16,000). These increases are supporting providers deliver essential training across the sector.
In response to supply issues for driver training and testing in the transport sector, the department also introduced temporary arrangements through the apprenticeship system, so that more providers could deliver training and testing for the acquisition of a driving license.
Skills bootcamps are also providing opportunities for people to train as drivers, gain their licenses and launch new careers in road haulage sector. The department has invested up to £32 million to create up to 11,000 HGV driver training places, with further funding being allocated to support this training offer in the 2023/24 financial year.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of truancy in secondary schools since 2020.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Improving attendance remains a top priority for the Department. The Department is implementing a comprehensive attendance strategy to ensure that absence is minimised, and rates are returned to pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible.
In 2022, the Department published stronger expectations of schools, trusts, governing bodies and Local Authorities in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance. This guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf. The Department now expects all schools to appoint a champion, and Local Authorities and schools are to agree individual plans for persistently absent children. The Department has expanded attendance hubs supporting 800 schools with over 400,000 pupils. To help identify children at risk of persistent absence and to enable early intervention, the Department established a timelier flow of pupil level attendance data through the daily attendance data collection. 86% of state funded schools are now signed up to this.
Across all phases, around 380,000 fewer pupils were persistently absent or not attending in 2022/23 than in 2021/22. Daily data for 2022/23 show school absence of 9.3% in secondary schools, down from 10.0% absent or not attending school for covid related reasons in 2021/22. Further absence data from the School Census is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many further education colleges reported anti-Semitic incidents in each year since 2013.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK unequivocally condemns the recent terrorist attacks by Hamas and stands in solidarity with Israel in its hour of need. Antisemitism has no place in our society.
The Department does not hold this information. Whilst the Department strongly encourages schools and colleges to record and report all kinds of bullying, there is not a legal requirement for schools and colleges to record and report incidents of bullying.
The Department has published guidance to support schools and colleges to monitor bullying incidents and evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying. The Government is committed to ensuring that all schools and colleges prepare children for life in modern Britain. Every school and college should actively promote the shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.
The Prime Minister has announced that £3 million of extra funding will be provided to the Community Security Trust to protect schools, colleges, nurseries and synagogues and other Jewish community buildings.
The Secretary of State and Ministers visited a Jewish school to show their support and wrote to school and college headteachers on 17 October to remind them of their relevant responsibilities, including the need to challenge intolerance and actively respond to discrimination, as well as outlining their duties under the Prevent programme. The Department’s Educate Against Hate website provides a range of resources and support to challenge discrimination and intolerance, and how to respond where you have concerns. This is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools reported anti-Semitic incidents in each year since 2013.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK unequivocally condemns the recent terrorist attacks by Hamas and stands in solidarity with Israel in its hour of need. Antisemitism has no place in our society.
The Department does not hold this information. Whilst the Department strongly encourages schools and colleges to record and report all kinds of bullying, there is not a legal requirement for schools and colleges to record and report incidents of bullying.
The Department has published guidance to support schools and colleges to monitor bullying incidents and evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying. The Government is committed to ensuring that all schools and colleges prepare children for life in modern Britain. Every school and college should actively promote the shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.
The Prime Minister has announced that £3 million of extra funding will be provided to the Community Security Trust to protect schools, colleges, nurseries and synagogues and other Jewish community buildings.
The Secretary of State and Ministers visited a Jewish school to show their support and wrote to school and college headteachers on 17 October to remind them of their relevant responsibilities, including the need to challenge intolerance and actively respond to discrimination, as well as outlining their duties under the Prevent programme. The Department’s Educate Against Hate website provides a range of resources and support to challenge discrimination and intolerance, and how to respond where you have concerns. This is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have been the subject of parental complaints about the teaching of religious and sexual education in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect data on how many subject related complaints are received across schools. Individual schools and trusts will be able to provide information about complaints they have received.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools reported anti-Semitic incidents in each year since 2013.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.