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 and what proportion of exclusions from school in South Holland and the Deepings constituency were of pupils with SEN, in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not hold figures on education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments requested or EHC plans put in place for students living in South Holland and the Deepings constituency. The department does hold figures on EHC plan workload at local authority level. The most recently published figures for Lincolnshire local authority can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
There were 3 permanent exclusions and 231 suspensions of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) from schools in South Holland and the Deepings parliamentary constituency during the 2019/20 academic year. 33% of permanent exclusions and 40% of suspensions in 2019/20 were of pupils with SEN. SEN includes pupils with and without EHC plans.
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 requests for Education and Health Care Plans were (a) requested by parents in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) signed off by Lincolnshire Council for students in the South Holland the Deepings constituency, in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not hold figures on education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments requested or EHC plans put in place for students living in South Holland and the Deepings constituency. The department does hold figures on EHC plan workload at local authority level. The most recently published figures for Lincolnshire local authority can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
There were 3 permanent exclusions and 231 suspensions of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) from schools in South Holland and the Deepings parliamentary constituency during the 2019/20 academic year. 33% of permanent exclusions and 40% of suspensions in 2019/20 were of pupils with SEN. SEN includes pupils with and without EHC plans.
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 his Department is taking to ensure that a daily act of worship is taking place in every maintained school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Every maintained school, academy and free school is required to ensure that collective worship takes place each day.
If the Department is informed that a school may be in breach of this requirement, it will be investigated. Where needed, the Department will remind schools of their duty on this matter and advise on how this can be met.
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 his Department is taking to ensure that schools commemorate and celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is currently considering ways in which it, and schools, can commemorate and celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Details of this will be available once decisions have been made and plans are in place.
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 his Department is taking to ensure that the curriculum for all school pupils includes (a) the work of William Shakespeare and (b) the full canon of English Literature.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage. It encourages pupils to read a range of books, poems, and plays to encourage the development of a life-long love of literature. Pupils should be taught to maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions.
The English National Curriculum applies to all state-maintained schools, but not academies or free schools. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum, including English. It is a statutory requirement that maintained schools follow the English Programmes of Study. Whilst these Programmes of Study do not set out specific reading lists at secondary level, they set out the following categories from which schools should choose texts.
At Key Stage 3, all pupils in maintained schools must study: English Literature, both pre-1914 and contemporary, including prose, poetry and drama; Shakespeare (two plays); and seminal world literature. We have also strengthened the Key Stage 4 English Programmes of Study to ensure all pupils read a wide range of high-quality, challenging, classic English Literature. There is a renewed focus on the reading of whole texts. At Key Stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools must study: at least one play by Shakespeare; works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries; and poetry since 1789, including Romantic poetry.
Exam boards will set out a range of choices within the following categories from which schools can select texts. Those taking a GCSE in English Literature, which is the majority of Key Stage 4 pupils, must study: at least one play by Shakespeare; at least one nineteenth-century novel; a selection of poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry; and fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards.
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 the Government is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships across a range of traditional craft skills broken down by craft.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have introduced new high-quality apprenticeship standards which are developed and designed by employers to meet the skills needs of their sectors. There are currently 600 high-quality standards available to employers and apprentices, at a range of levels and across a broad range of industries.
Groups of employers can propose apprenticeship standards for development to the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute), which will fall into one of 15 occupational routes for technical education, based on the Sainsbury Panel recommendations. We do not hold a definitive list of craft occupations but within the Creative and Design route, where occupations considered to be traditional crafts are likely to feature, apprenticeship standards include Bookbinder and Leather Craftsperson at level 2 and Bespoke Furniture at level 3. We continue to work closely with the Institute to ensure there are sufficient standards to meet employer demand. A full list of available standards can be found here: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/.
To help employers in all sectors offer new apprenticeships, they will be able to claim a higher payment of £3,000 for every new apprentice they hire between 1 April and 30 September 2021 as part of the government's Plan for Jobs. The increased payment makes it a great time for employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities and to take advantage of existing flexibilities to train apprentices in a way that suits their needs.
We are committed to supporting employers of all sizes to offer apprenticeships. In the 2021-22 financial year, we are making available £2.5 billion to support apprenticeships in all employers, irrespective of their size.
From 1 April 2021, all small to medium-sized enterprises arranging new apprenticeship starts will do so through the apprenticeship service, as levy payers do now. This will give them more control over their apprenticeship choices and the ability to reserve funds before choosing the provider that best meets their needs. We continue to work with smaller employers to give them the confidence and support to take on new apprentices.
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 plans he has to increase the number of apprenticeships offered in the funeral and death care sector.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Apprenticeships are jobs with high-quality training, created by employers, and we encourage businesses in all sectors, including the funeral and death care sector, to use apprenticeships to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need.
There are two high-quality, employer-designed, apprenticeship standards in the funeral and death care sector available for employers to use; the level 3 funeral director standard and the level 2 funeral team member standard. In 2019-20 academic year, there were 50 starts on the funeral director standard and 140 starts on the funeral team member standard. A level 3 mortuary technician standard and a level 5 embalmer standard are currently in development.
To help employers in all sectors offer new apprenticeships, they are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, and £1,500 for new apprentices aged 25 and over. These incentive payments were announced as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs in July 2020 and the extension of the scheme (to the end of March 2021) was announced in the November Spending Review.
We are committed to supporting employers of all sizes to offer apprenticeships. In the 2021-22 financial year, we are making available £2.5 billion to support apprenticeships in all employers, irrespective of their size.
We continue to work with smaller employers to give them the confidence and support to take on new apprentices. We are reforming the system so that unspent levy funds can be used more easily not just in big companies, but in the small and medium enterprises too.
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 assessment he has made of the effect of the imposition of covid-19 lockdown restrictions on disadvantaged pupils.
Answered by Vicky Ford
All children have had their education disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, but it is likely that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups will have been hardest hit. To address the impacts of COVID-19 disruption, we have launched a £650 million universal catch-up premium, and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for disadvantaged pupils. The NTP went live on 2 November 2020, and schools are now able to access tuition to support disadvantaged pupils that needed the most help to catch up.
Understanding the impact of COVID-19 disruption on attainment and progress is a key research priority for the government, and we have commissioned an independent research and assessment agency to consider catch up needs and monitor progress over the course of this academic year.
We know that access to mental health support has been more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak. To ensure that staff were equipped to support wellbeing as children and young people returned to schools and colleges, we have made it a central part of our guidance on the return to school. We have supported this with a range of training and materials, including webinars, which have been accessed by thousands of education staff and accelerating training on how to teach about mental health as part of the new Relationships, Sex and Health curriculum, so that all pupils can benefit from this long-term requirement.
To provide further support during the autumn and spring terms, the Department for Education has worked with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Education England, Public Health England, and key voluntary sector organisations, to launch Wellbeing for Education Return. This project, backed by £8 million, will train local experts to provide additional training, advice and resources to schools and colleges, to help support pupil and student wellbeing, resilience, and recovery. It will give staff the confidence to support pupils and students, their parents, carers, and their own colleagues, and know how and where to access appropriate specialist support where needed.
To increase support further in the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with DHSC and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.
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 he is taking to incentivise young people to enrol in non-university routes of higher education.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Higher and further education are different routes on the same journey to skilled employment and both should be valued. It is vital that a fair and open post-16 education system offers genuine opportunity and levelling up, with equity of technical and academic routes.
We will therefore be establishing a high-quality system of higher technical education where learners and employers can have confidence in high-quality courses that provide the skills they need to succeed, whether they are taught in a further education college, a university, or an independent training provider.
We have also introduced employer-designed T Levels, which will boost access to high-quality technical education for thousands of young people so they can progress to the next level, whether that is getting a job, going on to further study or an apprenticeship. The first three T Levels are now being taught in 44 providers across the country, with further courses being introduced in more providers over the next three years.
Apprenticeships are a high-quality path to a skilled career, and we have been making reforms to drive up the quality of apprenticeships. The transition to employer-designed apprenticeship standards is driving up quality and delivering the skills that employers need. There are now over 590 employer-designed standards across a broad range of industries and levels, including 138 standards at degree-level, providing people of all backgrounds with a choice of high-value technical training alongside traditional academic routes. Starts at higher levels (4 and above) increased by nearly 10% to 82,500 in 2019/20, compared to 75,100 in 2018/19. To encourage employers to take on new apprentices following the COVID-19 outbreak we have introduced new financial incentives for employers - an extra £2,000 for each apprentice under 25 and £1,500 for apprentices over 25.
We have been increasing investment in technical education including up to £500 million a year once fully rolled out for T Levels and, starting this year, £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) in the National Skills Fund to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind.
We are also investing £1.5 billion to upgrade the further education estate so that it has the buildings and facilities needed to deliver high quality technical education and we are planning to invest up to £290 million of capital funding to establish 20 Institutes of Technology. Every region in England will have access to one of these Institutes of Technology, which will be unique collaborations between further education colleges, universities and businesses offering higher technical education and training in key sectors such as digital, construction, advanced manufacturing, and engineering.
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 progress his Department has made in (a) reducing the number of young people going to university, (b) increasing the number and quality of apprenticeships and (c) redirecting funding from Russel Group universities to providers of technical education.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Higher and further education are different routes on the same journey to skilled employment and both should be valued. It is vital that a fair and open post-16 education system offers genuine opportunity and levelling up, with equity of technical and academic routes.
We will therefore be establishing a high-quality system of higher technical education where learners and employers can have confidence in high-quality courses that provide the skills they need to succeed, whether they are taught in a further education college, a university, or an independent training provider.
We have also introduced employer-designed T Levels, which will boost access to high-quality technical education for thousands of young people so they can progress to the next level, whether that is getting a job, going on to further study or an apprenticeship. The first three T Levels are now being taught in 44 providers across the country, with further courses being introduced in more providers over the next three years.
Apprenticeships are a high-quality path to a skilled career, and we have been making reforms to drive up the quality of apprenticeships. The transition to employer-designed apprenticeship standards is driving up quality and delivering the skills that employers need. There are now over 590 employer-designed standards across a broad range of industries and levels, including 138 standards at degree-level, providing people of all backgrounds with a choice of high-value technical training alongside traditional academic routes. Starts at higher levels (4 and above) increased by nearly 10% to 82,500 in 2019/20, compared to 75,100 in 2018/19. To encourage employers to take on new apprentices following the COVID-19 outbreak we have introduced new financial incentives for employers - an extra £2,000 for each apprentice under 25 and £1,500 for apprentices over 25.
We have been increasing investment in technical education including up to £500 million a year once fully rolled out for T Levels and, starting this year, £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) in the National Skills Fund to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind.
We are also investing £1.5 billion to upgrade the further education estate so that it has the buildings and facilities needed to deliver high quality technical education and we are planning to invest up to £290 million of capital funding to establish 20 Institutes of Technology. Every region in England will have access to one of these Institutes of Technology, which will be unique collaborations between further education colleges, universities and businesses offering higher technical education and training in key sectors such as digital, construction, advanced manufacturing, and engineering.