Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to help ensure that adults in (a) Stoke-on-Trent, (b) Kidsgrove and (c) Talke can access education throughout their lives.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The government appreciates the importance of adult education to improving people’s life chances across all areas of the country.
To better equip people to use digital tools and to adapt to the social distancing measures of COVID-19 the government launched The Skills Toolkit in April 2020. This offers a wide-range of digital and numeracy courses for all skills levels.
Starting this Parliament, we are providing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations), for the National Skills Fund to help adults learn valuable skills and prepare for the economy of the future. We are continuing to engage closely with local areas and stakeholders and remain committed to consulting on aspects of the fund, to ensure that we develop a fund that helps adults learn valuable skills and prepare for the future economy.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, recently announced that for adults over the age of 23, who do not currently have a level 3 qualification, the government will be funding their first full level 3 through the National Skills Fund. We will target this level 3 entitlement at areas with economic value and the strongest alignment with government priorities, to ensure the best possible returns for individuals, employers and the nation.
The Prime Minister, also announced the launch of digital bootcamps, in 6 areas, to support local regions and employers to fill in-demand vacancies. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills, based on employer demand, and will offer a fast track to a job interview on completion. Pending the success of the initial bootcamps, we are planning to expand the bootcamps to more of the country from Spring 2021 and we want to extend this model to include other technical skills training.
We are also continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) (£1.34 billion in 2020/21). The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above, from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. This includes: fully funded courses in English and Mathematics (for adults who need to improve their literacy and numeracy), fully funded first full level 2 and level 3 for learners aged between 19 and 23 and fully funded specified digital skills qualifications for adults with no/low digital skills.
The AEB enables more flexible and tailored programmes of learning to be made available, which may or may not require a qualification, to help eligible learners engage in learning, build confidence and enhance their wellbeing.
We are looking carefully at further education funding in preparation for the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking the help ensure that universities can deliver safe (a) teaching and (b) student services during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The safety and wellbeing of staff and students in higher education (HE) is always our priority. The government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our HE providers in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.
We have drawn on the expertise of the HE taskforce that we set up, and we have been providing robust public health advice and regular updates to the HE sector to help providers to plan carefully to keep students and staff as safe as possible.
We have also updated our guidance for providers on reopening campuses, which provides advice on teaching, accommodation and services to students. Our guidance takes account of the latest scientific advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which has been considering the risks of re-opening HE providers. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses. As with all of our education settings, we continue to monitor the situation closely and follow the latest scientific advice, adapting policies as the situation changes.
We have worked with universities to ensure that they all have response plans for the COVID-19 outbreak. These have been or are being agreed with local Directors of Public Health. The plans cover a range of scenarios and ensure that providers are prepared to respond quickly to an outbreak in their university or wider community.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the importance of ensuring school uniform retailers maintain year-round availability of uniform to pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is for the governing body of a school (or in the case of academies, the academy trust) to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and what it should be.
To support them to do this, the Department has issued best practice guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform. This makes clear that high priority must be given to cost considerations.
Governing bodies should be able to demonstrate that they have obtained the best value for money from suppliers. Governing bodies should also consider the available supply sources and year round availability of the proposed uniform.
The Government supports the recently introduced Private Members’ Bill to ‘Make provision for guidance about the cost aspects of school uniform policies’, which will place a duty on the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance pertaining to cost aspects of school uniform policies.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the importance of maintaining school autonomy when developing policy on school uniform.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is for the governing body of a school (or in the case of academies, the academy trust) to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and what it should be.
To support them to do this, the Department has issued best practice guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform. This makes clear that high priority must be given to cost considerations.
Governing bodies should be able to demonstrate that they have obtained the best value for money from suppliers. Governing bodies should also consider the available supply sources and year round availability of the proposed uniform.
The Government supports the recently introduced Private Members’ Bill to ‘Make provision for guidance about the cost aspects of school uniform policies’, which will place a duty on the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance pertaining to cost aspects of school uniform policies.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) quality, (b) sustainability and (c) cost considerations are prioritised in school uniform policy.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is for the governing body of a school (or in the case of academies, the academy trust) to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and what it should be.
To support them to do this, the Department has issued best practice guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform. This makes clear that high priority must be given to cost considerations.
Governing bodies should be able to demonstrate that they have obtained the best value for money from suppliers. Governing bodies should also consider the available supply sources and year round availability of the proposed uniform.
The Government supports the recently introduced Private Members’ Bill to ‘Make provision for guidance about the cost aspects of school uniform policies’, which will place a duty on the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance pertaining to cost aspects of school uniform policies.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help support universities increase the number of places available to students in the forthcoming academic year.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
I have written directly to all Vice Chancellors and have set up a Higher Education Taskforce so the government can work with the sector to build capacity, harness expert views, tackle challenges and ensure that the vast majority of students who want to go to university this year can do so. Together we have agreed that all students who achieved the required grades will be offered a place at their first-choice university, wherever possible.
The government has already taken a number of steps to support universities and students to achieve this goal.
The department has announced that, subject to parliamentary approval, we will completely remove temporary student number controls to help ensure there are no additional barriers to students being able to progress.
We have lifted caps on domestic medicine and dentistry courses in the next academic year and we are supporting providers to offer places to as many students who have met the grades for their current offer as they have physical capacity for and, where there are clinical placements available, through additional grant funding to support the costs of this provision. Health Education England and the Office for Students (OfS) will be contacting all medical and dental schools to discuss their capacity to take on additional students in the 2020/21 academic year.
Additional teaching grant funding will also be provided to increase capacity in medical, nursing, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and other high-cost subjects which are vital to the country’s social needs and economy. All high-cost subjects, which already receive additional funding from the OfS, will potentially see further increases where there is an unexpectedly high distribution of students. The OfS will consult the sector on the details of how the allocations are made.
We are also working across government and with the sector to consider options that we could make available to students so that, if they defer their place, they have a full and varied range of career enriching opportunities to develop their skillset and support their future development.
We will continue to monitor the situation and consider the effects that deferrals will have on future years. Funding decisions for future years will be taken at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to close the attainment gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from more affluent areas.
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 and initial analysis suggests that the attainment gap has widened. The government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools which is available here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/#nav-covid-19-support-guide-for-schools1.
The guidance includes evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students and a further school planning guide for 2020-21, which is available here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/guide-to-supporting-schools-planning/.
Alongside this universal grant, a National Tutoring Programme worth £350 million will deliver proven, successful interventions to the most disadvantaged young people. Research shows high-quality individual and small group tuition can add up to 5 months of progress for disadvantaged pupils.
Schools will continue to receive the pupil premium every quarter. Each school’s original pupil premium strategy may have not been met since March and the pupils’ needs may have changed or intensified. We recommend that, as part of the planning for needs-based universal catch up, school leaders review their pupil premium strategy and amend it to reflect the new situation from September.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that no child misses time in education this year as a result of local lockdowns.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is the Government’s intention that all pupils, in all year groups, return to school full time for the autumn term. On 2 July, the Department published guidance to support schools to do this. While our aim is to have all pupils back at school in the autumn, every school will need to plan for the possibility of a local lockdown and how they will ensure continuity of education.
In local areas where restrictions have been implemented (from national direction), we anticipate that education and childcare will usually remain fully open to all. There may be exceptional circumstances in which some level of restriction to education or childcare is required in a local area. In those situations, local and national partners will carefully consider which tier of restriction, as set out in the Department of Health and Social Care’s Contain Framework, is the most appropriate to implement. The framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers#annex-3-tiers-of-national-restriction.
The aim will be to retain as much face to face education and access to childcare as possible. These tiers of restriction will ensure that extensive limitations on education and childcare are a last resort, and that full time onsite provision is available for vulnerable children and children of critical workers in all cases.
Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to consider how to continue to improve the quality of their existing offer and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the end of September. Further information to support schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support young people into (a) apprenticeships and (b) training during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Apprenticeships are a great way for young people to start their careers, giving them the opportunity to earn while they learn, and will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow, both now and in the long-term. Through our ‘Plan for Jobs’ a total of £1.6 billion is to be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships, with a particular focus on young people.
We recognise that employers of all sizes currently face significant challenges. To help support employers to offer apprenticeships to young people, employers are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, in recognition of the particular impacts of Covid-19 on the employment prospects of this group. This is in addition to the existing £1,000 payment we already provide for new 16-18-year-old apprentices and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
We are also making an additional £111 million available to triple the scale of traineeships in 2020-21, and have extended eligibility to include young people with level 3 qualifications, to ensure more young people have access to high-quality training. We have also announced £101 million for a brand new offer to give 18 and 19-year-old school and college leavers the opportunity to study high value Level 2 and 3 courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department is providing to universities to help mitigate financial pressures as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government has announced a package of measures which combines different ways to give further support to providers at this time of financial pressure. We have pulled forward an estimated £2.6 billion worth of forecast tuition fee payments to ease cashflow pressure this autumn. We are also bringing forward quality-related research funding for higher education providers in England in the current academic year by £100 million.
This is on top of the unprecedented package of support for businesses already announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and a range of business loan schemes, to help pay wages, keep staff employed and support businesses whose viability is threatened by the COVID-19 outbreak. We have confirmed higher education providers’ eligibility to apply for these schemes.
The government has also announced a further package of support to universities and other research organisations to enable them to continue their research and innovation activities. This includes £280 million of government funding, as well as a package of low-interest loans with long pay-back periods, supplemented by a small amount of government grants. In sharing responsibility for the future of science and research with our world-leading university system, from the autumn, the government will cover up to 80% of a university’s income losses from international students for the academic year 2020-21, up to the value of their non-publicly-funded research activity.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced further information about the Higher Education Restructuring Regime on 16 July. This may be deployed as a last resort, if a decision has been made to support a provider in England, when other steps to preserve a provider’s viability and mitigate the risks of financial failure have not proved sufficient.
The overarching objectives which will guide the department’s assessment of cases will be protecting the welfare of current students, preserving the sector’s internationally outstanding science base and supporting the role that higher education providers play in regional and local economies through providing high quality courses aligned with economic and societal needs.
We will consider providers’ circumstances on a case-by-case basis, supported by expert advice, to ensure there is a robust value-for-money case for intervention, with support for restructuring in the form of repayable loans coming from public funds as a last resort and with strict conditions that align with wider government objectives.
We are working closely with the sector, the Office for Students (OfS) and across the government to understand the financial risks that providers are facing, and help providers access the support on offer. The OfS stated that one of its key priorities during the outbreak is to support the financial sustainability of the sector.
Providers with concerns about their financial viability or sustainability have been encouraged to contact the OfS at the earliest opportunity. Considering the outbreak, the OfS has enhanced its financial sustainability reporting to identify sector and short-term viability risks to individual providers, as well as patterns across the sector.