Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide help to missing children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In January 2014 the Department for Education published revised statutory guidance on children missing from home or care.[1] This sets out the steps that local authorities and their partners should take to prevent children going missing and to protect them when they do. The guidance is clear that within seventy hours of a missing child being found, the council should offer them an independent return interview to uncover information that will help protect children from:
[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria underlay his Department's decision that the Arts Council will in future be responsible for the funding of music in schools; and what criteria will be used to evaluate the outcome for schools of that decision.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Schools are responsible for providing music education to their pupils, using the funding they receive for curricula and extra-curricula provision. It is for schools to decide how to spend this, including on music.
In addition, we are providing £171 million to 123 new music education hubs across 2012-15 to provide core roles, such as ensuring that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument through whole-class ensemble teaching, and to progress from that, to sing, to play in ensembles, and to perform.
The hubs have been overseen by Arts Council England (ACE) on our behalf since they were set up in August 2012, and we have confirmed that ACE will continue to carry out this role until at least March 2016. Arrangements beyond this point will be subject to review.
The Department for Education is monitoring the performance of the hubs on an ongoing basis, through annually collected data and a new Hubs Advisory Group. In the first year of the music education hubs, nearly half a million children were given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument for the first time and hubs provided or supported 15,000 choirs, orchestras and bands. More than a third of those children who learned a musical instrument for the first time have continued learning to play.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide capital funding for sixth form colleges to enable them to provide free school meals to disadvantaged pupils.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are making available approximately £75 million revenue funding over the course of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 financial years to enable sixth-form and further education colleges to provide free meals to disadvantaged 16- to 18-year-old students.
We will publish advice on the funding and implementation of this policy shortly.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria were used to calculate the levels of area cost adjustment used for sixth form colleges in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Oxfordshire; and how frequently those criteria are reviewed.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Area cost adjustments for 16-19 education and training are based on the differing wage costs across England, as indicated by the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The same area cost index is used for sixth form colleges as for all other post-16 institutions in England that are funded by the Department for Education. It is also used for education and training for adults funded by the Skills Funding Agency.
The current area cost index was developed in 2002 by the Learning and Skills Council and has been reviewed on several occasions since then. Initially Cambridgeshire did not have an area cost adjustment, but in 2008 there was a specific review of the area cost adjustment for the county, which considered a range of factors and gave Cambridgeshire an uplift of 2% for the academic year 2009/10 and all years subsequently. The uplift for Oxfordshire is 7%.
The whole post-16 funding formula was reviewed in 2012, and we decided at that stage not to make any changes to area cost adjustments.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure long-term capital funding for sixth form colleges.
Answered by David Laws
The 2013 Spending Round confirmed the levels of capital funding that the Department for Education will receive between 2015 and 2021. This settlement will enable the Department to develop a long-term approach, allowing us to consider making allocations over a number of years, which would help schools, sixth-form colleges and their responsible bodies to plan with greater confidence.
I am clear that in future years our funding should be better targeted to where it is most needed, and it is for this reason that the Department is currently collecting up to date information on the condition of school buildings, including sixth-form colleges, through a comprehensive survey. This survey is due to be completed by the summer and it is our intention that the results will be used to inform the allocation of capital maintenance funding from 2015-16.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue to schools specific guidance on removing asbestos from premises.
Answered by David Laws
The guidance from the Health and Safety Executive is that, if asbestos is undamaged and unlikely to be disturbed, then it is usually safer to leave it in place and to manage it as required by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. If asbestos is found to be in an unsealed, damaged or poor condition, then it should be repaired, sealed, enclosed or removed using trained personnel. The Department for Education has no plans to issue school-specific guidance.