Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the findings in the Education Endowment Foundations report on the socio-economic attainment gap; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department welcomes the Education Endowment Foundation’s report and the contributions it has made to the Department’s understanding of key issues around pupil wellbeing and attainment following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extended restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many children and young people missed out on large amounts of face to face education.
Helping children recover from the consequences of the pandemic is a key priority. The Department has made almost £5 billion available for a comprehensive recovery package to support children and young people to make up for education lost during the pandemic.
The Department is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance, and targeted support for the early years sector to support child development and recovery from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.
The Department has funded the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), which improves the language skills of Reception age children following the pandemic. The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development, and is proven to help them make around three months of additional progress.
In February 2021, the Department announced a £22 million Accelerator Fund, which aims to scale up and spread effective literacy and numeracy programmes to ensure pupils have the best chance of catching up following the pandemic. The Department announced a £66 million extension to the fund for another 3 years. This will continue to develop and scale up the best-evidenced literacy and numeracy interventions.
In addition, the Department’s ongoing investment in English and mathematics curriculum hub programmes will support children to benefit from high quality teaching in early reading and maths respectively, including through phonics and Teaching for Mastery interventions.
This year, schools funding is £4 billion higher than last year and it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. This is an increase of over 15% in two years. These increases will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, including those who are disadvantaged.
Schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth over £2.6 billion this 2022/23 financial year, to enable them to provide extra support and improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of educational psychologist provision in (a) Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of educational psychologists.
The department does not collect data on the supply of educational psychologists at a constituency level. Data on the number of educational psychologists employed by local authorities is captured in our ‘School Workforce in England’ statistics, published in June 2022. This is available here: https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/9a34fd81-bbaa-46ca-b5d5-e24c67a15d4d/files/18a597bd-40da-436a-58d0-08da7ec3a78e.
In November 2022, the department announced that funding worth £21 million would go towards training 400 more educational psychologists. The first of these cohorts will graduate and join the workforce in 2026, to provide crucial support to children and young people, schools, families, and local authorities. This new funding, in place from 2024, builds on the £10 million announced earlier this year to train over 200 educational psychologists from September 2023.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of funding pressures on schools and their ability to deliver full-time education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Association of School and College Leader’s survey findings were published in October 2022. In November, the 2022 Autumn Statement announced additional investment in schools. As a result, the core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This year, schools' funding is already £4 billion higher than last year. The Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies have noted this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil. It will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment. This includes high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.
The Department recognises that every school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on school budgets of the Association of School and College Leaders October 2022 survey findings that (a) 58 per cent of respondents are considering/likely to reduce teaching staff and increase class sizes, (b) 43 per cent were considering reducing curriculum options and (c) 55 per cent were considering reducing the number of teaching assistants.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Association of School and College Leader’s survey findings were published in October 2022. In November, the 2022 Autumn Statement announced additional investment in schools. As a result, the core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This year, schools' funding is already £4 billion higher than last year. The Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies have noted this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil. It will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment. This includes high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.
The Department recognises that every school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timetable is for the publication of the School Sport and Activity Action Plan.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The update to the Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan will be published in due course to align with timing of the Government’s new sport strategy.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an estimate of the (a) sufficiency and (b) affordability of childcare provision in Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable at 1.3 million places since August 2015. The Ofsted data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022/main-findings-childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. At present, Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency, which is covered by Cheshire West local authority, are reporting that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. We continue to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and to encourage families to use government-funded support they are entitled to. The department collects data on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England, and fees data can be broken down to local authority level. Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency falls within Cheshire West local authority, where the latest data shows the average hourly fee band for childcare is £4.75 for 2-year-old children and £4.75 for 3 and 4-year-old children.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his timescale is for responding to his Department's consultation on Behaviour management strategies, in-school units and managed moves which closed on the 29 June 2021.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department used the responses from the call for evidence on behaviour management strategies, in-school units and managed moves, which was launched on 29 June 2021 and closed on 10 August 2021, to inform the updated Behaviour in Schools guidance and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance.
A public consultation on the updated Behaviour in Schools guidance and the Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance was launched on 3 February 2022 and closed on 31 March 2022. The updated Behaviour in Schools guidance, updated Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance and government response to the consultation were published on 13 July and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/revised-behaviour-in-schools-guidance-and-suspension-and-permanent-exclusions-guidance.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the early years funding rates are for (a) 2 year olds and (b) 3 to 4 year olds in each Local Authority in England
Answered by Will Quince
For the 2022/23 financial year, the department has increased the early years hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three- and four-year-old entitlement. Those rates, for each local authority, for two, three and four-year-olds, including a step-by-step guide, are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2022-to-2023.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what approach his Department plans to take to select local authorities for the family hubs transformation fund.
Answered by Will Quince
The department has launched a £12 million Family Hubs Transformation Fund (Transformation Fund 1) to support at least 12 local authorities in England to move to a family hub model of service delivery and open family hubs by March 2024. The application window closed in December 2021 and we received 84 bids from upper-tier local authorities. We expect a public announcement on the first wave of successful local authorities in the coming weeks, following a cross government assessment process to review the bids.
In October 2021, as part of the Autumn Budget, the government announced £301.75 million to transform Start for Life and Family Hub services in 75 upper-tier local authorities across England (Transformation Fund 2). The 75 eligible local authorities were announced on the 2 April 2022. Local authorities have been pre-selected in rank order using ‘Income Deprivation Affecting Children Indices – Average Rank’, ensuring a minimum of 25% of local authorities, from each rural urban classification, have been pre-selected. More information on this methodology can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-package-methodology-for-pre-selecting-local-authorities.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 3 February 2022 to Question 113149, what the timetable is for publishing the update to the School Sport and Activity Action Plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The department will publish the update to the School Sport and Activity Action Plan later this year to align with timing of the government’s new sport strategy. The plan will set out the actions that the government is taking to support schools to provide more opportunities for children and young people to take part in physical education (PE), sport and physical activity, in the context of the wider strategy.
The department is continuing to take action ahead of publishing the updated plan. The Girls Competitive Sport Your Time programme is for girls aged 8 to 16. It will give girls access to competitive sport opportunities, whilst also establishing new sports leadership roles. The Inclusion 2024 programme aims to increase and improve opportunities for young people with special educational needs and disabilities to engage and participate in PE and school sport.
The department is also taking forward delivery of its programmes to provide £30 million a year to improve the teaching of PE at primary school and open school facilities outside of the school day. On 11 May, the department published an invitation to tender to procure the services of a national delivery partner to support schools to open their facilities and provide greater access and opportunities for pupils to access extra-curricular sport and physical activity.