Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of schools (a) educating pupils on organ donation and (b) using resources produced by NHS Blood and Transplant.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Schools have flexibility over how they deliver the curriculum and cover important topics within it in a way that works for their context and communities. The department does not have data on how and whether schools are teaching about organ donation, but there are plenty of opportunities within the national curriculum for them to do so.
The teaching of blood, tissue and organs is covered in the biology national curriculum to pupils in England between the ages of 11 and 14 in key stage 3. While organ donation is not specifically mentioned in the national curriculum, schools may choose to cover it here.
At primary level, schools can talk about organ donation more generally in an age-appropriate way as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which includes content on physical health and mental wellbeing. The Oak National Academy, an arm's length public body responsible for creating free curriculum resources, has produced a lesson that can be taught to pupils between the ages of 7 and 11 in key stage 2. This includes a section on organs, the transplant waiting list and relevant legislation.
Organ donation can be covered in more detail in RSHE for pupils aged 14 to 16 in key stage 4 within the context of healthy lifestyles and the choices that individuals make in adulthood.
Departmental officials are working with NHS Blood and Transplant to arrange to signpost schools to education resources on organ donation developed by NHS Blood and Transplant and its charity partners.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to convene a network of excellence for shipbuilding training providers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has convened the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce to explore the industry’s skills needs and make recommendations for how to resolve shortages. The Taskforce brings together a wealth of expertise. It is Chaired by the Hon. Captain Dr Paul Little, and its membership includes individuals from defence, leisure, commercial and workboat building, as well as trade unions, academics and educators.
The Taskforce has been working at pace since it first met in July 2022 and is currently drafting an independent report that will set out its recommendations. It plans to publish this in autumn. My right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Defence, both met with the Taskforce in February to launch National Apprenticeships Week and discuss progress in identifying these recommendations. I also attended the Shipbuilding Inter-Ministerial Group meeting in April where I shared progress that had been made by the Taskforce to prioritise the most impactful recommendations.
One of the Taskforce’s recommendations is expected to call on the department to establish a network of excellence for shipbuilding training providers. The Taskforce has identified examples of best practice in shipbuilding skills provision, such as South Devon College and City of Glasgow College. It is considering how to encourage more providers to reach this standard.
To ensure its proposals are supported by wider industry, the Taskforce is currently testing its recommendations with stakeholders, including employers, industry bodies, and representatives of sectors with similar skills requirements.
The Taskforce’s report will be independent, and the department will collaborate across Whitehall and the devolved governments to consider its recommendations and develop a response. We recognise the expertise and world-leading practice that exists in institutions across the UK and are delighted that the Taskforce has highlighted this.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the financial impact of the Student Loans Company's decision to change the overseas earnings thresholds for Poland for Plan 2 student loans from £16,380 in 2022-23 to £10,920 in 2023-24 on students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The repayment of student loans is governed by the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 (as amended) (the Regulations). The department calculates the overseas student loan repayment thresholds on behalf of the Student Loans Company, based on the cost of living of different countries relative to the UK. Countries are grouped in 'bands' with different levels of higher or lower costs of living, compared to the UK.
The Regulations set out the specific data and methodological approach to be used to determine the bandings repayment thresholds of different countries. Bandings are based on price level index (PLI) data published by the World Bank. The PLI is the average price of a given class of goods and services in a given region during a given period of time and is used as a proxy measure for the cost of living. Using a recognised measure of the relative cost of living in different countries ensures that borrowers residing in different countries are assessed in a fair, transparent and consistent way.
Bandings are reviewed annually based on the latest published PLI data. This means a country’s banding may change as a consequence of macroeconomic changes. The World Bank data shows that for the last few years, the PLI for Poland has been declining gradually, relative to the UK. At the last annual review, this caused Poland to move to a different band, which in turn resulted in a reduction in the repayment threshold for borrowers residing in Poland.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of making elements of the national curriculum relating to organ donation compulsory; and of extending those requirements to primary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The science National Curriculum allows opportunities to teach about organ donation and schools can choose to cover this topic through the biology curriculum at Key Stage 4. The National Curriculum is compulsory for Local Authority maintained schools and is often used as a benchmark for academies.
Whilst organ donation is not a compulsory subject at primary level, schools can talk about it more generally, in an age appropriate way, as part of the statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which includes content on physical health and mental wellbeing.
As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver important topics and should use their autonomy and local community knowledge to do this.
The Department is reviewing the content of the RSHE statutory guidance, looking at areas of the guidance that need to be strengthened and will consult publicly over proposals, with a view to publishing revised statutory guidance in 2024.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many bursaries have been awarded under the Troops to Teachers scheme since January 2022.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since January 2022, four trainees have been awarded a bursary under the Troops to Teachers undergraduate bursary scheme.
Veterans who have a degree are able to undertake postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) courses, where they can access bursaries and scholarships of up to £29,000 available on these routes into teaching.
The Department is committed to further promoting opportunities for service leavers to get into teaching. Many veterans utilise these services to support service leavers into ITT each year. As part of the cross government Veterans Action Plan, the Department has committed to increase collaboration with the Ministry of Defence to promote opportunities for service leavers to get into teaching, increasing signposting, events, and communications tailored to veterans. The Department also encourages them to take up services such as ‘Get School Experience’ and the Teacher Training Adviser service to help them towards a career in teaching.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to reintroduce the bursary for religious education teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The bursaries the Department provides for initial teacher training (ITT) are intended to incentivise applications to ITT courses. The Department reviews the bursaries available each year to take account of factors including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. This provides flexibility to respond to the need to attract new teachers, and means the Department is spending money where it is needed most.
In the 2020/21 academic year, the Department exceeded the postgraduate ITT target for RE (129%), whilst in the 2021/22 academic year, the equivalent target was narrowly missed (99%). The Department will review the need for bursaries across all subjects before announcing what will be available for the 2024/25 academic year.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress his Department has made on the establishment of the Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy refresh publication on the 10 March 2022, it was announced that the Department for Education would lead the establishment of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce.
The department has made good progress in establishing the Taskforce, in collaboration with the National Shipbuilding Office and colleagues from the devolved administrations. The Taskforce membership, announced in May, has UK wide representation, including both small and medium-sized enterprises and larger organisations, academia and trade representative bodies. Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-shipbuilding-skills-taskforce-membership-confirmed.
The Taskforce will be Chaired by Honorary Captain Dr Paul Little, Principal and Chief Executive of City of Glasgow College. The first meeting and official launch of the Taskforce will be on 7 July.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many members of the Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce were also members of the Maritime Enterprise Working Group.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There are twenty-one members of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, three of whom were also part of the Maritime Enterprise Working Group. The lead for the skills work of the Working Group from BMT MarRI-UK is a member of the Taskforce, as well as representatives from Babcock International Group and UKNEST who were also members of the Maritime Enterprise Working Group. This will ensure that the reports and conclusions of the Working Group will be considered in the work of the Taskforce.
There are other members on the Taskforce representing the same organisations that were represented on the Working Group such as BAE Systems, Cammell Laird and A&P Group, the Royal Navy and the University of Strathclyde. The Taskforce also has members who represent organisations which were not part of the Working Group and so will bring different views and experience.
To ensure the Taskforce is connected to existing stakeholder groups working on shipbuilding, the Chair of the Taskforce will join the Maritime Skills Commission and the Shipbuilding Enterprise for Growth so that the work of these groups is aligned.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil servants are assigned to administer the Troops for Teachers scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The administration of Troops to Teachers undergraduate bursaries is undertaken by the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) funding team, alongside other ITT funding. In academic year 2021/22 the team is administering funding for approximately 6,000 trainees in total. The ITT Funding team consists of 6 full-time equivalent staff members and the administration of this funding is undertaken collectively. No civil servants are working solely on administration of the Troops to Teachers scheme.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have completed initial teacher training through the Troops to Teachers scheme since January 2021.
Answered by Robin Walker
Since January 2021, one trainee has been awarded a bursary under the Troops to Teachers undergraduate bursary scheme. As they commenced their course in the 2021/22 academic year, the bursary will be paid in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.
A further two trainees were in receipt of the bursary in the 2020/21 academic year, with one of these trainees receiving the remainder of their bursary in the 2021/22 academic year. The combined cost to the public purse of these two trainees since the 2020/21 academic year is £60,000. The department cannot disaggregate the exact amount paid since January 2021 because it makes payments to initial teacher training (ITT) providers as a proportion of their total funding spread from September to July, rather than an amount per trainee each month.
The department is currently planning to publish information on outcomes for ITT trainees in the 2020/21 academic year in July 2022 which will be available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-teacher-training. However, data is not routinely published on Troops to Teachers.
Veterans who have a degree can and do undertake postgraduate ITT courses, where they can access the bursaries and scholarships of up to £26,000 available on these routes into teaching.
The department is committed to further promoting opportunities for service leavers to get into teaching. Many veterans already utilise department services to support service leavers into ITT each year. As part of the cross-government Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan: 2022-2024, the department has committed to increase collaboration with the Ministry of Defence to promote opportunities for service leavers to get into teaching, increasing signposting, events and communications tailored to veterans. The department also encourages them to take up services we offer such as ‘get school experience’ and our ‘teacher training advisers’ service that will help them towards a career in teaching.