Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse has been of 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.
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 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.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding for physical education and school sport to account for the period during which those activities were restricted during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nick Gibb
PE and school sport play an important part in supporting pupils to recover from the effects of school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Government has confirmed the overall funding for the Primary PE and sport premium will continue at £320 million for the 2021/22 academic year. Funding will be allocated according to a formula and details will be confirmed in the autumn as in previous years. Schools will be permitted to carry forward any unspent PE and sport premium funding from the current academic year to ensure that this is spent to benefit primary pupils’ physical education, school sport and physical activity recovery.
In June 2021, the Department announced £1.4 billion of additional funding for education recovery. This is in addition to the £1.7 billion already committed, bringing total investment announced for education recovery over the past year to over £3 billion. Schools have the flexibility to determine how they choose to spend some of this funding to support the needs of their pupils, including on activities to support health and wellbeing where needed. The Government has also provided £10.1 million of funding to support schools to reopen their sports facilities and increase the opportunity for children and young people to take part in extra-curricular and community sport.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including physical education and school sport in the recovery plan for education following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
PE and school sport play an important part in supporting pupils to recover from the effects of school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Government has confirmed the overall funding for the Primary PE and sport premium will continue at £320 million for the 2021/22 academic year. Funding will be allocated according to a formula and details will be confirmed in the autumn as in previous years. Schools will be permitted to carry forward any unspent PE and sport premium funding from the current academic year to ensure that this is spent to benefit primary pupils’ physical education, school sport and physical activity recovery.
In June 2021, the Department announced £1.4 billion of additional funding for education recovery. This is in addition to the £1.7 billion already committed, bringing total investment announced for education recovery over the past year to over £3 billion. Schools have the flexibility to determine how they choose to spend some of this funding to support the needs of their pupils, including on activities to support health and wellbeing where needed. The Government has also provided £10.1 million of funding to support schools to reopen their sports facilities and increase the opportunity for children and young people to take part in extra-curricular and community sport.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to maintain funding for physical education and sport in schools at the current level for the 2021-22 academic year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
PE and school sport play an important part in supporting pupils to recover from the effects of school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Government has confirmed the overall funding for the Primary PE and sport premium will continue at £320 million for the 2021/22 academic year. Funding will be allocated according to a formula and details will be confirmed in the autumn as in previous years. Schools will be permitted to carry forward any unspent PE and sport premium funding from the current academic year to ensure that this is spent to benefit primary pupils’ physical education, school sport and physical activity recovery.
In June 2021, the Department announced £1.4 billion of additional funding for education recovery. This is in addition to the £1.7 billion already committed, bringing total investment announced for education recovery over the past year to over £3 billion. Schools have the flexibility to determine how they choose to spend some of this funding to support the needs of their pupils, including on activities to support health and wellbeing where needed. The Government has also provided £10.1 million of funding to support schools to reopen their sports facilities and increase the opportunity for children and young people to take part in extra-curricular and community sport.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the role that physical education and school sport can play in promoting mental wellbeing among children and young people.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to regularly review the latest evidence on children and young people’s mental wellbeing, including the impact of physical activity and sport.
Evidence from a number of sources suggests that good quality sporting activity can have a positive impact on children and young people’s general wellbeing and mental health. Research by The National Centre for Social Research shows that participating in organised sports and joining after school clubs can help to improve primary school children’s academic performance and social skills.
There is also evidence that organised sporting activity can have a positive effect on personal development and contribute to wellbeing by increasing self-esteem and self-confidence, and improving social skills. Such activity can have a beneficial effect on mental health by reducing anxiety, emotional distress and depressive symptoms.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that children with disabilities can participate in physical activity at school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has provided £900,000 to the Inclusion 2020 programme since 2018, which supports 9,328 schools with continuing professional development to ensure that PE and school sport is inclusive of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This programme funded the development of new teacher resources such as the ‘All about Autism, All about Me’ digital toolkit, endorsed by the National Autistic Society, which provides support for making PE and sport inclusive to pupils with autism spectrum conditions.
The Department has committed to continue to fund a programme to support children and young people with SEND to take part in PE and school sport. It launched an open competition process last month to select a new programme.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help support local school sport organisers with (a) training, (b) quality assurance and (c) local coordination.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education works with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver the School Sport and Activity Action Plan which aims to increase participation in sport and physical activity by children and young people.
The Government, through DCMS and Sport England, funds support for school sport through Active Partnerships and a contract with the Youth Sport Trust to provide training and coordination for School Games Organisers based in 450 host schools across the country. Over 95% of schools in England take part in The School Games, which provides an annual calendar of competition at local, regional, and national levels.
The Government has recently confirmed the continuation of £11 million funding for School Games Organisers until the end of this financial year.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing students, parents and carers the choice of retaking a school year due to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises that the national lockdown has had a huge impact on children and young people’s education, which will take more than a year to catch up. On 27 January 2021, the Government announced a further £300 million of new funding for high quality tutoring to help children and young people catch up. The Government will be working in collaboration with the education sector to develop specific initiatives for summer schools, and a COVID-19 premium to support catch up, alongside developing a long term plan to support pupils to catch up over the course of this Parliament. Further detail on this funding and support will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of delays in family court cases involving foster children on foster families.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The COVID-19 outbreak has had an impact on backlogs of cases in family courts. We are working closely with the judiciary, the Ministry of Justice and other key partners in the family justice system to make sure that we prioritise children’s welfare during this difficult and unprecedented time.
I recognise the additional support that foster families need at this time. That is why we have provided £125,000 in additional funding for Fosterline to deliver free-to-access and specialist one-to-one support to foster families. The service has focussed on reducing the risk of breakdown in fostering placements to ensure stability for looked-after children and increasing capacity by providing new or prospective carers with access to the specialist information they need.