Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to provide additional funding to further education colleges in the next 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Further education (FE) colleges can benefit from the additional £3.8 billion that the department is investing in FE and skills over this parliamentary session to ensure people across the country have access to the skills they need to build a fulfilling career in jobs the economy needs.
This includes an extra £1.6 billion for 16-to-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 2021/22 - the biggest increase in 16-to-19 funding in a decade. This will help to fund the additional students anticipated in the system, 40 extra hours per student, and provide an affordable increase in funding rates per 16-to-19 student, including an up-front cash boost which will see the national rate of funding increase by over 8% in 2022/23, from £4,188 to £4,542 per student.
The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), with £1.34 billion of funding in the 2022/23 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
Through the National Skills Fund worth £2.5 billion over the course of the parliament, the department has made funding available to FE colleges across the country to deliver Level 3 Free Courses for Jobs. The Free Courses for Jobs offer enables learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free. FE colleges will also have the opportunity to bid to deliver Skills Bootcamps next year. National competitions initially focused on digital training will be launched in the new year. Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Economic Partnership areas had the opportunity to apply for funding to commission training providers, including FE colleges, to deliver training that addresses local labour market priorities.
The department is committed to supporting more employers in using apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need, and to supporting more people to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer. To support more employers and learners to access apprenticeships the department is increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year.
The department is also investing £2.8 billion of capital funding for skills over the Spending Review period, including to improve the condition of FE estates, create more post-16 places and support the rollout of T-Levels. In addition, following the ONS decision to reclassify FE colleges last month, in April 2023 we will be investing an additional £150 million for colleges to improve the condition of their estates.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that materials provided by (a) Mermaids and (b) other advocacy organisations for use in schools are appropriate for use by (i) vulnerable and (ii) other children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools have flexibility over how they deliver the Curriculum and what resources they use.
The non-statutory implementation guidance, ‘Plan your Relationships, Sex and Health Curriculum,’ sets out clear guidance for schools in choosing resources, and states that schools should assess all resources carefully to ensure they are age appropriate, meet the outcome of the relevant part of the curriculum, and are in line with the school’s legal duties in relation to impartiality.
Schools should not promote contested theory as fact. The Department expects schools to use the Relationships, Sex and Health Education Curriculum to help children understand the world around them in an age-appropriate, balanced manner. The Department also expects schools to consult with parents on these matters and to make reasonable decisions about the content of their Curriculum.
The Department recognises the issues relating to gender identity, and we are currently developing transgender guidance to support schools to navigate these complex and sensitive issues. The Department intends to hold a full public consultation on the draft guidance prior to publication in 2023.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has plans to help increase access to football training for girls in schools.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department’s expectation is that a school’s starting point should be to offer the same sport or physical activity to both girls and boys, including football.
The Department is funding the ‘Your Time’ Programme, which gives girls aged 8-16 access to competitive sport and sport leadership opportunities, including football. The PE and Sport Premium of £320 million a year will continue to help primary schools to make sustainable improvements to their PE and sport offer.
The Government wants to increase opportunities to take part in all types of sport and physical activity and has committed to update the cross-government School Sport and Activity Action Plan to support all pupils to take part in a wide variety of sport and activities through PE, extracurricular sport and 30 minutes of physical activity every day in school.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the appropriateness of learning materials provided by LGBTQ campaign groups for use in primary schools.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
As part of compulsory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), all pupils should be taught LGBT content at a timely point during their education. Schools can use externally produced materials to support their lessons and are responsible for ensuring that what they use is factual, age appropriate and suitable for their pupils. Schools are also required to consult parents on the content of their RSHE curriculum and to provide examples of the content and resources that they plan to use.
The department is not planning to assess the materials schools use to teach about LGBT matters, but we have published non-statutory implementation guidance, which includes advice on choosing resources. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum. Further guidance on working with external bodies and using their resources is included in the ‘Political impartiality in schools’ guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools. We are also working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to develop new guidance to support schools specifically on transgender matters.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department plans to provide to parents of children who are unable to attend school due to their (a) special educational needs and (b) disabilities.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a range of strategies for supporting parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities whose children are unable to attend school due to their specific needs. This will depend on the nature of the child’s needs, but support services such as education welfare officers, educational psychologists and specialist teachers are often involved in such casework.
Where the child’s needs relate to a special educational need and the child has an Education Health and Care plan, the local authority will work with the family and other agencies to secure the provision outlined in the plan. Depending on the nature of the child’s needs, the local authority will also work with the family of securing attendance at school, where that is appropriate.
The department’s guidance, 'Working together to improve School Attendance', published in May 2022, is designed to improve the monitoring and tracking of attendance to spot problems earlier and facilitate better, more targeted multi-agency support with improved join up of early help services, external partners and support services. This is intended to improve the consistency of support offered to pupils and families, replicating effective practices across England. The guidance is also clear that schools and local authorities should be working with pupils and parents to overcome barriers to attendance. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the quality of education on (a) cooking and (b) budgeting.
Answered by Robin Walker
Cooking and nutrition is a discrete strand of the national curriculum for design and technology which was introduced as part of the 2014 design and technology curriculum and is compulsory for pupils from 5 to 14 years old. The curriculum aims to teach children how to cook, with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves, and others, healthy and affordable food. Alongside this, a food preparation and nutrition GCSE was introduced in September 2016 which requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food. Furthermore, the Levelling Up White Paper confirmed the department’s focus on school food quality and food education.
On budgeting, this is covered under financial education which is part of the maths and the citizenship curricula, demonstrating the importance that the government places on this topic. The maths curriculum provides content that develops pupils’ knowledge and financial capability to make important decisions about mortgages and loan repayments. Financial literacy is also a statutory part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16 year olds and pupils are taught the functions and uses of money. In both subjects, pupils are taught about topics that support personal budgeting, money management and understanding financial risk. The department wants to support schools to deliver good quality financial education and we work regularly with stakeholders to support them to do so.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that his Department leaves Stonewall's Diversity Champions scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Department for Education’s Stonewall Diversity Champions membership expired in 2022. We are considering membership options following guidance in the new Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, so we can continue to support our staff. We remain committed to supporting all our LGBTQ+ staff and ensuring we create an inclusive environment for all.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support students whose academic performance has been adversely impacted by the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Robin Walker
Helping children and young people to catch up is a key priority for the government and overall direct investment announced for education recovery is almost £5 billion. This includes an additional £1.8 billion of funding announced in the recent Spending Review to support young people to catch up on missed learning.
We have consistently targeted recovery funding where the evidence tells us it will be most effective: on tutoring, teaching and extra time for those with the least time left. Our latest investment continues to support these interventions and to help those that need it most.
Our education recovery investment includes funding for up to 100 million tutoring hours for 5 to 19 year olds by 2024, multi-year direct funding so schools can deliver evidence-based interventions based on pupil needs, summer schools in 2021, extra time in 16 to 19 education, 500,000 training opportunities for school teachers and early years practitioners, and the opportunity for year 13 students, where it is judged beneficial, to repeat their final year in 2021/22.
Direct recovery funding comes on top of wider increases to early years, schools and college funding. Schools will receive an additional £4.7 billion in core funding in the 2024/25 financial year, including £1.6 billion in 2022/23 financial year on top of already planned increases from the 2019 Spending Review, which is equivalent to a total cash increase of £1,500 per pupil between the 2019/20 and 2024/25 financial years.
The department recognises that students taking exams this year will have experienced disruption to their education caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why, together with Ofqual, we consulted on and have confirmed a range of adaptations to GCSE and A/AS level exams. Exam boards will be releasing advance information about the focus of the content of exams in most GCSE and A/AS level subjects on 7 February. Other adaptations include a choice of content or topics and the provision of exam aids in some GCSEs. Additionally, Ofqual have confirmed that 2022 will be a transition year for grading. Grades will be set around a midpoint between 2021 and pre-COVID-19 grades.
The department recognises that the extended school and college closures have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s learning. All schools should continue to teach a broad and balanced curriculum in all subjects. The optional guidance, ‘teaching a broad and balanced curriculum for education recovery’, offers suggestions to help schools decide how to prioritise elements within their curriculum for education recovery, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-a-broad-and-balanced-curriculum-for-education-recovery. These suggestions are based on the good practice evident in many schools, as exemplified in the case studies.
Oak National Academy was created in April 2020 as a rapid response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Teachers and colleagues from leading education organisations came together to support schools’ efforts to keep children learning through the provision of remote education. Since its launch, more than 40,000 free online learning resources and video lessons in a broad range of subjects have been developed across 35 subjects from early years to key stage 4. Specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is also available.