Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase opportunities for STEM apprentices.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government has committed to widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country and aligns with the industrial strategy, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries.
As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people to learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country, and providing high-quality entry pathways for young people.
Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin, or progress in, a successful career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Employers have developed over 350 apprenticeships in STEM sectors including level 3 Cyber Security Technician, level 4 Software Developer and level 6 Civil Engineer degree to meet their needs.
The department continues to promote the benefits that apprenticeships offer, through the Skills for Life campaign.
In addition, Skills England will help to ensure that there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which are aligned with skills gaps and what employers need. This includes the needs of STEM sectors identified in the industrial strategy, such as advanced manufacturing.
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 increase the number of high skilled apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government has committed to widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country and aligns with the industrial strategy, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries.
As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people to learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country, and providing high-quality entry pathways for young people.
Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin, or progress in, a successful career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Employers have developed over 350 apprenticeships in STEM sectors including level 3 Cyber Security Technician, level 4 Software Developer and level 6 Civil Engineer degree to meet their needs.
The department continues to promote the benefits that apprenticeships offer, through the Skills for Life campaign.
In addition, Skills England will help to ensure that there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which are aligned with skills gaps and what employers need. This includes the needs of STEM sectors identified in the industrial strategy, such as advanced manufacturing.
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 support freedom of speech in (a) schools and (b) universities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom in schools, universities and beyond. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, confirmed to Parliament on 15 January the government’s plans for the future of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which will create a more effective, proportionate, balanced and less burdensome approach to protecting academic freedom and freedom of speech.
In addition, schools must promote the fundamental British values, including democracy and individual liberty. Schools have a statutory duty to ensure a balanced presentation of political issues, but older pupils can engage with the political issues provided activity is conducted sensitively and not targeted at others. The promotion of fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs is considered by Ofsted in their inspections.
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 increase the number of students from low income backgrounds enrolled on university access programmes.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Access to higher education (HE) should be based on ability and attainment, not background. Opportunity should be available to all and it is the department’s aspiration that no groups are left behind.
Grants and loans are available for students to undertake access to HE courses, subject to eligibility. The Adult Skills Fund, previously the Adult Education Budget, fully funds or co-funds education and skills training up to and including level 3 for eligible adults aged 19 and above. Where grant-funded provision is not available, individuals can choose to access Advanced Learner Loans, which can support them to access a level 3 qualification.
The government also provides financial support through the Office for Students (OfS) to support student access and success, including for disadvantaged students. £301 million was provided for the 2024/25 academic year.
All HE providers registered with the OfS that intend to charge higher level tuition fees must also have an Access and Participation Plan approved by the OfS. Access and Participation Plans articulate how HE providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, including how they will support greater access. In creating their plans, providers should consider the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, which details 12 key sector risks across the student lifecycle and the student groups most likely to experience these, including students from low-income backgrounds.
There are already many excellent examples of activities to support access to HE that providers are delivering, but the department wants the sector to go further. We are calling on providers to play a stronger role in expanding access and improving outcomes for disadvantaged students, making sure that they are delivering robust and ambitious Access and Participation Plans.
By the summer, the department will set out its plan for HE reform and the part it expects HE providers to play in this.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of asylum seekers enrolled in university access programmes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK has a longstanding and proud tradition of providing a safe haven to those who have no choice but to leave their home country because of endangerment to their lives or to those of their families. Higher education (HE) student support is available to those recognised as refugees, as well as their spouses, civil partners and children who were family members on the date the refugee applied for asylum, provided they have been ordinarily, i.e. lawfully, resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) since being recognised by the government as a refugee and are ordinarily resident in England on the course start date. They are exempt from the three-year ordinary residence requirement.
Individuals seeking asylum are not entitled to student support in England whilst they are seeking asylum.
The department does not hold data on the number of asylum seekers that have started or are currently enrolled on an HE course at a UK HE provider in any of the last five years.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many asylum seekers have begun degree qualifications whilst waiting for leave to remain in the UK.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK has a longstanding and proud tradition of providing a safe haven to those who have no choice but to leave their home country because of endangerment to their lives or to those of their families. Higher education (HE) student support is available to those recognised as refugees, as well as their spouses, civil partners and children who were family members on the date the refugee applied for asylum, provided they have been ordinarily, i.e. lawfully, resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) since being recognised by the government as a refugee and are ordinarily resident in England on the course start date. They are exempt from the three-year ordinary residence requirement.
Individuals seeking asylum are not entitled to student support in England whilst they are seeking asylum.
The department does not hold data on the number of asylum seekers that have started or are currently enrolled on an HE course at a UK HE provider in any of the last five years.
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 plans to take to provide (a) educational and (b) training support to apprentices, in the context of of recent trends in the level of Level 7 funding.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth with the support of a strong skills system. The government is reforming the current apprenticeship offer to ensure that more young people can benefit from high quality training.
The new growth and skills offer will deliver greater flexibility for both learners and employers in England and will be aligned with the government’s industrial strategy, creating routes into good jobs in growing industries. As a first step, the department will be introducing new foundation apprenticeships for young people, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships, in targeted sectors. These flexibilities will provide high quality entry pathways for young people, help more people learn new high quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country. The department will set out more detail in due course.
This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers. The government will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves. The department is taking advice from Skills England, who engaged with employers on funding for level 7 apprenticeships over the autumn, and the department expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships shortly. Learners who have started these apprenticeships will be funded through to completion.
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 has taken to ensure parents maintain the right to home educate their children.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 sets out a parent’s right to educate otherwise than at school, i.e. to home educate. The department knows many parents work hard to provide a suitable education for their children in their home environment.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to support (a) vocational training and (b) apprenticeship programs in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is working to create a clear, flexible, high-quality skills system that supports people of all ages, breaking down the barriers to opportunity and driving economic growth.
The department has established Skills England to ensure we have the highly-trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. It will ensure the skills system is clear and navigable for both young people and older adults, strengthening careers pathways into jobs across the economy.
The department’s levy-funded growth and skills offer, with apprenticeships at its heart, will deliver greater flexibility for learners and employers across England, including in Ashfield, and is aligned with our industrial strategy to create routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries. As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country and providing high quality entry pathways for young people.
Latest data provided by West Nottinghamshire College confirms a total of 1343 apprentices in learning. Of this, 522 apprentices are either living or employed in Ashfield District, which is around 39% of the total. The sectors with the most apprentices either living or are from Ashfield are Building and Construction (128), Engineering (118), Manufacturing Technologies (93) and Administration (59).
Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) support the department’s long term priority to drive local economic growth by reshaping the skills system to better align provision of post-16 technical education and training with local labour market needs and to support learners to gain the skills needed to get good jobs. The LSIP covering Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which includes Ashfield, seeks to improve basic literacy and understanding of needs for learners and employees, digital skills as a key component of Technical Education courses, an increase in pre-16 engagement and skills development targeting young people, and basic employability skills that focus on for-work readiness.
West Nottinghamshire College is a large further education (FE) college based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, operating across nine centres and has specialist engineering and building services centres in Ashfield, with a construction skills training centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield. The college’s engineering training centre has been named as the UK’s first Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing in partnership with the Gene Haas Foundation.
The college has a well-established supported internship programme, which includes Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Capita and National Grid amongst its employer partners. The college’s high needs provision was recognised as outstanding by Ofsted in June 2023. Additionally, the college has embarked on a three-year programme to develop programmes further so that local employers, including in Ashfield, can benefit from a more diverse workforce.
The college has strong links with key public sector employers within Mansfield and Ashfield, including both district councils and the local hospital. The college’s principal is chair of the Making Mansfield Place Board and a member of the college’s executive leadership team is vice chair of the Discover Ashfield Place Board.
High-quality careers advice is an essential part of our missions to break down the barriers to opportunity and to drive economic growth. Our ambition is for everyone to have access to impartial careers information, advice and guidance throughout their lives. This will help open up more opportunities for individuals from all backgrounds to access the skills and training they need to succeed in the workplace and to advance their careers.
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 kinship families receive financial support similar to that of (a) foster and (b) adoptive families.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children, and the role of local authorities to support them.
As local authorities know their carers best, they have the power to decide what financial support should be provided to kinship carers and any payments should be made in accordance with their model for assessing support needs.
The government does not set a maximum or minimum allowance for local authorities to administer. However, the kinship care statutory guidance, which was published in October 2024, states that, in its calculation of any ongoing special guardianship financial support, the local authority should have regard to the fostering allowance that would have been paid if the child was fostered.
At the Autumn Budget 2024, the department announced £40 million to trial a new kinship allowance in some local authorities in England. The department will test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of caring for a child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. The department will share further details and the process for selecting local authorities in due course.
This is the single biggest investment made by government in kinship care to date. This investment could transform the lives of vulnerable children who can no longer live at home by allowing children to grow up within their families and communities, reducing disruption to their early years, so they can focus on schooling and building friendships.
The department understands the unique challenges kinship carers face and is committed to providing the necessary support.