Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing compulsory mental health lessons in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Health education became a statutory part of the National Curriculum in September 2020. The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
In primary school, pupils learn simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and family and the benefits of hobbies and interests. At secondary school, teaching includes the benefits of community participation and voluntary and service-based activities on mental wellbeing and happiness.
Pupils are taught how to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns, including common types of mental ill health, such as anxiety and depression. Pupils are also taught where and how to seek advice, including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions.
As part of the review of the relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance, the Department will undertake a deep dive into whether suicide prevention should be a statutory part of the curriculum.
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 help improve the opportunities provided to people with Down's syndrome after they leave full-time education.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department wants to provide all young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with Down's syndrome, with good opportunities which allow them to transition from education into a fulfilling adult life.
On 2 March, we published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan in response to the Green Paper published in March 2022. The Plan outlines the government’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children and young people’s potential, build parent’s trust, and provide financial sustainability.
We are developing good practice guidance to support consistent, timely, high-quality transitions for children and young people with SEND and in AP. This will look at transitions between all stages of education from early years and will focus initially on transitions into and out of post-16 settings. This includes transitions into higher education, employment, adult services, and for young people leaving AP at the end of key stage 4, building on learning from the recent Alternative Provision Transition Fund.
The government is committed to supporting pathways to employment for disabled learners, including through strengthening the Supported Internship programme. We are investing approximately £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans into employment. The Internships Work consortium has been appointed as the delivery partner for this investment. They will be working closely with local authorities to double the number of supported internships per year by 2025 and will engage with all partners in the system to level up the quality of internships across the country. Over 700 job coaches will be trained by 2025 to ensure interns receive high-quality support on their work placements.
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced up to £3 million to pilot extending Supported Internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities, but without EHC plans.
To further help with preparation for adulthood, the department is supporting the Department for Work and Pensions to develop an Adjustments Passport that will help to smooth the transition into employment and support people changing jobs, including for people with Down’s syndrome and other forms of SEND. The Adjustments Passport will capture the in-work support needs of the individual and empower them to have confident discussions about adjustments with employers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it compulsory for home economics to be taught to key stage 4 students.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Learning how to cook is an important life skill for pupils. To facilitate this for Key Stage 4 pupils, the Department introduced a food preparation and nutrition GCSE in 2016 which requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food. As part of the 2014 design and technology curriculum, the Department introduced a strand called ‘cooking and nutrition’, which is compulsory for pupils aged 5 to 14. Through this strand, children are taught how to cook with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of how many children are in kinship care in Ashfield and Eastwood.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department does not hold information centrally on the number of children in kinship care, therefore we are unable to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing compulsory home economics lessons in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2014 the Department introduced ‘cooking and nutrition’ into the design and technology curriculum, which is compulsory for pupils aged 5-14.
Pupils are taught how to cook with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. In 2016, the Department introduced a food preparation and nutrition GCSE. This GCSE requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition, and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food.
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.