Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make a comparative assessment of the equity of labour laws for children (a) working in the film industry and (b) who are influencers making money from online posts.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
A child performance licence is required for any live broadcast, including internet streaming, or a performance recorded with a view to broadcast or public exhibition. It does not matter whether or not the child is being paid for that performance or whether it is a professional or amateur. It is also required for any performance for which a charge is made, either for admission or otherwise. This does not extend to user generated content e.g. where a child or their family record themselves and share it on a website or social media.
If a child influencer was live streaming, then they should have a performance licence. Equally, if a child film star or their parents recorded them on set and shared it on their social media (even promotionally) then they would not. Both industries are subject to the same legislation in the same way. It is likely that child influencers are more likely to fall into the category of self/ family generated recorded content. This may not always be the case, particularly where the content is being sponsored by a third party, so each situation would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the ratio is of desks to staff in his Department.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
I refer the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown to the answer I gave on 17 May 2022 to Question 434.
The department’s staff are spending plenty of time in the office working together, building professional connections and promoting innovation, but we are also giving flexibility where that helps people work more effectively.
That’s why on 27 April 2022, the department asked its staff to start by looking at spending 80% of their working time in the office – including visits to schools, colleges or other sites – alongside the flexibility for managers to adjust that to between 60% and 80%, if that works better for them and the work the department does. These arrangements can include even more flexibility to support caring responsibilities or health concerns. This approach also recognises that there are a wide range of reasons, beyond flexible working, why not all our staff need desks at any given time, this includes annual leave and reasonable adjustments that allow people to work remotely where necessary
This is an approach that fits with the amount of desk space that the department has, gives the department full and vibrant offices, but also retains flexibility to work in different ways when needed. This is positive for our business and staff, and positive for the children and learners we serve every day.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department provides to train teachers and schools to help ensure they can deliver consistent, high quality sexual health education within relationship and sex education lessons.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department wants to support all young people to lead happy, healthy and safe lives and to foster respect for other people and for difference. That is why we made the Relationships Education (RE) (for primary school pupils), Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) (for secondary school pupils) and Health Education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) compulsory subjects from September 2020.
In primary schools, age-appropriate RE includes supporting children to learn about what healthy relationships are and their importance, as well as how to develop mutually respectful relationships in all contexts, including online. This is intended to provide a foundation for RSE at secondary school.
In secondary schools, RE broadens to become age-appropriate RSE and will include factual knowledge around sex, sexual health, and sexuality, set firmly within the context of relationships. The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance advises schools to be alive to issues such as sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and gender stereotypes, and to take positive action to tackle these issues. It should cover contraception, sexually transmitted infections, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex. We expect young people to learn what a positive, healthy relationship can look like, about consent and how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations. The guidance is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The statutory guidance is intended to help teachers deliver these subjects consistently to a high quality and with confidence. Pupils should learn about how all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, such as physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
The ‘Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health’ topic specifies that by the end of secondary school pupils should know how the different sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, are transmitted, how risk can be reduced through safer sex and the importance of and facts about testing. Pupils are also taught about HIV/AIDS at key stages 3 and 4 of the science curriculum.
To support teachers to deliver these topics safely and with confidence we have produced RSHE teacher training modules, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. At the beginning of each module the school is encouraged to name the appropriate lead for the topic in school, any relevant policies, specialist support available locally and additional information.
The department also funded the delivery of a train the trainer and peer support programme to schools from April 2020 to July 2021. The programme reached 4,800 schools.
Schools are free to determine how they use the core funding allocated to them, including investing in RSHE training for teachers. To support schools specifically with the implementation of the RSHE curriculum, we invested over £3 million in an additional package of support for RSHE over three years (financial years 2019/20 to 2021/22) after consultation with teachers over their support needs.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure consistent and high-quality teaching on HIV in schools across England.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department wants to support all young people to lead happy, healthy and safe lives and to foster respect for other people and for difference. That is why we made the Relationships Education (RE) (for primary school pupils), Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) (for secondary school pupils) and Health Education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) compulsory subjects from September 2020.
In primary schools, age-appropriate RE includes supporting children to learn about what healthy relationships are and their importance, as well as how to develop mutually respectful relationships in all contexts, including online. This is intended to provide a foundation for RSE at secondary school.
In secondary schools, RE broadens to become age-appropriate RSE and will include factual knowledge around sex, sexual health, and sexuality, set firmly within the context of relationships. The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance advises schools to be alive to issues such as sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and gender stereotypes, and to take positive action to tackle these issues. It should cover contraception, sexually transmitted infections, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex. We expect young people to learn what a positive, healthy relationship can look like, about consent and how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations. The guidance is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The statutory guidance is intended to help teachers deliver these subjects consistently to a high quality and with confidence. Pupils should learn about how all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, such as physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
The ‘Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health’ topic specifies that by the end of secondary school pupils should know how the different sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, are transmitted, how risk can be reduced through safer sex and the importance of and facts about testing. Pupils are also taught about HIV/AIDS at key stages 3 and 4 of the science curriculum.
To support teachers to deliver these topics safely and with confidence we have produced RSHE teacher training modules, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. At the beginning of each module the school is encouraged to name the appropriate lead for the topic in school, any relevant policies, specialist support available locally and additional information.
The department also funded the delivery of a train the trainer and peer support programme to schools from April 2020 to July 2021. The programme reached 4,800 schools.
Schools are free to determine how they use the core funding allocated to them, including investing in RSHE training for teachers. To support schools specifically with the implementation of the RSHE curriculum, we invested over £3 million in an additional package of support for RSHE over three years (financial years 2019/20 to 2021/22) after consultation with teachers over their support needs.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure consistent and high-quality teaching on sexual health in schools across England.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department wants to support all young people to lead happy, healthy and safe lives and to foster respect for other people and for difference. That is why we made the Relationships Education (RE) (for primary school pupils), Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) (for secondary school pupils) and Health Education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) compulsory subjects from September 2020.
In primary schools, age-appropriate RE includes supporting children to learn about what healthy relationships are and their importance, as well as how to develop mutually respectful relationships in all contexts, including online. This is intended to provide a foundation for RSE at secondary school.
In secondary schools, RE broadens to become age-appropriate RSE and will include factual knowledge around sex, sexual health, and sexuality, set firmly within the context of relationships. The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance advises schools to be alive to issues such as sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and gender stereotypes, and to take positive action to tackle these issues. It should cover contraception, sexually transmitted infections, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex. We expect young people to learn what a positive, healthy relationship can look like, about consent and how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations. The guidance is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The statutory guidance is intended to help teachers deliver these subjects consistently to a high quality and with confidence. Pupils should learn about how all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, such as physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
The ‘Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health’ topic specifies that by the end of secondary school pupils should know how the different sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, are transmitted, how risk can be reduced through safer sex and the importance of and facts about testing. Pupils are also taught about HIV/AIDS at key stages 3 and 4 of the science curriculum.
To support teachers to deliver these topics safely and with confidence we have produced RSHE teacher training modules, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. At the beginning of each module the school is encouraged to name the appropriate lead for the topic in school, any relevant policies, specialist support available locally and additional information.
The department also funded the delivery of a train the trainer and peer support programme to schools from April 2020 to July 2021. The programme reached 4,800 schools.
Schools are free to determine how they use the core funding allocated to them, including investing in RSHE training for teachers. To support schools specifically with the implementation of the RSHE curriculum, we invested over £3 million in an additional package of support for RSHE over three years (financial years 2019/20 to 2021/22) after consultation with teachers over their support needs.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help educate school children on access to sexual health services.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department made relationships education (for primary school pupils), relationships and sex education (for secondary school pupils) and health education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) compulsory subjects from September 2020.
The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance is intended to help teachers deliver these subjects consistently to a high quality and with confidence, and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. Pupils should learn about how all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, for example physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing. The statutory content is explicit about reproductive health, including fertility and sexually transmitted infections. It is clear that pupils should know how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health advice and treatment.
We have also produced RSHE teacher training modules to support teachers to deliver these topics safely, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. The topic of ‘intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health’ includes content on sexually transmitted infections and sexual health advice which emphasises that everyone, regardless of age, has the right to free, confidential sexual health advice and services.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of waiting times for places in SEN schools on families.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not collect information on waiting times for places in special schools.
Where a local authority identifies that a pupil requires a special school place (through the statutory education, health and care assessment process), they are statutorily required to secure the placement under the Children and Families Act 2014. Local authorities have a duty to arrange suitable education for any pupil of compulsory school age who, because of illness, permanent exclusion or other reasons, would not get a suitable education without such provision. Local authorities are required to keep the sufficiency of special educational provision in their area under review.
On 27 October 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that an additional £2.6 billion has been made available over the next three years to deliver new places and improve existing provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. The government continues to invest in the Free Schools programme, through which 74 special and 50 alternative provision free schools have opened across the country since 2010, with 70 similar projects in the pipeline.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will publish the average wait times for SEN school places as at 17 November 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not collect information on waiting times for places in special schools.
Where a local authority identifies that a pupil requires a special school place (through the statutory education, health and care assessment process), they are statutorily required to secure the placement under the Children and Families Act 2014. Local authorities have a duty to arrange suitable education for any pupil of compulsory school age who, because of illness, permanent exclusion or other reasons, would not get a suitable education without such provision. Local authorities are required to keep the sufficiency of special educational provision in their area under review.
On 27 October 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that an additional £2.6 billion has been made available over the next three years to deliver new places and improve existing provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. The government continues to invest in the Free Schools programme, through which 74 special and 50 alternative provision free schools have opened across the country since 2010, with 70 similar projects in the pipeline.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) homophobic, (b) biphobic and (c) transphobic bullying in schools, colleges, and universities.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government has sent a clear message that bullying should never be tolerated, and we are committed to supporting schools to tackle it. Any form of harassment or violence is abhorrent and unacceptable anywhere in society, including in our universities which should be safe and inclusive environments. Since 2016, we have provided over £3.5 million of funding through our anti-bullying programme to support schools in their effort to tackle bullying. Following the success of these programmes we are currently running a procurement exercise to fund activity in financial year 2021-22, to make sure that schools have the right support in place to prevent bullying of all pupils, including those with protected characteristics.
All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying and have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies and monitoring approaches to best suit their environment. The department provides advice for schools, which outlines schools’ responsibilities. The advice makes clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.
We have published a research report which details common strategies that specific schools have found to be effective for combating bullying, including case studies with examples about actions schools have taken to improve preventative practices and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pupils. It is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/approaches-to-preventing-and-tackling-bullying. We have also published ‘Respectful School Communities’, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline. This can combat bullying, harassment and prejudice of any kind, including hate-based bullying and can be found here: https://educateagainsthate.com/school-leaders/?filter=guidance-and-training-school-leaders.
We are also making sure that all children in England will learn about respectful relationships, in person and online, as part of new mandatory Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe, and healthy lives and to foster respect for other people and for difference. Through these subjects, children will be taught about the importance of respectful relationships and the different types of loving and healthy relationships that exist. The statutory guidance states that all pupils should receive teaching on LGBT relationships during their school years. Secondary schools should include LGBT content in their teaching. Primary schools are strongly encouraged and enabled, when teaching about different types of family, to include families with same sex parents.
Further and higher education providers have clear responsibilities, including under the Equality Act 2010, and should have robust policies and procedures in place to comply with the law, to investigate and swiftly address reports of harassment. Ofsted's inspection framework for further education providers looks at whether there is ‘an environment in which learners feel safe because staff and learners do not accept bullying, harassment or discrimination. Staff deal with any issues quickly, consistently and effectively’.
The Office for Students (OfS) statement of expectations on harassment and sexual misconduct was published on 19 April and is a useful tool for providers to ensure their policies and processes reflect the expectations set out within the statement. As part of its next steps on harassment and hate crime, the OfS will then be considering options for connecting the statement of expectations to its conditions of registration.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of his decision to appoint the Pioneer Academies Trust as sponsor to Moulsecoomb Primary school following the alleged safeguarding incident outside the school involving a visit from the Trust on 10 May.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is aware of the alleged safeguarding incident. We understand the allegation is unfounded and that the police are taking no further action having reviewed the situation.