Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) children and (b) schools have covered the Battle of Cable Street at Key Stage 3 in the 2018-19 academic year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally.
The history curriculum gives teachers and schools the freedom and flexibility to use specific examples from history to teach pupils about the history of Britain and the wider world. Schools and teachers themselves can determine which examples and topics to use to stimulate and challenge pupils and reflect key points in history.
Additionally, there is scope within the citizenship curriculum to highlight relevant key historical events. A high-quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society. The Department expects schools to go beyond the core knowledge set out in the shorter programmes of study to deliver other aspects of citizenship. Schools themselves are best placed to determine the most effective way of including these challenges within the school curriculum.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children's centres offer mental health support for new and expectant mothers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
This government is committed to improving perinatal mental health services. The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment for a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24, building on the additional 30,000 women who will access these services each year by 2020/21 under pre-existing plans. Specialist care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support. We do not however routinely collect information on the extent to which services are provided through children’s centres.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to tackle (a) increased levels of stress among education professionals and (b) the effect of that stress on the recruitment and retention of teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In January 2019, the Department launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy. This includes commitments to radically simplify the accountability system, limit the amount of change that schools have to deliver and provide extra support to tackle challenging pupil behaviour. It is also introducing an Early Career Framework for teachers, which includes mentor support, so that newly qualified teachers receive the support they need. The strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy.
The strategy sets out the areas where Government can make the most difference most quickly. It also marks the beginning of a conversation with head teachers about how the Department can support them to set a culture in their school that reduces unnecessary planning, marking and data requirements, supports teachers to deal with disruptive behaviour, and establishes a culture that values continued professional development and flexible working at all career stages.
The Department continues to work with unions, teachers and Ofsted to challenge and remove unnecessary workload. A joint letter from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State and other key national organisations was sent to school leaders in November confirming their support to help reduce workload in schools. The Department has accepted all the recommendations of the Making Data Work report and published a workload reduction toolkit as part of an ongoing programme to tackle excessive workload in schools. The report and Government response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-advisory-group-report-and-government-response.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health, how many schools that introduced the good practice on providing mental health support have had a formal (a) observation and (b) assessment of that work.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The evidence from the Department’s supporting mental health in schools and colleges survey gave the first nationally representative indication of the range of activities schools and college were taking on mental health. It did not go into detail on the level of observation or supervision of those activities. The qualitative work linked to the survey reinforced that schools felt the need for more support regarding what safe and effective actions they can take. The work also showed a demand for better links to specialist mental health services.
The Government recognises the importance of schools and colleges having access to specialist expertise to help assess the safety and effectiveness of what they do to support mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. That is why we are introducing new mental health support teams, which will provide schools with better access to such expertise. The interventions provided by the new teams will be clinically supervised.
It will also be important to assess how mental health support teams themselves work in practice. That is why the Government starting implementation with a trailblazer scheme which will allow the evaluation of practice as it develops.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's press release of 19 July 2018, New relationships and health education in schools, what progress his Department is making on implementing compulsory health education in schools by September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The consultation on the draft guidance and regulations for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education closes on 7 November 2018. The draft statutory guidance sets out the core content that primary and secondary schools should teach.
The Department is also seeking views through the consultation on what support schools will need to deliver these subjects. In addition, the Department is working with stakeholders, including unions and expert organisations to help determine the appropriate school support.
The consultation can be found via this link: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/. Once the consultation period is complete, the Department expect to lay regulations in spring 2019.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure that Ofsted school inspections include an assessment of pupil wellbeing and mental health; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare, which includes aspects of mental health, is one of four core graded judgements made as part of Ofsted school inspections. The Department is engaging with Ofsted as it develops proposals for new inspection arrangements. Ofsted intends to consult on its proposals in January 2019.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 October 2018 during the Downing Street reception to mark World Mental Health Day that the Government will provide schools with an approved framework which can help them with measuring all aspects of their students’ health, including mental wellbeing, what progress his Department is making on developing that framework; and when he plans to publish that framework.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools can make a real difference to the mental wellbeing of their pupils, which is why it is already a priority for many schools. Tools already exist that schools can use to measure pupil wellbeing, but they often find it difficult to determine the appropriate resource. The Department is developing a guide which schools can use as a framework to discuss their pupils’ wellbeing. This will also support teachers and the new designated mental health leads to take steps to boost good mental health in their school.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training will be provided for new and existing teachers to ensure that they can deliver the new relationships and health education in schools announced in July 2018; and whether he plans to allocate extra resources for that training.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The consultation on the draft guidance and regulations for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education closes on 7 November 2018. The draft statutory guidance sets out the core content that primary and secondary schools should teach.
The Department is also seeking views through the consultation on what support schools will need to deliver these subjects. In addition, the Department is working with stakeholders, including unions and expert organisations to help determine the appropriate school support.
The consultation can be found via this link: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/. Once the consultation period is complete, the Department expect to lay regulations in spring 2019.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training and resources will be provided for senior leadership teams in schools to ensure (a) priority for and (b) a whole school approach to the new relationships and health education in schools announced in July 2018.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The consultation on the draft guidance and regulations for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education closes on 7 November 2018. The draft statutory guidance sets out the core content that primary and secondary schools should teach.
The Department is also seeking views through the consultation on what support schools will need to deliver these subjects. In addition, the Department is working with stakeholders, including unions and expert organisations to help determine the appropriate school support.
The consultation can be found via this link: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/. Once the consultation period is complete, the Department expect to lay regulations in spring 2019.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many recipients of free school meals there have been in Liverpool in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals is published at the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistical release:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018.
For 2018, the number and percentage of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals by local authority can be found in Tables 8a to 8e, in the Schools pupils and their characteristics 2018 - LA tables of the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2018’ statistical release.
Information for earlier years (from 2008 onwards) can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers.