Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans he has to reform the Apprenticeship Levy to enable levy funds to be accessed by businesses for other forms of accredited training.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The apprenticeship levy underpins our reforms to raise apprenticeship quality and supports employers to make long-term, sustainable investments in the skills that they need. Income from the levy is used to fund apprenticeships in all employers (both those who pay the levy and those who do not pay the levy).
In response to employers, we have already introduced the flexibility for levy-payers to transfer up to 25% of their funds, enabling them to support apprenticeship starts in their supply chains or to meet local skills needs. In January, we extended the use of transfers to cover the full cost of training for 16 to 18 year olds and eligible 19 to 24 year olds in employers with fewer than 50 employees.
We have listened to the concerns of businesses about the apprenticeship levy. We are committed to improving the apprenticeship programme to ensure that it continues to deliver the skilled workforce that employers need.
We will set out further detail on this in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to undertake a public consultation on proposals to reform the Apprenticeship Levy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The apprenticeship levy underpins our reforms to raise apprenticeship quality and supports employers to make long-term, sustainable investments in the skills that they need. Income from the levy is used to fund apprenticeships in all employers (both those who pay the levy and those who do not pay the levy).
In response to employers, we have already introduced the flexibility for levy-payers to transfer up to 25% of their funds, enabling them to support apprenticeship starts in their supply chains or to meet local skills needs. In January, we extended the use of transfers to cover the full cost of training for 16 to 18 year olds and eligible 19 to 24 year olds in employers with fewer than 50 employees.
We have listened to the concerns of businesses about the apprenticeship levy. We are committed to improving the apprenticeship programme to ensure that it continues to deliver the skilled workforce that employers need.
We will set out further detail on this in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he made of the change in the number of children entering the care system since 2010.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We monitor the number of children entering the care system on an ongoing basis and information showing the change in the number of children entering the care system for the period since 2010 is provided in the table attached.
Further breakdowns of children who started to be looked after can be found in Table C1 of the statistical first release 'Children Looked After in England including Adoption: 2016 to 2017' at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.
We set out our vision for delivering excellent children’s social care in ‘Putting Children First’. This outlines our reform programme which seeks to: improve the quality of social work practice; create systems and environments where great social work can flourish; promote learning and multi-agency working where all involved in supporting children and families can work together; and support children who both enter and leave the care system. The reforms are designed to ensure that all vulnerable children and families receive the highest-quality care and support. We have invested over £200 million through the Innovation Programme to test and develop better practice, including testing approaches to help vulnerable children to remain safely at home.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of degree apprenticeships available in the Telford constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government has created a £10 million Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund to support the development and take up of degree apprenticeships across England. Harper Adams University is the closest university to Telford to receive money from this fund - followed by Staffordshire University, University of Keele, Birmingham City University and Aston University.
Degree level apprenticeships have grown year on year with over 6,600 starts since their introduction, including over 4,000 starts this academic year (2017/18) with over 100 higher education institutions registered to deliver apprenticeships, including several in the West Midlands. In Telford constituency there were 1,300 apprenticeship starts across all levels. Of these, 90 were higher level apprenticeships, which includes degree-level starts. The National Apprenticeship Service and UCAS have created a degree apprenticeship vacancy listing to highlight opportunities available across all areas of the country - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeship-vacancies.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the 200,000 new public sector apprenticeships announced by his Department on 20 January 2017 have been filled; and how many of those apprenticeships are based in (a) the Telford constituency, (b) Telford and Wrekin and (c) the West Midlands.
Answered by Anne Milton
Figures on the number of public sector apprenticeships are not available. Public sector bodies in scope of the public sector apprenticeships target are required annually to publish and send to the Department their progress towards the target. The first reports (covering the period 2017/18) will be due by 30 September 2018.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of young people in Telford started an apprenticeship after completing GCSEs in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The table attached shows the number and proportion of pupils who completed Key Stage 4 (including GCSEs) in Telford and started an apprenticeship the following year as part of at least two terms’ education, employment or training. Information on destinations in academic years 2010-11 to 2015-16 is given. This is the most recent data available. Destinations data for all England is provided for comparison.
Information on pupil destinations is published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships in STEM industries have been taken up since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The table attached shows the number of apprenticeship starts in ‘Construction, Planning and the Built Environment’, ‘Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies’, ‘Information and Communications Technology’ and ‘Science and Mathematics’ sector subject areas for each academic year since 2009/10.
This data is published in the ‘FE data library: apprenticeships’ which can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeship programmes to small and medium-sized businesses.
Answered by Anne Milton
Through the National Apprenticeship Service, we are working closely with employers of all sizes in growing their apprenticeship programmes and to help them make the most effective decisions for their organisation.
Our relaunched apprenticeships campaign aims to help increase the number of vacancies created by employers of all sizes. It encourages small and medium-sized businesses to recruit apprentices and upskill their current workforce through apprenticeships. Radio advertising is supported by targeted digital, telemarketing activity, public relations and social media activity. It will continue to support employers to create new vacancies and publicise these on the ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website.
Links to the two apprenticeships campaign websites can be found at – one for employers: https://hireanapprentice.campaign.gov.uk/, and one for apprentices: https://www.getingofar.gov.uk/.
All UK employers with an annual pay bill of £3 million or more, pay 0.5 per cent of their pay bill to invest in apprenticeship training. We have led a major awareness-raising campaign over the past year, alongside HM Revenue and Customs. This ensures all levy-paying employers, whatever their size, are aware of both their obligations to pay the levy, and the opportunity to spend their investment through registering for an apprenticeship service account. We are providing ongoing support for smaller levy-payers via telephone to encourage them to invest their levy funds through registering for an apprenticeship service account.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to reduce the upper earnings limit for free childcare eligibility.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The entitlement to 30 hours free childcare is intended to support working parents with the cost of childcare and enable them, where they wish, to return to work or to work additional hours.
We are in the first full year of rolling out this transformative policy. Our immediate focus is on successful delivery for the spring and summer terms, and on evaluating 30 hours free childcare during its first year. We will not be making any significant changes to the policy until we can properly review whether 30 hours free childcare is being delivered effectively and supporting working families as intended.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress has been made on the roll-out of 30 hours of free childcare in Telford and Wrekin.
Answered by Anne Milton
The rollout of 30 hours free childcare has progressed well in Telford and Wrekin with 839 children reported to be taking up a 30 hours place, in November 2017. The local authority is receiving specialist support from our national delivery contractor to ensure progress continues as we move towards the summer term.