Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of retention of teaching assistants; and what steps her Department is taking to support recruitment of teaching assistants.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
School support staff play a vital role in children’s education and the smooth running of schools. They are crucial to ensuring children are given the best possible life chances.
In the survey ‘Use of teaching assistants in schools’, carried out by the department in 2023, 75% of school leaders reported they found it either 'fairly’ or ‘extremely’ difficult to recruit teaching assistants. The survey found that retention was difficult for 29% of leaders.
The department values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce and will address recruitment and retention challenges by reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB).
The SSSNB will be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook, training, career progression routes and fair pay rates for support staff. This reform will ensure that schools can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver high quality, inclusive education and drive high and rising standards, so that every child has the best life chances.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 (a) increasing levels of pay and (b) reviewing conditions for teaching assistants.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
School support staff play a vital role in children’s education and the smooth running of schools. They are crucial to ensuring children are given the best possible life chances.
In the survey ‘Use of teaching assistants in schools’, carried out by the department in 2023, 75% of school leaders reported they found it either 'fairly’ or ‘extremely’ difficult to recruit teaching assistants. The survey found that retention was difficult for 29% of leaders.
The department values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce and will address recruitment and retention challenges by reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB).
The SSSNB will be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook, training, career progression routes and fair pay rates for support staff. This reform will ensure that schools can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver high quality, inclusive education and drive high and rising standards, so that every child has the best life chances.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of charging VAT on independent school fees on local authority costings to support displaced former private school children with special education needs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy and will confirm the introduction of these changes at the Budget on 30 October. The Office for Budget Responsibility will also certify the government’s costings for these measures at that time. The right time to discuss any funding for state funded schools is at the Spending Review.
Children with Education, Health and Care plans that provide a necessary local authority funded place at a private school will not be impacted by this policy. This is because local authorities can reclaim VAT on service expenditure through existing routes.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) assumes a net gain to the public finances of £1.3 to 1.5 billion per year in the medium to long run as a result of removing tax exemptions from private schools. This would allow for about a 2% increase in state school spending in England. This analysis can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
The IFS report also projects that transfers from the private to the state-sector will be low at equivalent to less than 1% of state funded places.
The department regularly speaks to local authorities about all local pupil place planning pressures.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with local educational authorities on the potential costs of supporting displaced former private school children with special educational needs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy and will confirm the introduction of these changes at the Budget on 30 October. The Office for Budget Responsibility will also certify the government’s costings for these measures at that time. The right time to discuss any funding for state funded schools is at the Spending Review.
Children with Education, Health and Care plans that provide a necessary local authority funded place at a private school will not be impacted by this policy. This is because local authorities can reclaim VAT on service expenditure through existing routes.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) assumes a net gain to the public finances of £1.3 to 1.5 billion per year in the medium to long run as a result of removing tax exemptions from private schools. This would allow for about a 2% increase in state school spending in England. This analysis can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
The IFS report also projects that transfers from the private to the state-sector will be low at equivalent to less than 1% of state funded places.
The department regularly speaks to local authorities about all local pupil place planning pressures.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to consider a career as a (a) SEND teacher and (b) member of support staff in a SEND school.
Answered by David Johnston
High-quality, well-supported teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for children, and it is particularly important for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). That is why, on top of last years’ teacher pay award of 6.5%, which was the highest in over thirty years, the department ensures that an additional SEND allowance of up to £5,009 per year must be paid to teachers in a SEND post that requires a mandatory special educational needs qualification and involves teaching pupils with SEND.
The department is further encouraging people to consider becoming teachers, including teachers of SEND, through its Get into Teaching service and marketing campaign. The campaign provides inspiration and support to explore a career in teaching and directs people to the Get into Teaching service’s website.
Through the website, prospective trainees can access support and advice through expert one-to-one Teacher Training Advisers, a contact centre, and a national programme of events. The long-standing campaign has established a strong brand identity for teaching over time and continues to do so across the teacher lifecycle, supporting initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment whilst aiming to raise the status and improve perceptions of the profession over time.
The department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The ITT financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, a £15 million increase on the last cycle.
The department is also offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. Similarly, it has convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how the department can go further to support trust and school leaders to minimise workload for teachers and leaders.
The government values and appreciates the dedication, professionalism and hard work of support staff, and knows that they play a key role in supporting children and young people with SEND. The department’s education reforms gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of support staff. Schools should have this freedom as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs. To support schools recruit and train teaching assistants, schools can access up to £7,000 in levy funding through the recently revised Level 3 Teaching Assistant apprenticeship.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with (a) local authorities and (b) academy trusts on increasing the level of pay above the statutory minimum wage for non-teaching staff in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The government has given schools the freedom to set pay and conditions for support staff according to their own circumstances.
Local government employees, including school support staff, are covered by the National Joint Council terms and conditions, known as the Green Book. Most schools, including academies, use the local government pay scales in conjunction with the Green Book.
The pay scales are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and local government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central government does not have any formal role in these matters.
For the lowest pay scale, there has been an increase of 22% over the two years since April 2021, to £11.59 an hour. This is above the current national living wage of £10.42 an hour.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the HGV skills boot camp.
Answered by Robert Halfon
A statistical release published in November 2023 showed that there were 5,710 learner starts in total in HGV Skills Bootcamps between April 2022 and March 2023. Sustained provision of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving has been welcomed by the road freight sector, which has seen high levels of ongoing demand for these training places. This was also evidenced in an implementation report on delivery in the 2021/22 financial year, which showed that Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving was oversubscribed in comparison with other sectors. Further insights into the effectiveness of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving will be set out in the publication of our completions and outcomes report for Skills Bootcamps delivery later this year for the 2021/22 financial year.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on updating apprenticeship standards; and what representations she has received from business stakeholders on these standards.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This is a matter for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. I have asked its Chief Executive, Jennifer Coupland, to write to the hon. Member for Bosworth, and a copy of this reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of businesses have used their apprenticeship service account to transfer unused levy funds to SMEs in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Transfers are a way for large employers to use their levy funds to support apprenticeships in any other business, including smaller employers, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities to help meet local or sector-specific needs.
Levy-paying employers have been able to transfer 25% of their annual funds since April 2019, when this was increased from 10%, and have been able to use an online service since 2021 to make the process quicker and simpler. Since September 2021, over 500 employers, including ASDA, HomeServe and BT Group, have pledged to transfer over £33 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes.
The table below shows the number and proportion of levy-paying employers that have used their apprenticeship service accounts to transfer funds to non-levy paying employers in each of the last three financial years. The department does not hold transfer data specific for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but can confirm that SMEs represent most non-levy employers on the apprenticeship service.
Financial Year | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Number of levy paying employers that have transferred funds to non-levy employers. | 390 | 520 | 580 |
Proportion of levy paying employers that have transferred funds to non-levy employers. | 2.0% | 2.5% | 2.7% |
When reviewing these figures, it is important to note that only unused funds can be transferred. Some employers make full use of their levy funds and so have no funds to transfer.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What progress her Department has made on implementing the Government's Autism Strategy 2021-2026; and what steps she plans to take to implement the objectives in 2024.
Answered by David Johnston
The department worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to develop a refreshed cross-government autism strategy, which was published in July 2021 and includes children and young people. The national strategy sets out the department’s vision to make life fundamentally better for autistic people, their families and carers by 2026.
The department has made significant progress on implementation of the strategy.
Examples of key actions taken have included:
In 2024, DHSC is prioritising updating the Autism Act statutory guidance by working across government, including with the department, to support the NHS and local authorities to deliver improved outcomes for autistic people in line with the national autism strategy. This updated guidance will be subject to public consultation in 2024. Delivery of the cross-government actions set out in the national autism strategy remains a priority for 2024 and progress will continue to be monitored.