Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of deaf children that achieve spoken language skills; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of early intervention programmes, including Auditory Verbal therapy, on educational outcomes for deaf children.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with hearing impairment, receive the support they need to succeed in their early years, at school and at college. We recognise the importance of spoken language skills and the particular challenges that deaf children face.
The newborn hearing screening programme is offered to parents of all babies. It plays a key role in the early identification of children with hearing impairment and then in providing their parents with the right help to develop their spoken and wider communication skills. Health visitors and specialist local authority teachers provide families with advice and support to maximise the development of such skills in the early years. In addition, the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, which all early years providers follow, has a strong focus on developing communication and language.
The department also has a comprehensive system for identifying where children have SEND and putting in place the right support for them, but we recognise that too often the experiences and outcomes of these children are poor. That is why earlier this year we consulted on the green paper, SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time, which set out proposals to improve the outcomes of children and young people. These proposals for strengthening the SEND system included commitments on early intervention, given the proven effectiveness of this approach. Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-review-right-support-right-place-right-time.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will meet with Auditory Verbal UK to discuss funding for early intervention programmes for deaf children.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is firmly committed to ensuring that children with special education needs and disabilities, including those who are deaf, receive the support they need to succeed in their early years, at school, and at college.
The Secretary of State for Education has received an invitation to meet with Auditory Verbal UK and will reply in due course.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make the free period products scheme permanent.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The period products scheme launched in January 2020, and has most recently been extended until July 2024.
The department will make information available about any extensions or changes to the scheme in due course.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will issue guidance to schools and colleges on consulting with students on period products in the context of the free period products scheme.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Guidance regarding the free period products scheme, including the new range of products available was updated on 8 September, the same day eligible organisations can order. This was developed in line with research from schools and colleges, and period product experts. The guidance states that schools and colleges know their learners best and, therefore, have the freedom to select the most suitable products for their learners considering cost and type of product. All eligible organisations were emailed in early September to remind them of their log in details and a link to the guidance will be provided.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) evaluate the free period products scheme.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The period products scheme launched in January 2020, and has most recently been extended until July 2024. Take up of the scheme is monitored regularly by the department and our supplier, phs. Within the first two years of the scheme, 94% of secondary schools and 90% of post-16 organisations had ordered at least once. These organisations have older students and therefore are more likely to have a higher proportion of students in scope, compared to primary schools.
The department publishes statistics regarding the scheme’s operation, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-scheme-management-information.
The department is considering opportunities to publish further management information in the future, as well as the need for further research into the scheme to evaluate its impact.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has plans to evaluate the impact of the free period products scheme in schools and colleges on the availability of those products in those settings.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The period products scheme launched in January 2020 and has most recently been extended until July 2024. Take up of the scheme is monitored regularly by the department and our supplier, phs. Within the first two years of the scheme, 94% of secondary schools and 90% of post-16 organisations had ordered at least once. These organisations have older students and therefore are more likely to have a higher proportion of students in scope, compared to primary schools.
The department is considering opportunities to publish further management information in the future, as well as the need for further research into the scheme to evaluate its impact.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what digital support her Department will provide as part of her family hubs offer.
Answered by Will Quince
Through the ‘Family Hubs – Growing Up Well’ digital project, we are partnering with five local authorities in England to develop digital and data solutions that solve problems faced by local authorities in delivering accessible, inter-connected education, health, and social care services for families.
The solutions will focus on improving how information is shared between professionals across a range of services in a Family Hub Network, and how families access and navigate services. These are key to strengthening the practical implementation of Family Hub Networks and levelling up outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged families.
Subject to standard agile digital delivery methodology, the solutions will enter beta testing in the 2022/23 financial year.
We anticipate that they will be available for participating local authorities in England in 2023.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will make an assessment of the implications for its policies of Action for Children’s report entitled Brighter Future Ahead? Comparing three generations of childhood.
Answered by Will Quince
The department welcomes Action for Children’s report.
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
With almost 1.32 million vacancies across the UK, the department's focus is on supporting parents into, and to progress in, work wherever possible. The department's approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. The expanded Plan for Jobs continues to help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.
In the 2021 Budget, the government announced a £500 million package for families. This includes a £200 million uplift to the Supporting Families programme taking total planned investment across the next 3 years to £695 million. This funding will help up to 300,000 more families facing multiple, interconnected issues to access effective support and improve their life outcomes.
£300 million of funding will be used to transform ‘Start for Life’ services and create a network of family hubs in half of council areas in England. This includes funding for a network of Family Hubs (£82 million) and parenting programs (£50 million). The government is committed to family hubs and will robustly evaluate the impact of the investment to gather best practice and inform future funding decisions.
The report also recommends a legal duty for early help. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care is due to set out its final recommendations this spring, and the government will consider those relevant to early help to inform any next steps.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the likely levels of discrepancy between the (a) skills and geographic location of people looking for work and (b) needs of employers (i) within sectors, (ii) between sectors and (iii) across the whole economy, following the lifting of covid-19 public health measures.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The department undertakes labour market analysis through numerous means to help determine immediate and longer-term skills needs, such as:
We last ran the ESS in 2019, which captured employer reported skill shortages by sector, occupation, location, and skill-type. The ESS showed that construction and manufacturing employers were among the sectors that struggled the most to find applicants with the right skills, experience, or qualifications. The ESS also showed that, within most sectors, employers found it the most difficult to find adequately skilled applicants for occupations classed as ‘skilled trades’.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for collecting data on job vacancies, which is a measure of employer skill needs. Since the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, official statistics show that the largest proportional increases in vacancies between May-July 2021 to August-October 2021 occurred in the construction sector, transport and storage sector, and manufacturing sector. Further information can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/november2021.
We are also working to make the skills system more responsive to employer need.
The ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper launched earlier this year set out our aims to build on the success of our flagship apprenticeships programme by putting employers at the heart of the system so that education and training provision meets their needs. By 2030, almost all technical courses will be aligned to employer-led standards, ensuring that the education and training people receive are directly linked to the skills needed for jobs.
The white paper also set out our plans for local areas to be able to plan what skills they need, with local employers leading the process. We are therefore introducing Local Skills Improvement Plans, starting in a small number of trailblazer areas in 2021 led by established employer representative organisations. The first eight were announced in July 2021. The Plans will bring together colleges and other providers, employers, Job Centres Plus, and other local organisations to identify skills needs and the capacity the area has to deliver them.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has provided a total of £352 billion to support the economy. This includes the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Plan for Jobs programmes such as Restart and Kickstart, alongside other measures to boost work search activity, skills and apprenticeships.
As a result, latest figures confirm we are now above pre-COVID-19 outbreak levels of employees on payroll.
We are working across government and across the country to identify sectors with immediate or growing demand and are implementing a range of initiatives to ensure that upskilling programmes meet this demand.
This work includes the sector-based work academy programme (SWAP) where Jobcentre staff work with local employers and tailor training and support packages to help claimants fill local vacancies. DWP is increasing the number of SWAP opportunities to 80,000 over the current financial year 2021/22.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in his Department have formal arrangements to work from home during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday 16 March 2020 that where possible, people should work from home, all employees of the Department for Education were asked to work from home from Tuesday 17 March. All DfE staff now have arrangements to work from home. All our buildings are closed, but remain accessible for a very small number of staff when required.
These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review.