Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of fixed penalty notices for non-attendance at school on the wellbeing of households containing a clinically vulnerable adult who is shielding and a child of school age.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is vital that pupils continue to attend school for their education, wellbeing and long term development. Time spent out of school is detrimental for children’s cognitive and academic development, particularly for disadvantaged children. The Government guidance for the opening of schools during the COVID-19 outbreak is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
Children who live with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, but who are not clinically extremely vulnerable themselves, should still attend school. Guidance on shielding and protecting extremely vulnerable persons from COVID-19 is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.
The usual powers to secure high levels of attendance continue to be available to schools and local authorities during the COVID-19 outbreak. It would be for either the school or the local authority to decide if they wish to use a penalty notice as a sanction. When considering the appropriate action to tackle absence, schools and local authorities should consider the individual circumstances of each pupil and family and take the best course of action to support the child’s return to school.
Schools should consider concerns from pupils, parents and households who may be reluctant or anxious about school attendance and put the right support in place to address this. Schools will be able to provide reassurance of the measures they are putting in place to reduce the risk in school.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students with SEN who have completed two years of post-16 education as part of their Education, Health and Care Plan before accessing A-level provision were still attending 6th form study over the age of 20 in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Information on the number of SEN students completing two years of post-16 education as part of their education, health and care (EHC) plan before accessing A-level provision, and who were still attending 6th form study over the age of 20, is not held by the department.
The department publishes information on young people with an EHC plan by age and attainment here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/level-2-and-3-attainment-by-young-people-aged-19-in-2018.
Tables 7, 8 and 9 detail information on young people that had an EHC plan at age 15 that went on to attain Level 2, Level 2 with English and Maths and Level 3 by age 19. Tables 10 and 11 detail the same information by ages 16, 17 and 18.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the National Funding Formula on (a) the number of school places, (b) spending per pupil, (c) school spending reserves and (d) the sustainability of school funding in Garston and Halewood constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure that there is a school place available for every child. The Department provides local authorities with basic need funding for every new place that is needed, based on local authorities’ own data on pupil forecasts. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. Liverpool has been allocated £56.6 million to provide new school places from 2011-21, and Knowsley has been allocated £3 million.
The Department trusts schools to manage their own budgets and the vast majority are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The Department will be publishing data on maintained school reserves in 2018-19 in October, following the introduction of the national funding formulae. 2018-19 data on academy reserves will be published next spring.
On Friday 30 August, the Department announced a three-year settlement which will provide a total increase in funding of over £14 billion over the next three years, including an additional £7.1 billion in 2022-23, bringing the core schools’ budget in that year to £52.2 billion. This means we can ‘level up’ school funding by raising the minimum per pupil funding for secondary schools to £5,000 next year, and the minimum per pupil funding for primary schools to £3,750 in 2020-21 and £4,000 in 2021-22.
Overall, school funding is increasing significantly by 5% and the Department is increasing funding for the lowest-funded schools even faster. In addition, the Department are providing for an increase in per pupil funding at least in line with inflation for every school in England next year, with most schools attracting real terms increases.
This funding announcement means further increases for every school in Garston and Halewood over the next three years. The Department will be publishing school-level details in October.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in funding for high needs support on mainstream SEND provision in the Garston and Halewood constituency.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The information requested is not held centrally as the department does not break funding allocations down to a constituency level.
Local authorities are required to provide sufficient funds to enable schools to meet the cost of additional support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, up to the value of £6,000. This funding comes from the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).
When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This top-up funding and funding for special schools comes from the local authority’s high needs budget.
In 2013, the schools and high needs budgets within the DSG were created. As the DSG includes other budgets such as the early years budget, the department is unable to provide comparable figures before the creation of the blocks within the DSG in 2013-14.
In 2020-21, we will provide more than £700 million in additional high needs funding, bringing the national high needs funding total to over £7 billion. Every local authority will receive a minimum increase of 8% per head of their population aged 2-18 years old. We will provide provisional allocations to local authorities in October.
Schools and high needs funding allocations for 2013-14 to 2019-20 are as follows. In December 2018, the department allocated an additional £250 million of high needs funding nationally, in recognition of funding pressures. This additional funding is included within the final totals displayed.
In Knowsley:
Year | Schools funding figure | High needs funding figure |
2013-14 | £87.9 million | £19.2 million |
2014-15 | £86.3 million | £19.8 million |
2015-16 | £85.5 million | £19.7 million |
2016-17 | £85.4 million | £19.9 million |
2017-18 | £87.5 million | £19.7 million |
2018-19 | £89.7 million | £19.6 million |
2019-20 | £92.5 million | £20.3 million |
And in Liverpool:
Year | Schools funding figure | High needs funding figure |
2013-14 | £266.9 million | £41.4 million |
2014-15 | £267.3 million | £42.9 million |
2015-16 | £289.0 million | £44.0 million |
2016-17 | £292.9 million | £44.3 million |
2017-18 | £301.1 million | £46.1 million |
2018-19 | £302.6 million | £47.3 million |
2019-20 | £310.3 million | £49.6 million |
Both of these blocks are funded on a per-pupil basis, so where there are reductions in funding from one year to the next, this is a reflection of a reduction in pupil numbers.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department allocated to (a) Liverpool City Council and (b) Knowsley Borough Council to support children with SEND needs in each year since April 2010.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The information requested is not held centrally as the department does not break funding allocations down to a constituency level.
Local authorities are required to provide sufficient funds to enable schools to meet the cost of additional support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, up to the value of £6,000. This funding comes from the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).
When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This top-up funding and funding for special schools comes from the local authority’s high needs budget.
In 2013, the schools and high needs budgets within the DSG were created. As the DSG includes other budgets such as the early years budget, the department is unable to provide comparable figures before the creation of the blocks within the DSG in 2013-14.
In 2020-21, we will provide more than £700 million in additional high needs funding, bringing the national high needs funding total to over £7 billion. Every local authority will receive a minimum increase of 8% per head of their population aged 2-18 years old. We will provide provisional allocations to local authorities in October.
Schools and high needs funding allocations for 2013-14 to 2019-20 are as follows. In December 2018, the department allocated an additional £250 million of high needs funding nationally, in recognition of funding pressures. This additional funding is included within the final totals displayed.
In Knowsley:
Year | Schools funding figure | High needs funding figure |
2013-14 | £87.9 million | £19.2 million |
2014-15 | £86.3 million | £19.8 million |
2015-16 | £85.5 million | £19.7 million |
2016-17 | £85.4 million | £19.9 million |
2017-18 | £87.5 million | £19.7 million |
2018-19 | £89.7 million | £19.6 million |
2019-20 | £92.5 million | £20.3 million |
And in Liverpool:
Year | Schools funding figure | High needs funding figure |
2013-14 | £266.9 million | £41.4 million |
2014-15 | £267.3 million | £42.9 million |
2015-16 | £289.0 million | £44.0 million |
2016-17 | £292.9 million | £44.3 million |
2017-18 | £301.1 million | £46.1 million |
2018-19 | £302.6 million | £47.3 million |
2019-20 | £310.3 million | £49.6 million |
Both of these blocks are funded on a per-pupil basis, so where there are reductions in funding from one year to the next, this is a reflection of a reduction in pupil numbers.