Asked by: Mark Ferguson (Labour - Gateshead Central and Whickham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of qualified teacher status on the quality of teaching.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Evidence shows that high quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving the outcomes of children, which is why qualified teacher status (QTS) is so important. The government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and ensuring the best life chances for every child. As part of this, we are ensuring that new teachers entering the classroom have, or are working towards, QTS.
Teachers who have undertaken initial teacher training (ITT) leading to QTS have demonstrated that they meet all the teachers’ standards at the appropriate level and have had access to high quality, regulated training, followed by a statutory induction. The children in their classes will benefit from having professionally qualified, well-trained teachers.
All primary and secondary ITT courses leading to QTS must incorporate the ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) in full. The CCF is based on the best available evidence of what makes high quality teaching. A review of the CCF alongside the Early Career Framework (ECF) was undertaken during 2023. Building on the evidence underpinning the frameworks, in addition to what the department learnt from the first few years of CCF implementation and ECF delivery, the content of the ITT, CCF and the ECF were reviewed and updated into the combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF). This covers the first three years or more of a teacher’s career and articulates what trainee and new teachers need to know and be able to do. From September 2025, the ITTECF will replace the CCF and become mandatory for accredited ITT providers to incorporate into their primary and secondary ITT courses leading to QTS.
Asked by: Mark Ferguson (Labour - Gateshead Central and Whickham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school children are (a) eligible for and (b) registered to receive free school meals in Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The most recently published figures on free school meals (FSM) eligibility are from the January 2024 school census, published in June 2024 here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
The statistics are based on counts of pupils who are eligible for FSM and are known by their school to be claiming. The department does not hold information on pupils who are eligible but do not claim.
Where statistics were published prior to the changes in parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for schools’ and pupils’ statistics.
The constituency of Gateshead Central and Whickham is made up of elements of two old constituencies: Gateshead and Blaydon. As of January 2024, 35% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Gateshead and 21% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Blaydon were eligible for and claiming FSM. This compares with 24% for the whole of England.
The schools and pupils publication includes data at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency, which can be accessed here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. GIAS reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes. Updates to geographical data in GIAS are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.
Asked by: Mark Ferguson (Labour - Gateshead Central and Whickham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many kinship carers are registered in Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency; and if she will make an estimate of the average number of kinship carers registered per constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information is not available as requested. The department does not collect information on the number of kinship carers or the average number of registrations per constituency. We do collect information on the numbers of foster care placements with family or friends. The latest figures at national level were published in a statistical release 'Children looked after in England including adoptions: 2022-23', which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/168a811f-bbe6-4988-a17b-08dcfae39e23. However, information on children looked after is collected at local authority level and is not held centrally for parliamentary constituency areas.
In recent years, there have been two statistical reports on the number of kinship carers that have been produced by other government departments. In both cases, the data was only published at local authority level.
On 7 November 2024, Ofsted published official statistics on 'Fostering in England 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024', which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fostering-in-england-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024/fostering-in-england-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024#family. This set of statistics presented figures on the number of family and friends households and carers, sometimes known as kinship care. The underlying data table provided by Ofsted can be accessed at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F6729e321541e1dfbf71e8b5c%2FFostering_in_England_underlying_data_2024_final.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.
The table indicates that there were 55 approved family and friends households in Gateshead local authority in 2023/24 compared to 45 in 2019/20.
In September 2023, the Office for National Statistics published separate data on the proportion of households with kinship care by local authority area in the data release 'Kinship care in England and Wales: Census 2021', which can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/kinshipcareinenglandandwalescensus2021. These figures were derived using older data from the 2021 national census and showed detailed characteristics of children living in households without their parents but with other relatives in the year 2021. The report also presented the geographical distribution of kinship care households (Section 6). The proportion of households with kinship care arrangements (as a proportion of households of five people or fewer containing anyone aged 17 years and under) in Gateshead local authority was reported as 2.2%.
Asked by: Mark Ferguson (Labour - Gateshead Central and Whickham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships started in Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship starts are published at parliamentary constituency level in the Apprenticeships official statistics, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/apprenticeships. Data for Gateshead Central and Whickham by academic year from 2018/19 to 2022/23 can be found in the dataset called ‘Geography - New Parliamentary Constituency Breakdowns’.
Asked by: Mark Ferguson (Labour - Gateshead Central and Whickham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding per pupil was in mainstream schools in (a) Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency, (b) the North East Combined Authority Area and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The table below sets out funding statistics for the North East and England in each of the last five years.
The figures represent the funding provided through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). All of the figures in the table exclude growth funding but include premises. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools across the country have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25.
The DSG is allocated at local authority level and, as such, the equivalent figures are not available for Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area.
The table below provides average per-pupil funding for the last five years, from the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years:
Year | DSG Schools Block per-pupil funding | |
North East * | England | |
2020/21 | £4,828 | £4,845 |
2021/22 | £5,220 | £5,228 |
2022/23 | £5,538 | £5,534 |
2023/24 | £5,869 | £5,838 |
2024/25 | £5,993 | £5,957 |
* The data the department holds for the North East is for the North East region, as opposed to the North East Combined Authority Area.