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Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Free Schools
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special free schools had an inadequate Ofsted rating in the last three years.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

42 special free schools had an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 5 special free schools had an Outstanding rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. The proportion of Good special free schools is higher than the figure for all special schools. 62% of special free schools that were inspected in the last 3 years were Good in comparison to 53% of all special schools that were inspected in the last 3 years. 3 special free schools had an Inadequate rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 3 special free schools are in special measures as of 31 January 2024. Ofsted inspection data from 31 January 2024 is the most recent available.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Free Schools
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special free schools had an outstanding Ofsted rating in the last three years.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

42 special free schools had an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 5 special free schools had an Outstanding rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. The proportion of Good special free schools is higher than the figure for all special schools. 62% of special free schools that were inspected in the last 3 years were Good in comparison to 53% of all special schools that were inspected in the last 3 years. 3 special free schools had an Inadequate rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 3 special free schools are in special measures as of 31 January 2024. Ofsted inspection data from 31 January 2024 is the most recent available.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Free Schools
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special free schools had an Ofsted inspection in the last three years.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

42 special free schools had an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 5 special free schools had an Outstanding rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. The proportion of Good special free schools is higher than the figure for all special schools. 62% of special free schools that were inspected in the last 3 years were Good in comparison to 53% of all special schools that were inspected in the last 3 years. 3 special free schools had an Inadequate rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 3 special free schools are in special measures as of 31 January 2024. Ofsted inspection data from 31 January 2024 is the most recent available.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Free Schools
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special free schools are in special measures.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

42 special free schools had an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 5 special free schools had an Outstanding rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. The proportion of Good special free schools is higher than the figure for all special schools. 62% of special free schools that were inspected in the last 3 years were Good in comparison to 53% of all special schools that were inspected in the last 3 years. 3 special free schools had an Inadequate rating following an Ofsted inspection between 31 January 2021 and 31 January 2024. 3 special free schools are in special measures as of 31 January 2024. Ofsted inspection data from 31 January 2024 is the most recent available.


Written Question
Faith Schools: Special Educational Needs
Wednesday 25th October 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the findings of the research paper entitled Serving their communities? The under-admission of children with disabilities and ‘special educational needs’ to ‘faith’ primary schools in England, published in the Oxford Review of Education on 2 October 2023.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is determined that all children and young people receive the support they need to benefit from their education and progress to the next stage of their lives.

Children should be able to attend a school of their parents’ choice where possible. By law, all children with an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan must be admitted to the school named in the Plan. A parent, carer, child or young person can request that a school designated as having a religious character (commonly known as a faith school) be named on an EHC Plan. Local authorities should do their best to accommodate such a request but should not name the school if it is unsuitable for the child’s age, ability, aptitude and special educational needs, or if naming the school would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education of other children or the efficient use of resources.

Where a child with special educational needs does not have an EHC Plan, their parents will need to apply for a school place in the same way as for other children without an EHC Plan. Places must be allocated in accordance with the schools’ published admissions criteria, which are set by the admission authority for each school, but they must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code which exists to ensure that places are allocated in a fair and transparent manner.

Admission authorities for schools designated as having a religious character may adopt admissions criteria which give priority to children of their faith, but they must offer a place to every applicant regardless of faith if there are sufficient places available. Free schools with a religious character may only allocate 50% of their places pupils by reference to faith in order to open up places to other children. Some other schools choose to limit the number of places they allocate with reference to faith, and many do not have faith admissions criteria at all.


Written Question
Schools: Battersea
Monday 18th September 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the condition of school buildings in Battersea.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. It has always been the case that where we are made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, the Department takes immediate action.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day-to-day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building.

The Department has acted decisively and proactively to tackle this issue. This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK. The Department issued comprehensive guidance in 2018, and subsequent years, to all responsible bodies highlighting the potential risks associated with RAAC and supporting them to identify this within their buildings, as well as to take appropriate steps in meeting their obligations to keep buildings safe. The most recent guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-estates-guidance.

There are over 22,000 schools and colleges in England, and the vast majority are unaffected. A significant proportion of the estate was built outside the period where RAAC was used, with around one third of the estate built since 2001, therefore, the Department has focused efforts on buildings built in the post-war decades.

The Department issued a questionnaire in March 2022, asking responsible bodies to inform the Department of any suspected RAAC identified in their estates. Responsible bodies have submitted questionnaires for over 98% of schools with blocks built in the target era, of which there are 14,900. We are pressing all remaining schools to get checks completed, to determine which schools require surveys.

The Department is contacting responsible bodies to help them respond to this request and to advise on what needs to be done, so that they can establish whether they believe they have RAAC. This work will continue until we have a response for all target era schools.

Schools and colleges where RAAC is suspected are being fast tracked for surveying, which is used to confirm whether RAAC is actually present. All schools and colleges that have already told us they suspect they might have RAAC will be surveyed within a matter of weeks, in many cases in a matter of days.

All schools where RAAC is confirmed are provided with a dedicated caseworker to support them and help implement a mitigation plan and minimise the disruption to children’s learning.

Across Government, Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out. The Department for Education published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.

Schools will contact parents where RAAC is identified and inform them of any impacts on their child. The vast majority of schools are unaffected. Any parents that are unsure if their child’s school is affected should contact their school directly.

While some short term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to pupil learning and ensure that pupils continue to receive face-to-face teaching. Where there is any disturbance to face-to-face education, schools will prioritise attendance for vulnerable children and young people and children of key workers. The guidance published by the Department in August also includes guidance on provision for pupils with SEND and sets out expectations that schools continue to provide free school meals to eligible pupils.

The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the department will provide that support for all reasonable requests. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.

All previously confirmed Schol Rebuilding Programme projects announced in 2021 and 2022 will continue to go ahead. A full list of confirmed projects can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.

Further information on RAAC in education settings is available on the Education Hub: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/06/new-guidance-on-raac-in-education-settings/.


Written Question
Schools: Battersea
Monday 18th September 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in Battersea have been identified as containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out.

The Government published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Thursday 27th April 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to ensure that changes to the SEND system do not make it more challenging for parents to receive support for their children.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement plan on Thursday 2 March 2023. This set out our intention to deliver a new national SEND and AP system, underpinned by creating new national SEND and AP standards for identifying and meeting needs, covering early, years, schools and post-16 provision. This approach will enable children to receive appropriate, evidence-based support for their needs at the earliest opportunity and without unnecessary bureaucracy. For those children and young people with SEND who do require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment, we have set out our vision for a reformed and consistent EHC plan process. This will ensure that children and young people with SEND get prompt access to the support they need, and that parents don’t face an adversarial system to secure this.

The department recognises that children with SEND may require support from a range of services, including social care. We have developed children's social care and SEND/AP reforms in parallel to ensure the two systems will provide high quality support for disabled children and their families. We will continue to deliver commitments for disabled children, as announced in the ‘Stable Homes: Built on Love’ implementation strategy and consultation, which was published in February 2023. These specifically include improving access to family help and accepting the recommendation of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care for the Law Commission to review children's social care legislation for disabled children, so that entitlements are clearer and easier for families to understand. These reforms will also build on the evidence we are gathering from the Short Breaks Innovation fund, a £30million investment over three years to test more effective approaches to providing short breaks for specific groups of children.


Written Question
Children: Disability
Thursday 27th April 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to ensure the equal availability and delivery of support for disabled children in all post codes.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department set out our mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively in mainstream education providers, reducing reliance on Education, Health and Care plans to access support.

We will improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should ordinarily be available in mainstream education providers, who are responsible for securing the support and from which budgets the support is obtained.

This will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education, no matter where they live or what their needs are. By the end of 2025, the department will publish a significant proportion of the national standards.


Written Question
Educational Institutions: Sanitary Products
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which education institutions in Battersea have made at least one order from the free period products scheme.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Since the launch of the Period Products scheme in January 2020, 97% of secondary schools and 92% of post 16 colleges in England now provide free period products to pupils.

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).

This data shows that of the 53 schools and colleges in Wandsworth who have ordered period products from January 2020 - July 2022, 15 of these were in Battersea. These are listed below:

Alderbrook Primary School

Allfarthing Primary School

Honeywell Junior School

Shaftesbury Park Primary School

Christ Church CofE Primary School

St George's CofE Primary School

St Mary's RC Voluntary Aided Primary School

St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Battersea

Saint John Bosco College

Westbridge Academy

Harris Academy Battersea

Belleville Wix Academy

Griffin Primary School

ARK John Archer Primary Academy

The Department will publish further management information in the future which will cover the school year from September 2022 until July 2023. All eligible organisations were contacted again in September 2022 to remind them of the scheme.