Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including specific provision for blind and partially sighted young people in the National Careers Service.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Careers Service is a free, universal, government-funded careers information, advice and guidance service for everyone aged 13 and above in England.
All young people aged 13 to 18 can access information and advice through the webchat and telephone helpline, which are supported by local community-based careers advisers. This support from the National Careers Service supplements the provision of careers education, information, advice and guidance by schools and colleges.
The department regularly reviews the accessibility of the National Careers Service website to ensure it continues to meet the needs of all users, including those with visual impairments. The service is committed to making its website accessible for all users, in accordance with accessibility regulations. This includes ensuring users are able to listen to most of the website using a screen reader. An up-to-date version of the accessibility statement is available online.
Young adults aged 19 years and over, or aged 18 for those who are not in education, employment or training, can also access the service via face-to-face support from community-based careers advisers.
Adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are one of the priority groups for the service. They can access in-depth, tailored support from professionally qualified careers advisers, drawing on localised labour market information, including face-to-face support, information and advice through webchat, telephone helpline and website.
The National Careers Service has worked with the Thomas Pocklington Trust to offer advice to careers practitioners relating to the Trust’s work to improve the opportunities of blind and partially sighted people.
As outlined in the Get Britain Working White Paper, Jobcentre Plus will be brought together with the National Careers Service in England, to create a new Jobs and Careers Service, transforming the experience for all users. Accessibility for all, including blind or partially sighted customers, will continue to be a priority.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve pupil attendance at SEND schools in Battersea constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence and to ensure that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national approach to supporting all schools to tackle absence, including those in the Battersea constituency. Central to this approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, including special schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance can be found here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf.
The guidance promotes a support first approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs. The department is committed to ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs and will work with the sector as essential and valued partners to deliver our shared mission and restore parents’ trust.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department is strengthening its tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching the new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams. Supported by over £20 million, these teams will offer both mandatory targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools. The RISE teams are now beginning work with the first 30 schools eligible for the targeted, bespoke service, with additional schools to begin in April.
School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs, across all primary schools, including special schools, to ensure children start their day ready to learn.
The department is working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, which can be used to support eligible pupils to attend school regularly.
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 potential impact of trends in the number of enrolments of international students on the finances of universities.
Answered by Luke Hall
The government seeks to ensure that there is a fair and robust migration policy, whilst maintaining the UK’s place as a top destination for the best and brightest students from around the world. The department remains committed to the ambitions set out in the government’s International Education Strategy to host 600,000 international students per year and to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year, both by 2030.
The department expects the UK to remain a highly attractive study destination. The UK has four universities in the top ten, and 17 in the top 100, worldwide. The UK has a highly sought after higher education experience, which is respected by students across the globe. The department is hugely proud to have met its international student recruitment ambition two years running.
However, the level of legal migration remains too high. As a result, on 4 December 2023, the government announced a new package of measures to reduce net migration and curb abuse and exploitation of the country’s immigration system.
The Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of the higher education sector in England, continues to work closely with the Home Office, Department for Business and Trade, and other governmental departments to assess the impact of these changes on higher education providers.
Our universities are autonomous institutions responsible for managing their own budgets. The department also works closely with the OfS to understand the evolving landscape, including on risks relating to international students.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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/.
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.