Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of staff in early years education settings in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by David Johnston
The department collects information on the childcare workforce through the survey of childcare and early years providers. This is a long-standing, nationally representative survey of 10,000 childcare and early years providers. The latest data was published on 15 December 2022, and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2022. The department does not collect data on workforce at constituency level.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Durham County Council, about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, such as workforce recruitment and retention.
Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
The early years workforce makes a huge contribution to young children’s lives. Supporting and growing this workforce to deliver the transformative reforms announced by the Chancellor in the Spring 2023 Budget is a priority for the department. The department is developing a range of new workforce initiatives including the launch of a new, national, multi-channel broadcast recruitment campaign, planned for the beginning of 2024, to boost interest in the sector and support the recruitment of talented staff.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of schools closing due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete on children’s mental health.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The guidance for education settings with confirmed RAAC in their buildings makes clear that schools should consider educational, safeguarding and wellbeing impacts for pupils and do their best to minimise the amount and length of any disruption to education, with support from their caseworker. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-guidance-for-responsible-bodies-and-education-settings-with-confirmed-raac.
The Department’s priority is that pupils remain in face to face education or can return to it as soon as possible. Where schools do need to deliver education remotely, they are likely to already have established plans in place that have worked well for them, including through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department has produced guidance to support schools to provide high-quality remote education, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providing-remote-education-guidance-for-schools.
This guidance recommends that schools have systems for checking, daily, whether pupils are safe at home and engaging with their remote education. To help schools in doing that, the Department has brought together various sources of government support at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mental-health-and-wellbeing-support-in-schools-and-colleges.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete at St Leonard's Catholic School has been raised at Gold Command meetings; and what steps have been taken in relation to the school on that matter.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) Ordinary and (b) Named Day written parliamentary questions her Department has answered on time in 2023 to date.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions from Members of Parliament. The below table provides the proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named day written parliamentary questions answered by the Department from 1 January 2023 to 23 October 2023, as at 23 October.
PQ type | Answered | Answered on time |
PQ-Ordinary | 2,379 | 2,033 (86%) |
PQ-Named | 817 | 587 (72%) |
Total | 3,196 | 2,620 (82%) |
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a timeline of the deployment of demountable classrooms for St Leonard’s Catholic School in the City of Durham.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department is taking steps to make a risk assessment of allowing specialist teams to retrieve books, coursework and other items which have been inaccessible at St Leonard’s Catholic School since September 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school students receive free school meals in (i) City of Durham constituency (ii) County Durham and (iii) the North East.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes annual figures on free school meals (FSM) eligibility for pupils in England. The most recent figures are for January 2023, and are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23.
In the City of Durham constituency in January 2023, 1,642 (25%) state funded primary school pupils and 1,272 (18%) secondary school pupils were known to be eligible for FSM. Data showing the number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM in County Durham Local Authority and the North East region is accessible here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/83927831-5a72-47bb-d6ab-08dbca2fee12.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding for children in receipt of free school meals at St Leonard's School in County Durham.
Answered by Nick Gibb
For 2023/24, the National Funding Formula has allocated £480 annually on the basis of the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) through the ‘FSM factor’. The meal rate for universal infant FSM in 2023/24 has increased to £2.53. This represents an increase of 5% and brings funding in line with wider FSM for the first time.
The Department recognises the cost pressures that some schools and suppliers may be facing. The Department is holding regular meetings with other Government Departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
The Department is aware that the catering provision at St Leonard’s School has been closed due to the areas containing RAAC and will cover additional costs relating to the provision of FSM as a consequence of RAAC.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's statutory guidance for local authorities on Travel to school for children of compulsory school age, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the eligibility criteria for a child over eight years old to access free travel to their nearest suitable school from 3 to 1.5 miles from their home.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s school travel policy aims to make sure no pupil is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local Authorities must arrange free home to school travel for pupils of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and live more than the statutory walking distance from it. The statutory walking distance is two miles for pupils aged under eight and three miles for those aged eight or over.
The Department does not have any plans to amend the statutory walking distance, but pupils will also be eligible for free travel if they live within the statutory walking distance and would not be able to walk to school because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. In addition, there are extended rights to free home to school travel for pupils who are eligible for free school meals or who live with a parent that claims the maximum amount of working tax credit. Pupils aged eight or over, but under eleven, may have free travel to their nearest school if it is more than two miles from their home. Pupils aged eleven to sixteen may have free travel to one of their three nearest schools, provided it is between two and six miles from their home, or to a school that their parents have chosen on the grounds of their religion or belief that is between two and fifteen miles from their home.
Local Authorities are responsible for assessing route safety to determine whether a pupil is eligible for free home to school travel. Local knowledge is likely to be important and the Department does not have a role in these decisions. The Department’s guidance explains that Local Authorities should consider a range of risks such as canals, rivers, ditches, speed of traffic and fields of vision for the pedestrian and motorist.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's statutory guidance for local authorities on Travel to school for children of compulsory school age, what criteria her Department uses to determine whether a walking route is safe for the purposes of access to free school travel.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s school travel policy aims to make sure no pupil is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local Authorities must arrange free home to school travel for pupils of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and live more than the statutory walking distance from it. The statutory walking distance is two miles for pupils aged under eight and three miles for those aged eight or over.
The Department does not have any plans to amend the statutory walking distance, but pupils will also be eligible for free travel if they live within the statutory walking distance and would not be able to walk to school because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. In addition, there are extended rights to free home to school travel for pupils who are eligible for free school meals or who live with a parent that claims the maximum amount of working tax credit. Pupils aged eight or over, but under eleven, may have free travel to their nearest school if it is more than two miles from their home. Pupils aged eleven to sixteen may have free travel to one of their three nearest schools, provided it is between two and six miles from their home, or to a school that their parents have chosen on the grounds of their religion or belief that is between two and fifteen miles from their home.
Local Authorities are responsible for assessing route safety to determine whether a pupil is eligible for free home to school travel. Local knowledge is likely to be important and the Department does not have a role in these decisions. The Department’s guidance explains that Local Authorities should consider a range of risks such as canals, rivers, ditches, speed of traffic and fields of vision for the pedestrian and motorist.