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 adequacy of support available to young people on the autism assessment waiting list who are sitting exams for Ofqual-regulated qualifications.
Answered by David Johnston
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is taking steps to improve access to assessments for autism. In 2023/24, DHSC allocated £4.2 million to improve services for autistic children and young people including assessments, pre-and post-diagnostic support, and the continuation of the Autism in Schools programme. Additionally, in April 2023, NHS England published a national framework to support the local NHS to commission and deliver autism assessment services for children, young people, and adults.
The Department for Education wants all children and young people, no matter what their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools and colleges must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has Special Educational Needs (SEN) gets the special educational provision they need.
The SEND Code of Practice is clear however that meeting the needs of a child with SEN does not require a diagnostic label or test. Instead, the department expects teachers to monitor the progress of all children and young people and put support in place where needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.
The 2023 SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan set out the department’s vision to 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 clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and practitioner standards will be developed to support frontline professionals, including one on autism.
The department's Universal Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuing professional development and support for the school and further education workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those with autism, through one programme, which aims to reach 70% of schools and colleges in England per year.
The contract offers autism awareness training and resources, and over 100,000 professionals have undertaken this autism awareness training since the Universal Services programme launched last year.
Access arrangements can be agreed with exam boards for candidates with specific needs, including SEND, to help them access assessments to show what they know and can do without affecting the integrity of the assessment.
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) or equivalent for a school or college must lead on the access arrangements process, fully supported by teaching staff and members of the senior leadership team. SENCos are responsible for taking appropriate steps to gather an appropriate picture of need, demonstrate normal ways of working for candidates, and ensure that approved access arrangements are put in place for internal school tests, mock examinations and examinations.
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 Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The overall purpose of Gold Command meetings is to set the strategic direction and make key decisions relating to the Government’s response to RAAC in schools and colleges. This may include discussion on the mitigation plans for individual schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC.
St Leonard’s Catholic School has an assigned project director working alongside the trust and school leadership team, providing support and direction to ensure all children returned to face to face education as quickly as possible. This was achieved on 30 October 2023. Additionally, a working group of officials, school leadership and trust personnel meet regularly to continue to mitigate the effect of RAAC for pupils and staff.
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 David Johnston
St Leonard’s Catholic School has an assigned project director who has been working with the trust and school leadership team, providing support and direction to ensure all children return to face-to-face education as quickly as possible. As a result of this work, all pupils returned to full-time face-to-face learning on 30 October 2023.
Work is underway to provide temporary classrooms on the school playing field, which will allow years 7 and 8 to return from Ushaw College. The Department is working with the school on timing of the move, and this will be early in the new year.
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 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 David Johnston
St Leonard’s Catholic School has an assigned project director who has been working with the trust and school leadership team, providing support and direction. As part of this work, the Department has commissioned a risk assessment. The decant of coursework and other items, as requested by the school, was completed on Friday 27 October.
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.