To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Universities: Students
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that students from the UK have access to places at UK universities.

Answered by Robert Halfon

This government is focused on levelling up opportunities so that every young person, regardless of their background or geographic location, can get the skills and training needed to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs. The department wants to ensure people have the opportunities that will open doors and create the talent pipeline that our country needs to prosper now and in the future.

In 2021/22, Higher Education Statistics Agency data shows that UK students accounted for 85% of all undergraduate entrants to UK universities.

A disadvantaged English domiciled 18-year-old is now 74% more likely to enter higher education (HE) than they were in 2010, and the department is working to further close the disadvantage gap with our Access and Participation reforms. HE providers registered with the Office for Students that intend to charge tuition fees above the basic amount are rewriting their access and participation plans to focus on raising attainment in school pupils. This will help ensure pupils have more options for post-18 study and that they are better equipped to choose the path that is right for them from higher technical qualifications and apprenticeships as well as degrees. Providers should have revised plans in place for September 2025, with the first wave being ready for September 2024.

The government is committed to a sustainable funding model that supports high-quality provision, meets the skills needs of the country and maintains the world-class reputation of UK HE. The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2024/25 academic year to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of HE under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.

The government has also continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the current, 2023/24, academic year.


Written Question
Educational Psychology: Training
Thursday 23rd November 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of part-funding the training of educational psychologists; and whether she is taking steps to increase the number of educational psychologists.

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

The department knows that educational psychologists play a vital role in the support available to children and young people, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

That is why, since 2020, the department has increased the number of educational psychologist trainees that it funds, from 160 to over 200 per annum, to continue supporting Local Authority educational psychology services. This includes full funding for the tuition fees and a bursary for the first year, while a bursary for the second and third years of training is funded by local authorities where trainees undertake their placements.

In November 2022, the department announced a further £21 million investment to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, in addition to the £10 million announced earlier in 2022 to train over 200 educational psychologists from September 2023.


Written Question
Pupils: Hearing Impaired
Friday 17th November 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to school pupils suffering from (a) partial and (b) total hearing loss.

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

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan outlines the department’s mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively, including pupils with partial or total hearing loss.

It is the responsibility of local authorities, schools, and further education settings to commission appropriately qualified staff to support the education of children and young people in their area.

To teach a class of pupils with sensory impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant mandatory qualification, which is a Mandatory Qualification in Sensory Impairment (MQSI). Teachers working in an advisory role to support these pupils should also hold the appropriate qualification.

To offer MQSIs, providers must be approved by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. The department’s aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers for children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairments, in both specialist and mainstream settings. There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh to begin in September 2024.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has also developed a Sensory Impairment apprenticeship and expects it to be available from 2025. This will open a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments by enabling people to undertake high-quality apprenticeships.


Written Question
Schools: Private Finance Initiative
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to end the use of PFI contracts in schools.

Answered by Nick Gibb

It has not proved possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.


Written Question
Schools: Processed Food
Tuesday 19th September 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to prevent ultra-processed foods from being served in schools.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Diets high in calories and saturated fat, salt, and sugar are associated with an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases.

The standards for school food are set out in the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools/school-food-standards-practical-guide. These standards were implemented by the Department to ensure that schools provide pupils with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that pupils have the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day.

The standards set out that a pupil’s healthy, balanced diet should consist of:

  • plenty of fruit and vegetables
  • plenty of unrefined starchy foods
  • some meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein
  • some milk and dairy foods
  • a small amount of food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt.

The standards restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods. The standards also specify which types of food should be served at school and how often. For example, one or more portions of vegetables or salad should be served as an accompaniment, and one or more portions of fruit must be provided every day. There must also be at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. These standards ensure that pupils always have healthy options available for their school lunch.

The Department keeps these standards under review.


Written Question
Students: Fees and Charges
Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to retain the current level of tuition fees for home fee status students.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Maximum tuition fees, and the subsidised loans available from government to pay them, remain at £9,250 for the current, 2023/24, academic year in respect of standard full-time courses.

The department is also freezing maximum tuition fees for 2024/25 to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.

The department believes a continued fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.

Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees under this level. In deciding to keep charging full fees, providers will want to ensure that they can continue to deliver courses which are fit for purpose and help students progress their qualifications.

As part of wider HE reforms, the department is investing around £750 million of additional funding over the three year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to support high quality teaching and facilities including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE Sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.


Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Thursday 29th June 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention rate of teachers.

Answered by Nick Gibb

There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 2,800 (less than 1%) since last year, and an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010. Just over two thirds of teachers who qualified five years ago are still teaching.

The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.

The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.

The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas (EIAs). The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.

The Department has also raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching.

The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support, and professional development for all new teachers, underpinned by the ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework (ECF). Further information on the ITT Core Content Framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-core-content-framework. Further information on the ECF can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-career-framework. Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence based training, across ITT and into their induction.

To support retention, the Department has worked with the education sector and published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter. Further information on the workload reduction toolkit can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. Further information on the Education Staff Wellbeing charter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. More than 2,600 schools have signed up to the Charter so far.


Written Question
Teachers: Strikes
Thursday 29th June 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support school children whose learning has been impacted by industrial action.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department is working to ensure the effect of the strikes on schools is as minimal as possible. In order to mitigate the immediate effect of strike days, the Department has updated the ‘Handling strike action in schools’ guidance, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-strike-action-in-schools.

Where there is a need to restrict attendance, schools should prioritise vulnerable pupils, children of critical workers,(for example NHS and emergency services staff) and pupils due to take public examinations and other formal assessments. The Secretary of State is also encouraging teachers to inform headteachers in advance whether they intend to take strike action, to help schools and families plan ahead, and avoid full closures. Where provision in school cannot be delivered, the use of remote teaching is encouraged. The Department has also updated the remote teaching guidance.

As a result of these measures, the strikes so far have seen on average over 90% of schools remaining fully open or partially open to pupils.

Where schools had to partially or fully close, teachers will ensure that pupils catch up on any lost education is caught up as quickly as possible.


Written Question
Sports: Teachers
Tuesday 20th June 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that teachers who coach pupils in a sport are trained in treating and preventing concussion.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The PE Curriculum is designed to enable schools to coach pupils in a variety of sports and physical activities. Schools have the responsibility to ensure they have considered the health and safety of their pupils.

Staff should be given the information and training needed to effectively manage risks when delivering physical education. To support them to do this, the Department has published guidance. This guidance highlights resources that can support schools to consider health and safety risks and signposts teachers to the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) for advice on health and safety in PE and school sport. More information on the AfPE can be found here: http://www.afpe.org.uk/.

On 28 April 2023, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced the publication of the first UK-wide Concussion Guidelines for Grassroots Sport to help players, coaches, parents, teachers, wider school staff, National Governing Bodies and sports administrators to identify and manage concussion effectively. The publication can be found here: https://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/policy/research-publications/concussion-guidelines.

Expert advice is also available for schools from the National Governing Bodies of individual sports, who are responsible for issuing the safety directives for their individual sports and for ensuring appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm.


Written Question
Teachers: Crimes of Violence
Tuesday 20th June 2023

Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of violent assaults against teachers in schools.

Answered by Nick Gibb

No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The Government is clear that all school employers, including trusts, have a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees. The Government has taken decisive action to improve pupils’ behaviour and to ensure that all schools are calm, safe and supportive environments where pupils and staff can work in safety and are respected.

The Department supports head teachers in taking proportionate and measured steps to ensure good behaviour in schools. To support schools to do so, the Department has strengthened the Behaviour in Schools guidance, which is the primary source of help and support for schools on developing and implementing a behaviour policy that can create a school culture which has high expectations of all pupils. This guidance outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour and the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour. The Government also backs head teachers to use exclusions when required, as a last resort.

The Government is providing £10 million of funding for the behaviour hubs programmes to enable schools and multi-academy trusts with exemplary behaviour cultures and practices to work in partnership with those that want to improve their behaviour culture.