Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her strategy is for raising standards in pre-school education.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The early years foundation stage profile results show year on year improvements for children achieving a good level of development (GLD) by age 5. For the 2015 to 2016 academic year, the results show that 69.3% of children achieved a GLD compared to 51.7% in 2013.
The quality of early years provision is also improving with 93% of settings rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding in December 2016 compared to 74% in 2012. Ofsted’s Childcare providers and inspections as at 31 December 2016 statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-december-2016.
Key to this is a well-qualified workforce with 77% of group based staff in 2016 holding at least a level 3 qualification relevant to childcare and 29% holding at least a level 6. Evidence shows that settings which employ more highly qualified staff are more likely to attract a good or outstanding rating from Ofsted. The Early Years workforce strategy published earlier this month, outlines how we will help employers attract, retain and develop staff to deliver high quality provision. The strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy.
The Government is working hard to ensure parents and children have access to high quality early years education places through the funded 15 hour entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds and for all three- and four-year-olds. The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) provides over £300 per eligible child to support better outcomes for disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds and the Foundation Years website includes good practice examples to help providers decide how to use the EYPP to improve outcomes for the disadvantaged children in their care. The EYPP will be kept under review.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with which university vice-chancellors she has discussed opening new free schools; and what progress has been made on opening such schools.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
My Rt. Hon Friend the Secretary of State has held meetings with vice chancellors and representative bodies, including Universities UK, as part of her engagement with the higher education sector on how it can step-up its involvement with schools, including through the establishment of Free Schools. The Government is currently considering responses to the Schools That Work For Everyone consultation and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representation she has received on the effect of university and college diversity officers on academic freedom.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department has not received any representations on the effect of university and college diversity officers on academic freedom.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2016 to Question 56626, for what reasons information that was held centrally from 2010 to 2014 on which charitable organisations her Department funds is no longer held centrally.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s financial system has never held information centrally that distinguished suppliers belonging to the voluntary and charitable sector. A manual process to identify them was discontinued in May 2014, when it was no longer required by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she has assessed the effectiveness of Regional School Commissioners.
Answered by Edward Timpson
As civil servants, Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are subject to the civil service performance management framework. Their performance is also monitored against a number of Key Performance Indicators, which cover their four core remits:
1. Taking decisions on the creation of new academies
2. Ensuring there are enough high-quality sponsors to meet local need
3. Monitoring academy performance and tackling underperforming academies and free schools
4. Providing advice and making recommendations in relation to free schools, university technical schools and studio schools.
The RSCs are accountable to the National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter. Alongside this, the RSCs provide regular updates to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, Lord Nash, together and individually, on specific cases.
This information is in the public domain and can be found here: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/education-committee/the-role-of-regional-schools-commissioners/written/21126.html
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which initiatives the Education Endowment Foundation has funded since its establishment; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of each such initiative.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Since the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) was established in 2011 through a £125 million grant from the Government, it has revolutionised the use of evidence in education. It has made grants worth £83 million to 133 projects working with over 8,300 schools and has published individual evaluation reports on 66 completed projects. The EEF has also identified nine programmes that it has previously tested and which show particular promise; each of which will receive further grant funding in order to test its impact at a larger scale. Full details of all of the projects that the EEF has funded to date, and evaluation reports on those which are complete, are published by the EEF on its website at: www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason her Department ceased funding for the charity Protecting Children and Uniting Families Across Borders; and what provision she has made for ensuring that charity's work is sustained.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I wish to offer Protecting Children and Uniting Families Across Borders (CFAB) a meeting with Department for Education officials. I have asked officials to contact the charity to arrange the meeting.
The Department for Education has provided past voluntary and community sector grants to CFAB, most recently in 2014-15. We allocated these grants through a competitive bidding process, and the grants were clearly time-limited. CFAB has applied for funding for later years, but has not been successful. These grants are not intended to provide core funding for charities.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will meet representatives of the charity Protecting Children and Uniting Families Across Borders to discuss how to provide specialist children's inter-country social work services.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I wish to offer Protecting Children and Uniting Families Across Borders (CFAB) a meeting with Department for Education officials. I have asked officials to contact the charity to arrange the meeting.
The Department for Education has provided past voluntary and community sector grants to CFAB, most recently in 2014-15. We allocated these grants through a competitive bidding process, and the grants were clearly time-limited. CFAB has applied for funding for later years, but has not been successful. These grants are not intended to provide core funding for charities.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues and other stakeholders on increasing the role played by Premier League and Football League teams in supporting the Government's free school and academy programmes.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I have not had any discussions with Cabinet colleagues or other stakeholders on increasing the positive role already played by Premier League and football league teams in supporting the Government’s free school and academy programmes.
Asked by: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department uses to allocate funding to the voluntary and charitable sector; and if she will publish those criteria and any scoring system that they support.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s grant and procurement policy are aligned and adhere to the recently published Government Grant Standards and the Commercial Operating Standards. Both determine that the Department will compete by default - including in relation to VCSE organisations. All commercial approaches contribute to achieving the departmental objectives for education, children’s services, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England, and equalities and are underpinned by the following principles:
Specific criteria are determined in relation to what is being procured or granted but support the principles above. In all cases, VCSE providers will need to respond to the Department’s selection and award criteria provided in the relevant documentation which is published on Contracts Finder or on Funding Central.
There is no specified scoring system as this is in part determined by the criteria, but a common system used for the majority of competitions is:
Score 5: excellent evidence
Score 4: strong evidence
Score 3: good evidence (often used as the minimal acceptable score)
Score 2: partial evidence
Score 1: poor evidence
Score 0: no evidence/question not answered.