Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the quality of specialist education in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Receiving the support to succeed is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and to give every child the best start in life, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
The government is committed to improving the school inspection system, including inspections of specialist settings. This will include moving away from the single headline grade to a richer system through a report card.
School report cards will be implemented for all state-funded schools, including those in the specialist sector. As part of our engagement and consultation process, we will explore whether, and how, these report cards need to be tailored to meet the unique needs of different types of state-funded schools.
Our new regional improvement teams will work with teachers and leaders in struggling schools to quickly and directly address areas of weakness and empower sustained improvement.
To drive up standards, all state-funded schools, including special schools, can draw on new regional improvement teams for help in accessing and understanding the array of available improvement programmes and training proven to make a real impact. These teams will encourage and foster a self-improving system where schools and trusts support each other, learning from peers, and sharing best practice.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the statutory guidance entitled Cost of school uniforms, published on 19 November 2021, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending that guidance to reduce the number of branded items required.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government has committed to legislate through the Children’s Wellbeing Bill to limit the number of items of branded uniform and PE kit that schools can require. This proposed legislation will go further than the current statutory guidance, which only requires schools to keep branded uniform items to a minimum.
The existing statutory guidance will be updated once the new legislation has received Royal Assent. This will ensure that both work together to ensure that schools will need to justify every piece of branded uniform they include in their uniform policy. This will put an end to schools still requiring large numbers of branded items.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) sits with local authorities.
The department supports local authorities to meet this duty by providing annual capital funding. In March 2024, local authorities were notified of £850 million of investment in places for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision (AP).
Local authorities can use this funding to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings. It can also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
Cheshire West and Chester Council has received £11.6 million in capital funding through this route between 2022 and 2025. Halton Borough Council has received just under £5.5 million.
In summer 2023, the department also began collecting data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision, along with corresponding forecasts of demand for these places. This data will help the department to more effectively support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to provide sufficient specialist places.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of children who are (a) eligible and (b) not registered for free school meals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department publishes statistics annually which detail the number of pupils registered to receive free meals. The latest data shows that over 2 million pupils are registered for benefits-based free school meals (FSM), which is 23.8% of all pupils. Close to 1.3 million additional pupils benefit from universal infant free school meals. Taken together, over one third of pupils receive free school meals.
The department does not collect data on the proportion of pupils that may be entitled to FSM but do not make a claim. Therefore, the department has not made a recent estimate on the number of children not registered for free school meals.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures available to school governing bodies to investigate complaints.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In academy trusts, trust boards must ensure there is a procedure to deal with complaints from parents and carers and other individuals to meet their legal duties. In maintained schools, governing bodies must establish procedures to deal with all complaints about the school and any community facilities or services it provides, unless alternate statutory procedures apply as outlined in Section 29(1) of the Education Act 2002.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing maximum student loan amounts in line with inflation.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students, and to keep the cost of higher education (HE) under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.
The government recognises the additional cost-of-living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has therefore already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students.
The government has increased loans for living costs each year for students in England, with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year, and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of HE are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the (a) cost and (b) availability of student accommodation.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Student accommodation is a busy part of the housing market. As universities and landlords are private and autonomous bodies the government has no role in the provision of student accommodation, nor a remit to intervene in how it is allocated.
The department expects universities and private landlords to review their accommodation policies to ensure that they are fair, clear, and have the interests of students at heart. This includes making accommodation available at a range of affordable price points.
Since 2006, the interests of students have been protected by three government-sponsored accommodation Codes of Practice, so that if a student believes their accommodation provider is treating them unfairly, they can raise a complaint under the relevant code of practice.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for children’s services.
Answered by David Johnston
The government always considers all local government spending when finalising budgets at finance settlements, to ensure councils can continue to deliver vital services, including children’s care. The government works closely with the sector to understand their needs and funding requirements.
In 2021/22, local authority gross expenditure on children and young people's services was £11.9 billion. For 2023/24, the Local Government Finance Settlement has made available up to £59.7 billion for all local government services in England, including spending on children's services. This is an increase in Core Spending Power of 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23.
Within the Stable Homes, Built on Love reform strategy, the government announced an additional £200 million made available for care system transformation until 2024/25. Longer-term funding decisions to scale up these reforms will be made in subsequent spending review periods.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's statutory guidance on the Cost of school uniforms published on 19 November 2021, whether her Department has received any complaints from (a) parents and (b) carers in England on the guidance in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department started recording complaints from parents and carers about compliance with the cost of school uniforms guidance in September 2022, when the statutory guidance, published in November 2021, came into force.
The Department received no complaints in 2021 and received two complaints in 2022. Since the guidance came into force, the Department has contacted three schools about complaints concerning schools not complying with the statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms.
The statutory guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools her Department has communicated with about complaints concerning uniform policy costs since November 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department started recording complaints from parents and carers about compliance with the cost of school uniforms guidance in September 2022, when the statutory guidance, published in November 2021, came into force.
The Department received no complaints in 2021 and received two complaints in 2022. Since the guidance came into force, the Department has contacted three schools about complaints concerning schools not complying with the statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms.
The statutory guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms.