Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the withdrawal of the WJEC Level 3 qualification in Criminology on the (a) diversity and (b) inclusivity of post-16 education (i) for students from (A) disadvantaged backgrounds and (B) underrepresented groups and (ii) generally.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Qualifications reform aims to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students and only fund qualifications that are necessary, high-quality and lead to good progression outcomes.
Between October 2020 and January 2021, the government consulted on proposals to reform post-16 technical and academic qualifications at Level 3. A subsequent policy statement, published in July 2021, considered all the evidence submitted by consultation respondents. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforms-to-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england.
Qualification reform places A levels and T Levels at the heart of study programmes, which evidence shows provide the best foundation to progress, either into higher education (HE) or skilled employment. The department recognises there is a need for alternative academic qualifications (AAQs) in a small range of subjects aimed at progression to HE, to support the A level offer. The department will fund small AAQs where they are necessary because there is no A level in the sector subject area or where it is strategically important to do so.
Qualifications reforms are being undertaken in cycles. Criminology qualifications will be considered in cycle 2. An announcement, on which qualifications will be approved and which will see funding removed, will be made in 2025 and implemented from 1 August 2026. Criminology is contained in the sector subject area of sociology and social policy which also contains a sociology A level that will serve students wishing to progress to HE. For those wishing to progress into other careers, such as police or prison officer, they could undertake small AAQs in subjects such as uniformed protective services alongside A levels such as physical education and sociology. Our reforms also allow for technical occupational entry qualifications to be developed. Consequently, criminology has not been listed as an area where the department would accept a small AAQ.
An impact assessment was undertaken to consider the post-16 reforms at Level 3 as a whole, which can be read here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.
For students from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented groups, the department expects the impact to be generally positive, as those learners will see the biggest improvement in the quality of qualifications, and their outcomes thereafter. Students are expected to benefit from a more rigorous qualification system, with qualifications that better equip students with the necessary skills for progression into employment or further study. This in turn should help improve their economic returns and employability. However, the department recognises that for a small minority of students, Level 3 may not be achievable in future. That is why the department is raising the quality of qualifications at Level 2 and below so that there is plenty to offer students from all backgrounds who cannot access Level 3 straightaway, or for students who wish to exit into valuable occupations at Level 2.
There will also be provision available for students who require additional help and support to reach Level 3. This includes the academic progression programme pilot and the T Level foundation year, where the department has seen 49% of students progress to Level 3 or higher from the first cohort.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools and colleges to adapt their curriculum offering following the withdrawal of the WJEC Level 3 qualification in criminology (a) where the qualification was a significant component of vocational education programmes and (b) generally.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The intentions of the reforms to qualifications at Level 3 and below are to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students, and only fund qualifications that are high-quality and lead to good progression outcomes. By ensuring that approved qualifications meet new, more rigorous criteria, young people can be confident that they will be able to progress to university and higher technical education and directly into apprenticeships and skilled employment.
Qualification reform puts A levels and T Levels at the heart of study programmes. Qualifications reforms are being undertaken in cycles.
Criminology qualifications will be considered in cycle 2 of the qualification’s reforms. An announcement, on which qualifications will be approved and which will see funding removed, will be made in 2025 and will be implemented from 1 August 2026. For students interested in the police, prison service, and other uniformed or emergency services, large applied general qualifications in uniformed protective services will remain funded until 2026. After this, qualifications in these subjects will either be approved as small alternative academic qualifications (AAQs), or technical qualifications mapped against relevant Level 3 occupational standards. Criminology is contained in the sector subject area of sociology and social policy. This sector subject area also contains a sociology A level which will serve students wishing to progress to higher education.
Students will have the option to choose A levels or a mixed study programme. A student aspiring to be a police constable for example, could study a small AAQ alongside appropriate A levels such as law, physical education, or sociology. Alternatively, they can study a relevant technical occupational entry qualification, which will be based on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education approved occupational standards. These have been designed by employers to give the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for the occupations to which they pertain. Consequently, criminology has not been listed as an area where the department would accept a small AAQ.
Over the last six months the department has invited all providers to attend one of ten in-person events in five cities across England to support them in understanding the details and timeline for reform and to provide information to help planning and designing their curriculum offer. The department has launched a set of web pages that provide colleges with the information they need. These web pages can be found here: https://support.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb/sections/16829562632850-Qualifications-Review.
The department will continue to support schools and colleges through online information, future guides and events as the dates where the new qualifications landscape is introduced move closer.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to reinstate martial arts to the curriculum for (a) GCSE and (b) A-Level PE.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In 2018, the government conducted a public consultation to invite proposals to add activities to the published GCSE, AS and A level PE activity lists. To be included on the list, activities needed to meet the five criteria set out in the consultation and had to be sports recognised at the time by Sport England.
Martial arts, such as judo, ju jitsu, karate, and taekwondo, were put forward for consideration, but failed to meet criterion five. They were found to have too many variations which would make it too difficult for teachers and moderators to reliably assess.
The department currently has no plans for a review of the PE activity lists. The government wishes to provide certainty for schools by not changing the lists of eligible activities on a regular basis. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the inclusion or non-inclusion of an activity on the list does not represent a view on the legitimacy or value of the activity. Activities are included based solely upon whether they meet the criteria set out in the consultation and therefore their suitability as a means of assessing students’ skills as part of a PE qualification.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to measure the effectiveness of the SEND change programme.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In March 2023, the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan committed to testing a suite of SEND and AP policy proposals. The Change Programme is a vehicle for testing these proposals. Since the Change Programme launched in September 2023, the department has been working with the Change Programme authorities, including Bedford which is the lead local authority for the East of England Change Programme Partnership (CPP).
The effectiveness of the Change Programme will be measured through a formal independent evaluation for which the department has appointed an independent evaluator to conduct a process and implementation evaluation of the SEND and AP Change Programme as a whole. The evaluation will help the department understand which elements of the change programme are working well or less well and help shape suitable recommendations for improving ongoing delivery and future policy and practice.
As the Change Programme partnerships test the reforms they will feedback as to what is and is not working.
This feedback loop, led by the department and the change programme delivery partner, REACh, will not only help understand effectiveness but will also allow the department to share any early insights into the effectivity of reforms more widely. Feedback is received through the department’s frequent meetings with REACh.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary schools in (a) Bedford constituency and (b) England employ a play or creative arts therapist.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2022 Schools White Paper sets out the Government’s plan for all schools to provide safe, calm and supportive school environments, with targeted academic, pastoral and specialist support, helping children and young people to fulfil their potential.
It is for schools to decide what support or therapies they provide, considering the needs of their pupils. The information requested is not held by the Department.
The roles of staff employed by schools is collected as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. The data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Data from the November 2022 census is currently being collected and will be published in the summer of 2023.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the Period product scheme for schools and colleges in England to also include higher education institutions.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Period Products Scheme launched in January 2020 and has recently been extended until July 2024. Within the first two years of the scheme, 94% of secondary schools and 90% of post-16 organisations had ordered products at least once. Higher Education providers are autonomous bodies, and it is up to them how they meet their students’ needs. This can include providing discretionary financial support where required, which can be used to cover the purchase of period products.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the reading and spelling levels of children taught through (a) the phonics approach and (b) alternative methods.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
There is significant evidence that systematic phonics works better than other methods for teaching early reading. In 2005, the Department commissioned a review into the teaching of early learning and the report from the review, led by Sir Jim Rose, was published in 2006. The Rose Review recommended that systematic phonics should be the prime approach for teaching children to read.
The review can be found here: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5551/2/report.pdf.
A review on phonics was carried out by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Sutton Trust who are, together, the Government-designated What Works Centre for Education. They found that phonics is more effective on average than other approaches for early reading, when embedded in a rich literacy environment. Systematic phonics consistently supports younger readers to master the basics and the EEF considers it the most secure area of pedagogy.
The review can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics.
The Department is committed to raising literacy standards, ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding. Since 2010, the Government has accelerated the effective teaching of phonics, by placing it right at the heart of the curriculum. This has included introducing the annual phonics screening check (PSC) in 2012 for pupils at the end of year 1 and changing the national curriculum published in 2013 which requires schools to teach reading using systematic phonics. In 2019, 82% of 6-year-olds met the expected phonics standard, compared to 58% in 2012. Success in phonics is also predictive of later reading comprehension.
In 2016, England recorded its highest ever score in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, with a significant improvement compared to 2006 and 2011. This improvement is largely attributable to increases in the average performance of lower performing pupils and boys. These results followed a greater focus on reading in the primary curriculum, and a particular focus on phonics.
In 2018, the Department also launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The 34 English Hubs in the programme are primary schools which excel at teaching early reading. The Department has since invested a further £17 million in this school-to-school improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure.
The teaching of reading now also receives greater focus in Ofsted’s inspection framework.
In 2021/22 the academic year, the Department introduced the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) to act as a baseline for primary progress measures at the end of key stage 2. The assessment will help determine a pupil’s experience prior to primary school, which will be influenced by various factors. At present there are no plans to publish interim progress measures as there is currently no data to assess the pupil’s progress in phonics between the RBA and PSC (the first cohort to have taken the RBA will complete their PSC in June 2023).
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the announcement of 2 January 2022 entitled More support to keep pupils in the classroom, how many of the 7,000 air purifiers his Department has delivered to schools; and how much of the £25 million funding committed for CO2 monitors has been (a) delivered and (b) spent as of 13 July 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
As of 24 June 2022, there were 8,026 department-funded air cleaning units and 386,699 department-funded CO2 monitors delivered to state-funded education providers.
A total of £23,933,979.60 (including VAT) has been spent on CO2 monitors in this contract.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that homeless children aged 16 and 17 without family support are accommodated by their local authority as looked-after children.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have issued joint guidance to local authorities which makes clear that children’s services have responsibility for assessing the needs of 16 and 17 year olds who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness and that, if they need to be accommodated, they should normally become a looked after child. A copy of this guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/provision-of-accommodation-for-16-and-17-year-olds-who-may-be-homeless-and-or-require-accommodation.
There are only two circumstances in which a local authority might find that a homeless young person should be accommodated by homelessness services under the Housing Act 1996, rather than by children’s services under section 20 of the Children’s Act 1989 – becoming looked after. These are where the young person is either:
Alongside this guidance, Coram Voice’s 'Always Heard' safety net service, funded by the Department for Education, has provided vital advocacy support for looked after children, care leavers and children on the edge of care since 2017. As a direct result of the work of the Always Heard service, children have been made safe, removed from homelessness, and poor or unlawful care planning decisions have been challenged. Coram Voice continued to provide vital advocacy support during the COVID-19 outbreak to young people at most risk – with over half of the children and young people using the safety net service in 2020-21 from harder to reach groups, including homeless children. The department will continue to work together with MHCLG, to ensure this group of young people receive support and accommodation which meets their needs and, most importantly, keeps them safe.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure accommodation for homeless and looked after 16 and 17 year olds is regulated and safe.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We have consulted on a set of ambitious proposals to reform unregulated provision for children in care and care leavers, including how to enforce new national standards for providers to drive up quality, keeping young people safer and delivering better outcomes. We will be responding to this consultation and setting out our plans for ensuring the high-quality of unregulated semi-independent and independent accommodation in due course. Our proposals are available here:
https://consult.education.gov.uk/unregulated-provision/unregulated-provision-children-in-care/.
The government is clear that any 16- or 17-year-old who is homeless, or threatened with homelessness, must be assessed by children’s services, as set in the statutory guidance. This guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/provision-of-accommodation-for-16-and-17-year-olds-who-may-be-homeless-and-or-require-accommodation.
Every child, who children’s services have a duty to accommodate, will have to be placed in a setting that meets the new national standards. There are only 2 circumstances in which a local authority might find that a homeless young person should be accommodated by homelessness services under the Housing Act rather than by children’s services under section 20 of the Children’s Act. These are where the young person is either:
In those circumstances, where a young person is accommodated by homelessness services under the Housing Act rather than by children’s services, the department will continue to work together with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, local communities, the government and with sector experts, to ensure this group of young people get the right support and accommodation they need.