Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have been out of school for one year or longer as a result of not having been able to find a setting that meets their needs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects data about children who are not in a school but being taught in another setting, such as pupil referral units or at home, through the Alternative Provision census and the Elective Home Education collection. The latest data on children in Alternative Provision, including those with Special Educational Needs (SEN), is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. The latest data about children in Elective Home Education, including those with SEN, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education.
The Department also collects data about children missing education, who are not registered at school or otherwise receiving suitable education, from Local Authorities on a voluntary basis. The latest published figures, which include the proportion of children with SEN, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education.
Data is not available on how long children have spent in these arrangements.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education of 14 September 2023 on Kinship Care, Offical Report, Column 408WH, if she will publish the methodology used to estimate the number of children in kinship in the 2021 census.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 14 September, the department agreed to share the latest data on the number of children in kinship care according to the Office for National Statistic’s (ONS) 2021 census. The kinship care data from the 2021 census can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/adhocs/1345ct210105census2021. The kinship care data from the 2011 census is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/adhocs/1344ct1286census2011
The ONS published an article on 26 September 2023 which describes how the figures have been derived from the 2021 census, available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/articles/kinshipcareinenglandandwales/census2021. The description of how the figures have been derived also appears in the notes of the tables the ONS has already published. Caution is needed when inferring any trends from these data sets as the Census figures for 2021 are of higher quality than the 2011 Census figures. The quality note on ‘Comparing Census 2021 household relationships with 2011 Census’ can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/methodologies/demographyandmigrationqualityinformationforcensus2021
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on providing funding additional to her Department's capital budget to support the implementation of the guidance on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in education settings, published on 31 August 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that poses an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury.
The Government has committed to spend whatever it takes to keep children safe. The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the Department will cover all reasonable requests.
The Department will then also fund refurbishment or rebuilding projects, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the School Rebuilding Programme. The Department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The cost of the work needed at each school with RAAC will vary depending on the extent of the issue and the nature of the buildings. The Department is working closely with affected schools and colleges to understand and support their needs. The Department has also assigned a dedicated caseworker to each school and college affected, who will work with them to assess their particular needs and implement individually designed mitigation plans.
More broadly, the Department has continued to invest in improving the condition of schools and colleges, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2023/24 financial year. On top of this, the Department is transforming 500 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme. A total of 400 schools have been confirmed, with 100 places reserved for later in the programme. Buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues have been prioritised, including some now known to contain RAAC. The Department is committed to the projects that have already been announced as being rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The Department will always put the safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of mitigating against the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete across the entire school estate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that poses an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury.
The Government has committed to spend whatever it takes to keep children safe. The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the Department will cover all reasonable requests.
The Department will then also fund refurbishment or rebuilding projects, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the School Rebuilding Programme. The Department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The cost of the work needed at each school with RAAC will vary depending on the extent of the issue and the nature of the buildings. The Department is working closely with affected schools and colleges to understand and support their needs. The Department has also assigned a dedicated caseworker to each school and college affected, who will work with them to assess their particular needs and implement individually designed mitigation plans.
More broadly, the Department has continued to invest in improving the condition of schools and colleges, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2023/24 financial year. On top of this, the Department is transforming 500 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme. A total of 400 schools have been confirmed, with 100 places reserved for later in the programme. Buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues have been prioritised, including some now known to contain RAAC. The Department is committed to the projects that have already been announced as being rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The Department will always put the safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Question 44 of the oral evidence given by her Department's Chief Operating Officer to the Committee of Public Accounts on 13 July 2023, HC 1338, when she plans to publish the full results of the Condition Data Collection 1 survey.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The full school level data from the first Condition Data Collection programme was published in the House Libraries on 20 July 2023. This is accessible at: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2285521/details.
It is the responsibility of academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies, who work with the schools they run to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools, to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building.
If the Department is made aware of a building that poses serious imminent risks to the safety of pupils or staff, immediate action is taken to ensure their safety and remediate the situation. There are no open areas within schools or college buildings where the Department knows of an imminent risk to life.
The Department helps responsible bodies to meet their responsibilities by providing significant capital funding for their schools, delivering rebuilding programmes and providing guidance and support. The Department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 for keeping school buildings safe and in good working order, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings at 500 schools, prioritising poor condition and potential safety issues.
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) data helps the Department understand the condition of the school estate in England and how it is changing over time, and the data is part of the evidence base used to make school condition funding allocations.
CDC was one of the largest data collection programmes in the UK public sector.
The data was collected between 2017/19 and reflects a visual snapshot of the estate as it was and therefore does not reflect the current condition of the school buildings. In May 2021, the Department published the key findings of the CDC programme in the report ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’, which can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf. The report provides school condition data at national and regional level.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Question 44 of the oral evidence given by her Department's Chief Operating Officer to the Committee of Public Accounts on 13 July 2023, HC1338, for what reason her Department has not published the full results of the Condition Data Collection 1 survey.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The full school level data from the first Condition Data Collection programme was published in the House Libraries on 20 July 2023. This is accessible at: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2285521/details.
It is the responsibility of academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies, who work with the schools they run to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools, to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building.
If the Department is made aware of a building that poses serious imminent risks to the safety of pupils or staff, immediate action is taken to ensure their safety and remediate the situation. There are no open areas within schools or college buildings where the Department knows of an imminent risk to life.
The Department helps responsible bodies to meet their responsibilities by providing significant capital funding for their schools, delivering rebuilding programmes and providing guidance and support. The Department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 for keeping school buildings safe and in good working order, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings at 500 schools, prioritising poor condition and potential safety issues.
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) data helps the Department understand the condition of the school estate in England and how it is changing over time, and the data is part of the evidence base used to make school condition funding allocations.
CDC was one of the largest data collection programmes in the UK public sector.
The data was collected between 2017/19 and reflects a visual snapshot of the estate as it was and therefore does not reflect the current condition of the school buildings. In May 2021, the Department published the key findings of the CDC programme in the report ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’, which can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf. The report provides school condition data at national and regional level.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the guidance entitled Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC): guidance for responsible bodies and education settings with confirmed RAAC, published by her Department on 31 August 2023, when her Department received new evidence about the safety risk posed by RAAC that led her Department to publish revised guidance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. The Department discovered details of three new cases over the summer, where RAAC that would have been graded as non-critical has failed. The first of these was in a commercial setting. The second was in a school in a different educational jurisdiction.
It was right to carefully consider the cases and scrutinise the technical details from these. The Department’s technical officials were able to investigate the situation in one case where the plank that had failed was fully intact as it was resting on a steel beam after it failed. They concluded that it would previously been rated non-critical.
Ministers were carefully considering the first two cases, and advice from officials, when a third failure of a panel occurred, at a school in late August. The Department’s technical officials also visited this school to investigate the failure. In light of all three cases, it was right to make the difficult decision to change Departmental guidance for education settings and take a more cautious approach.
Following careful analysis of these recent cases, a precautionary and proactive step has been taken to change the approach to RAAC in education settings ahead of the start of the academic year, as outlined in our guidance.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.3 of the National Audit Office report entitled Condition of school buildings, HC 1516, published June 2023, if she will publish the Spending Review case on school buildings funding sent to HM Treasury by the Department of Education ahead of the 2020 Spending Review.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Audit Office report outlines different levels of possible investment in the school estate. However, decisions about investment have to be made over a vast range of significant infrastructure projects across government. The Department regularly speaks to HM Treasury about investment in the education estate. It would be inappropriate to disclose the details requested of the sensitive negotiations between HM Treasury and the Department. It would only show part of the picture on a complex decision-making process that takes place between multiple departments, ministers, officials, and other individuals, and would not reflect that such a process has to look across the board at priorities. It would also breach the long-standing traditions, and expectation, of confidential and often commercially sensitive information not being disclosed into the public domain, and of allowing officials to give full and frank advice to ministers.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which organisations have been contracted by her Department to survey school buildings suspected to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete; and when those contracts were entered into.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes details of all construction contracts awarded over £10,000 This information is accessible at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search. Contracts will be published within 30 days of awarding the contracts.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free schools have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete on their school estate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. It has always been the case that where we are made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, the Department takes immediate action.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day-to-day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building.
The Department has acted decisively and proactively to tackle this issue. This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK. The Department issued comprehensive guidance in 2018, and subsequent years, to all responsible bodies highlighting the potential risks associated with RAAC and supporting them to identify this within their buildings, as well as to take appropriate steps in meeting their obligations to keep buildings safe. The most recent guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-estates-guidance.
There are over 22,000 schools and colleges in England, and the vast majority are unaffected. A significant proportion of the estate was built outside the period where RAAC was used, with around one third of the estate built since 2001, therefore, the Department has focused efforts on buildings built in the post-war decades.
The Department issued a questionnaire in March 2022, asking responsible bodies to inform the Department of any suspected RAAC identified in their estates. Responsible bodies have submitted questionnaires for over 98% of schools with blocks built in the target era, of which there are 14,900. We are pressing all remaining schools to get checks completed, to determine which schools require surveys.
The Department is contacting responsible bodies to help them respond to this request and to advise on what needs to be done, so that they can establish whether they believe they have RAAC. This work will continue until we have a response for all target era schools.
Schools and colleges where RAAC is suspected are being fast tracked for surveying, which is used to confirm whether RAAC is actually present. All schools and colleges that have already told us they suspect they might have RAAC will be surveyed within a matter of weeks, in many cases in a matter of days.
All schools where RAAC is confirmed are provided with a dedicated caseworker to support them and help implement a mitigation plan and minimise the disruption to children’s learning.
Across Government, Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out. The Department for Education published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.
Schools will contact parents where RAAC is identified and inform them of any impacts on their child. The vast majority of schools are unaffected. Any parents that are unsure if their child’s school is affected should contact their school directly.
While some short term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to pupil learning and ensure that pupils continue to receive face-to-face teaching. Where there is any disturbance to face-to-face education, schools will prioritise attendance for vulnerable children and young people and children of key workers. The guidance published by the Department in August also includes guidance on provision for pupils with SEND and sets out expectations that schools continue to provide free school meals to eligible pupils.
The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the department will provide that support for all reasonable requests. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.
All previously confirmed Schol Rebuilding Programme projects announced in 2021 and 2022 will continue to go ahead. A full list of confirmed projects can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
Further information on RAAC in education settings is available on the Education Hub: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/06/new-guidance-on-raac-in-education-settings/.