Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average proportion of students was obtaining the equivalent of (a) Grade 5 or better and (b) Grade 4 or better in GCSE (i) English and (ii) Maths in each Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index decile in each year since 2010.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
However, the department publishes the percentage of pupils achieving grades 4/5 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs by Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) deciles.
Data back to 2014/15 is published in the annual key stage 4/GCSE and equivalent statistical releases, which are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4. To find data by IDACI, see 'pupil residency and school location tables'.
Reformed GCSEs using the 9-1 grading scale were first introduced in 2016/17 with most GCSEs exams using the scale by 2018/19.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the (a) name and (b) URN of all currently open state schools alongside the (i) URN, (ii) Establishment number and (iii) name of the predecessor institutions for each.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Information on all open and closed establishments in England is published on the Get Information about Schools (GIAS) service, which can be accessed here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. Files available to download include information for all establishments (including name, URN and type of school) as well as a file with links to any predecessor or successor establishment. The files can be found here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Downloads.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list all (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory guidance issued to schools and colleges since 4 July 2024, along with the dates on which the guidance was issued.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested can be found in the attached spreadsheet.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the predicted cost of children looked after is in 2024-25; and what proportion of this is allocated to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).
Expenditure under the last administration on asylum seeker services for children, within local authority children’s services, increased by 29.7% to £341.7 million in 2023/24. This accounted for 4.2% of the total spend on looked after children.
The asylum seeker services for children spending line is unlikely to capture all expenditure on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). This spending line will only capture expenditure related to UASC that has not been recorded in other spending lines. For example, if a UASC is fostered then the associated expenditure will be captured in the ‘fostering services’ spend line by local authorities. These other lines are not disaggregated in the data collection so the department is unable to determine what proportion of fostering spend is spent on UASC.
The relevant data can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure and data guidance and a breakdown of spending categories is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-251-2023-to-2024/section-251-financial-data-collection-2023-to-2024-guidance-for-local-authorities-compiling-their-outturn-statement.
In 2024/25, local authorities have planned expenditure on children looked after in gross terms to be £7.8 billion, of which £268.4 million is planned to be spent on asylum seeker services for children. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure.
Local authorities typically underbudget, so budgets are generally a poor indicator of actual spend, but they are currently the only published data available for 2024/25. For example, local authorities spent £1.5 billion, 23%, more than budgeted for in 2023/24 on looked after children. Gross planned spend on looked after children for 2023/24 was £6.6 billion and the actual spend on looked after children in 2023/24 was £8.1 billion. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure/2023-24#dataBlock-b3207b9e-46a0-4a1e-8e8a-7bfa46e2241b-tables and here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Government spent on children looked after in 2023-24; and what proportion of this was on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).
Expenditure under the last administration on asylum seeker services for children, within local authority children’s services, increased by 29.7% to £341.7 million in 2023/24. This accounted for 4.2% of the total spend on looked after children.
The asylum seeker services for children spending line is unlikely to capture all expenditure on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). This spending line will only capture expenditure related to UASC that has not been recorded in other spending lines. For example, if a UASC is fostered then the associated expenditure will be captured in the ‘fostering services’ spend line by local authorities. These other lines are not disaggregated in the data collection so the department is unable to determine what proportion of fostering spend is spent on UASC.
The relevant data can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure and data guidance and a breakdown of spending categories is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-251-2023-to-2024/section-251-financial-data-collection-2023-to-2024-guidance-for-local-authorities-compiling-their-outturn-statement.
In 2024/25, local authorities have planned expenditure on children looked after in gross terms to be £7.8 billion, of which £268.4 million is planned to be spent on asylum seeker services for children. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure.
Local authorities typically underbudget, so budgets are generally a poor indicator of actual spend, but they are currently the only published data available for 2024/25. For example, local authorities spent £1.5 billion, 23%, more than budgeted for in 2023/24 on looked after children. Gross planned spend on looked after children for 2023/24 was £6.6 billion and the actual spend on looked after children in 2023/24 was £8.1 billion. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure/2023-24#dataBlock-b3207b9e-46a0-4a1e-8e8a-7bfa46e2241b-tables and here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools' expenditure was on staff in each of the last three years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Overall core revenue funding for schools totals almost £61.6 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Each school has autonomy to allocate their budgets, including for their staff, to best meet the needs of their pupils to ensure they have the best opportunities in life.
The latest three years of published data for schools’ spending relates to the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. Our estimates in the table below for the proportions of expenditure for teachers and support staff have been compiled by combining published expenditure data sets from academies, which budget by academic year, and local authority maintained schools, which budget by financial year. We have not included cash expenditure data as combining financial and academic year data on school expenditure for different types of schools is less robust for estimating expenditure amounts than it is for estimating proportions. The pattern of expenditure in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 was affected by COVID-19.
Financial year | Primary schools | Secondary schools |
Proportions of expenditure in 2020/21 | Teachers: 50.6% Support staff: 33.0% | Teachers: 59.1% Support staff: 23.8% |
Proportions of expenditure in 2021/22 | Teachers: 49.0% Support staff: 32.8% | Teachers: 57.4% Support staff: 23.8% |
Proportions of expenditure in 2022/23 | Teachers: 48.1% Support staff: 33.1% | Teachers: 55.7% Support staff: 24.0% |
Further data on schools’ expenditure in the years following the 2022/23 financial year will be published in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of reports of financial irregularities at the University of Greater Manchester.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This is a matter for the University of Greater Manchester. We understand the Office for Students, the independent regulator for higher education (HE) in England, has also been notified of this case. The university is conducting its own investigation, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.
This government is determined to ensure the safeguarding of public money and in January we published a consultation with proposals to strengthen oversight of partnership delivery in HE.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 28587 on Schools: Standards, how many and what proportion of the schools expected to experience mandatory intervention will be (a) academised and (b) rebrokered.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department expects twice as many mandatory interventions in schools, through both structural intervention and targeted regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) interventions. This is expected to total around 370 schools experiencing mandatory intervention averaged annually over the next three years, based on the pattern of Ofsted inspections in recent years and the number of schools already meeting proposed intervention criteria. Over the past three years, the numbers of maintained schools and academies placed in an Ofsted category of concern were roughly equal, and we anticipate a similar picture in future years.
The government’s consultation on school accountability reform proposes a better and faster approach to intervention in all schools, regardless of whether they are maintained schools or academies.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools (a) initially applied to be part of the universal primary school breakfast clubs pilot and (b) subsequently pulled out.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to offering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England, beginning with the launch of an early adopter scheme in summer term 2025.
Schools were invited to express their interest in taking part by 20 December 2024. A list of participating schools will be published in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people started apprenticeships at level (a) 2, (b) 3, (c) 4, (d) 5, (e) 6 and (f) 7 in each public service in each year since 2015.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship level was not collected by the previous government as part of the public sector data return.
The latest data on public sector apprenticeship new starts for the years it was collected can be found in the links below.
2023/24 financial year: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/680d7c76-ab1a-4fea-d82c-08dd4a33315d.
2022/23 financial year: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/ef860ba0-ea81-4edf-d82d-08dd4a33315d.
2017/18 to 2021/22 financial years: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/81667830-1958-49f0-d82e-08dd4a33315d.