Covid-19: Education Settings

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Tuesday 6th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

It is absolutely right that schools have, and should continue to have, close and strong working relationships with local public health teams, not just in York, but right across the country. We have emphasised that point as part of the guidance that we have issued and made available to schools, because we recognise that we still have more to do. Work to defeat this virus will continue past the summer and into the winter.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con) [V]]

I welcome today’s announcements. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the easing of restrictions will not affect his plans to provide high-quality tutoring alongside normal education in schools?

[Gavin Williamson]

I can absolutely reassure my hon. Friend that that is the case. High-quality tutoring, with the roll-out of the national tutoring programme that will have a positive impact on so many, is one of the absolute top priorities of this Government. It is the single thing that can probably have the biggest impact on helping children to catch up on lost learning. That is why we are making such a substantial investment in it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 1st March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities receive a quality education.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities receive a quality education.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Vicky Ford)]

The pandemic has been especially hard for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families. We have increased high-needs funding by £780 million this year, with another £730 million next year—a 24% increase. Our SEND review is well under way, and focuses on ensuring that the system supports and delivers for every child.

[Vicky Ford]

That is an excellent question. We know that for children with special education needs, including dyslexia, the impact of school closures may have been greater than for other children. The additional £700 million of recovery funding announced last week, on top of the £1 billion already provided, can be used by schools for extra support for those with SEND. Of the 33 providers on the national tutoring programme, 26 have specific expertise in supporting children with special educational needs.

[Nigel Mills [V]]

I know from the three special schools in my constituency what an amazing job the teachers do to support children and young people with complex disabilities, as well as special educational needs. Will the Minister confirm that all teachers in those settings are entitled to a covid jab? What else can the Government do to support schools to be covid-secure?

[Vicky Ford]

I thank all schools, especially those special schools that have helped to care for vulnerable children throughout the pandemic. Attendance has risen. We have provided bespoke advice on testing children with special educational needs, and we will provide families of all pupils with access to home testing, including those with special educational needs. That will help to keep covid out of the classroom. Where a teacher is supporting a clinically extremely vulnerable child, as the care provider that teacher may also be entitled to a vaccine, and those decisions are made locally.

Education: Return in January

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

It is always lovely to hear from the hon. Lady, and with such a festive backdrop behind her. Frankly, whatever we do, she will probably always be a little bit miserable about everything. We put in a £1 billion covid catch-up fund, making sure that we are supporting children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. We go above and beyond at every stage to ensure that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are given the most assistance. We on the Government side of the House have always understood that by actually preserving education, by making sure that children are in the position to be able to return to school at the earliest possible moment and to benefit from being in school, is the best way to give them the greatest advantages in life. I know the hon. Lady—it is not in her DNA to be able to give credit to any Government. I am not sure whether it would take £1 billion, £2 billion or £3 billion for her to acknowledge the fact that we are taking action.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con) [V]]

I welcome the—[Inaudible.]—showing at this stage. Given that Amber Valley as a local authority area has some of the higher levels of cases in the country, will the Secretary of State confirm whether we are in the contingency area where schools will not be allowed to open at all? I hope that we are not, but will he publish the criteria for deciding in which area schools cannot open?

[Gavin Williamson]

We will be publishing details of those local authorities within contingency framework areas later today on the gov.uk website. We would want to see schools entering the contingency framework very much as an absolute last resort, where the public health evidence and public health advice are that it is important and vital to do so in terms of the management of covid infections.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to close the attainment gap between students from disadvantaged and affluent areas.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to close the attainment gap between students from disadvantaged and affluent areas.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson)]

In addition to the pupil premium, the £350 million national tutoring programme will provide affordable, high-quality tuition to disadvantaged pupils in schools and colleges. The catch-up premium provides a further £650 million to schools to make up for the lost teaching time of all pupils.

[Gavin Williamson]

It was a great pleasure to join my hon. Friend in visiting St George’s School in Blackpool South to see the amazing work being done there to raise educational attainment in his constituency. He is right to highlight the important role that opportunity areas can play. That is why we have already invested £6 million in the Blackpool opportunity area, and why it was a pleasure to announce, just a short time ago, that we are investing another almost £2 million in the Blackpool opportunity area, on top of all the extra investment we are making in terms of schools and the covid catch-up fund.

[Nigel Mills]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the key to tackling this issue is to start early? Will he commend the role of nursery schools in that provision, and can he find a way to give them a long-term sustainable funding settlement so that they can plan for the future?

[Gavin Williamson]

My hon. Friend tempts me into a discussion that I probably have to have first with the Chancellor, but he is absolutely right to highlight the important role that early action and early support plays in children’s lives. That is why I was delighted to see that we will take action to invest in the Nuffield early language interventions, which have already shown that they can deliver so much for youngsters. Building on that into the future is an important part of the work that the Department is doing with our schools and so much more.

Schools That Work For Everyone

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

My hon. Friend puts it extremely well. One size does not fit all. The grammar schools in this country are a relatively small part of the overall diverse schools system.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

Amber Valley is an area with no free schools and no selective schools, and sadly attainment is lower than we would like it to be. How will my right hon. Friend’s welcome suggestion of prioritising such areas work in practice? What can he do to encourage new schools into areas like that?

[Damian Hinds]

I am afraid there was a crucial word in my hon. Friend’s question that I did not hear. He talked about prioritising something.

[Nigel Mills]

I asked about prioritising areas with low attainment.

[Damian Hinds]

Prioritising areas with low attainment is at the heart of narrowing the gap. It is what we are doing with the 12 opportunity areas around the country, for example, but it has to go far beyond that. What we are doing in the opportunity areas is partly about what happens for the areas themselves, but it is also about learning from good practice, bringing together partners in those areas and seeing what can be spread more widely throughout the system.

Education: Public Funding

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am immensely grateful to the Minister. I am minded to move on at approximately 1.15 pm, which ought to allow for another 10 questions and answers, assuming that both the question and the answer are moderately brief.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm that the many primary schools in Amber Valley that are set to gain under the fairer funding formula will get the full gain in year 1, or will it be spread over several years after that?

[Nick Gibb]

When we consulted on the national fair funding formula, we said that we would limit gains to 3% in order to ensure that any schools that were losing funding did not lose more than 1.5% per pupil per year, so I cannot give my hon. Friend that reassurance, but we will respond to the consultation shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General]

The hon. Gentleman is right to reiterate the points that have been made. I assure him that the training that is being provided applies to all CPS regions; it is being done on a national basis. That means that in whatever part of the country it is, there should be the same awareness and understanding about the sensitivities that apply to disability hate crime, and of the need to stop looking at people with disabilities through the prism of credibility; rather, we need to look at the person beyond the disability, understanding that their voice has to be heard.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

3. What the Government’s policy is on prosecutions relating to criminal corporate liability.

[The Attorney General (Jeremy Wright)]

The offence of failing to prevent bribery under the Bribery Act 2010 is holding corporate offenders to account for criminal activity and has incentivised good governance within companies. A new offence of failing to prevent tax evasion is included in the Criminal Finances Bill, which is going through Parliament at the moment, and a call for evidence will be published shortly to explore the options for further reform.

[Nigel Mills]

I am grateful for my right hon. and learned Friend’s answer; I know he has had a busy week. I am sure he is aware that there is real concern that our regime has made it much harder to prosecute senior directors of companies that have been involved in very serious wrongdoing. When he gets on to this consultation—perhaps he could say when that will be—will he look at other regimes such as that in the US, to see how they have performed better than we have?

[The Attorney General]

I hope it is no disrespect to my hon. Friend to confirm that he is not the most intimidating tribunal I have addressed this week. He is entirely right that we should look at examples abroad, as well as at domestic practice, to make sure that we are doing all we can to deal with corporate criminal offending. He is right, too, that we must address the issue of whether it is easier to prosecute those in charge of small companies than those in charge of large companies because of the complexity of the latter’s management structures, because that cannot be right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 25th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan]

I actually visited the school in the course of the past year and found it to be truly exceptional. It is staffed by a wonderfully talented headteacher and members of staff. We have invested in all schools, both those catering for special educational needs and those in the mainstream, but there is more we can do to prepare teachers for teaching children with special educational needs. We have a dedicated capital funding stream for schools catering for children with special educational needs. I strongly encourage her school to apply.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

T10. Many headteachers in Amber Valley report that they have real problems supporting pupils who are keen to learn but who suffer from chaotic home lives. What more can the Government do to help headteachers in that situation so that they do not end up being a co-ordinator of a social services operation?

[Edward Timpson]

My hon. Friend raises an important question that many schools raise on how they ensure that every child is in the best possible place at home so that they can learn at school. He will know that the troubled families programme during the last Parliament, which turned around 99% of the 120,000 families, was extremely successful in supporting schools with those difficult families. We now have a more ambitious programme over the next five years involving 400,000 more families, including in the Amber Valley, to ensure that they get the support they need so that their children can go to school to learn and make a good future for themselves.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

We have set out our priorities in respect of making the whole EU, not just Britain, more competitive. They include cutting red tape and having more free trade agreements. We have set out those priorities in detail. I listened carefully to what my hon. Friend had to say and will reflect on it.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (Sajid Javid)]

My first and foremost priority in recent weeks has been to do what I can to help the steel industry. I pushed for and was granted an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers, which took place in Brussels yesterday and led to a number of actions being agreed. I reiterate our support for the people in Redcar, Scunthorpe, Lanarkshire and elsewhere who have lost their jobs recently. This is an extremely difficult time for all who are affected. I say to them: we are resolutely on your side.

[Nigel Mills]

Many businesses in the construction sector in my constituency are still suffering from excessive levels of retention being taken by prime contractors. What more can the Secretary of State do to encourage the phasing out of retention before the 2025 deadline?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend raises an important point that a number of people have made to me recently. Cash retention is a common practice that can provide insurance for customers against poor workmanship. However, the scope for misuse is clear. That is why the Government have commissioned a review of the practice. We will see what action we can take.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan]

I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman that a good education is exactly that: it is all about enhancing the life chances of all the young people at those schools. If he wants to let us have the names of those schools, I am of course happy to follow the issue up with DFE officials and the regional schools commissioner, as well as working with the heads directly.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

T3. On that subject, does the Secretary of State agree that improving the links with local businesses and schools is key? Will she therefore welcome the interest that David Nieper Ltd has shown in sponsoring Alfreton Grange arts college?

[Nicky Morgan]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend’s points, and I would like to congratulate the company he mentioned on its sponsorship. Professional standards of governance in schools are vital, and we want to make sure that governing boards are focused on recruiting people with the skills for the role. People from business have valuable transferable skills and benefit from board-level experience. I want to see more employers encouraging and supporting their staff to volunteer as governors. This is something I have discussed with the CBI.