Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to provide (a) financial and (b) teaching support for schools whose staff have to deliver free school meals to individual students’ families; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reintroducing the free school meals voucher scheme.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Now that schools and their kitchens are open, the provision of healthy, nutritious meal options for all children who are in school has resumed. Meals should be available free of charge to all infant pupils, and pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria.
Schools should work with their existing suppliers to support eligible pupils who need to be at home due to self-isolation through the provision of food parcels. The guidance advises schools on what to do, and provides information on best practice. This includes details on what makes a good food parcel, as well as recommendations for weekly deliveries, rather than daily ones, to reduce time pressures. Further information on this guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance.
Building on the significant support given to the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has also announced a new £170 million COVID Winter Grant Scheme, which will be run by local authorities in England. Funding has already been distributed and will be ring-fenced, with at least 80% earmarked to assist with food and utility bills. This will cover the period up to the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether teachers will remain responsible for covid-19 track and trace for their students over the Christmas 2020 holiday period.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools should ask parents and staff to inform them immediately of the results of a positive COVID-19 test. Schools must take swift action when they become aware that someone who has attended has tested positive for COVID-19. They can contact the dedicated advice service who will inform them of what action is needed based on the latest public health advice.
Based on their advice, schools must send home those people who have been in close contact with the person who has tested positive, advising them to self-isolate for 14 days since they were last in close contact with that person when they were infectious.
In cases where the onset of symptoms has been more than 48 hours since the confirmed case was last in school, parents and guardians of pupils should follow the NHS Test and Trace guidance and this will not usually involve school leaders.
Where necessary any updates to how contact tracing should be managed will be communicated to education settings ahead of the Christmas holiday period. We recognise that teachers deserve the opportunity to rest and recharge over the Christmas break.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to review the guidance for overnight residential trips in outdoor education centres for regions with low rates of covid-19 infections.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s educational visits advice is in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and will be reviewed again in November 2020. The advice can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The Department continues to work with representatives of the tour industry, devolved administrations, trade unions and other government departments as it works towards the November review.
The Government has made available to UK businesses a number of support measures and more information on business support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support. The Government has also recently announced the Job Support Scheme, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-support-scheme.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to review the guidance for overnight residential trips in outdoor education centres that are covid-safe and can accommodate class bubbles.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s educational visits advice is in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and will be reviewed again in November 2020. The advice can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The Department continues to work with representatives of the tour industry, devolved administrations, trade unions and other government departments as it works towards the November review.
The Government has made available to UK businesses a number of support measures and more information on business support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support. The Government has also recently announced the Job Support Scheme, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-support-scheme.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the ongoing closure of outdoor education centres on children’s physical and mental health.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s educational visits advice is in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and will be reviewed again in November 2020. The advice can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The Department continues to work with representatives of the tour industry, devolved administrations, trade unions and other government departments as it works towards the November review.
The Government has made available to UK businesses a number of support measures and more information on business support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support. The Government has also recently announced the Job Support Scheme, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-support-scheme.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional support for the outdoor education sector in (a) East Sussex and (b) Wealden.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s educational visits advice is in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and will be reviewed again in November 2020. The advice can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The Department continues to work with representatives of the tour industry, devolved administrations, trade unions and other government departments as it works towards the November review.
The Government has made available to UK businesses a number of support measures and more information on business support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support. The Government has also recently announced the Job Support Scheme, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-support-scheme.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department (a) has and (b) plans to fund the cleaning costs incurred by schools in Wealden (i) to make them covid-19 safe and (ii) regardless of whether those schools have a suspected or confirmed case of covid-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March to July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools, including those in Wealden, have been eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs, only where they were required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements. The Department has published detailed guidance on the fund at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools.
The first claims window for the fund closed on 21 July. All claims for funding within the published cost categories and up to the maximum limit have already been paid. The Department is assessing all other claims, which will be paid later in the autumn if approved.
There will also be a further opportunity in autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs they faced between March to July. This second claims window will be for available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories.
Getting all children and young people back into school for the new academic year has been a national priority. As set out in the Department’s reopening guidance, schools should use their existing resources when planning to welcome all children back for the autumn. The guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures#funding.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times schools have reported concerns to her Department or to other relevant authorities on missing children in the context of trafficking for forced marriage.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We have not found any instances where in the last year schools have made representations to this Department about marriage under religious law below the age of 16, or reported concerns about children missing in the context of trafficking for forced marriage. Safeguarding concerns in relation to such issues should be reported to the local authority in line with local procedures.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions in the last year schools have made representations to her Department about girls being married under religious law while below the age of 16.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We have not found any instances where in the last year schools have made representations to this Department about marriage under religious law below the age of 16, or reported concerns about children missing in the context of trafficking for forced marriage. Safeguarding concerns in relation to such issues should be reported to the local authority in line with local procedures.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to promote design and technology in state-funded schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Design and Technology (D&T) is compulsory in the national curriculum in England at key stages 1 to 3. By introducing a new, more rigorous D&T curriculum in 2014 and reforming the subject’s GCSE and A level qualifications, we have taken important steps to make D&T an exciting subject, paving the way for young people to progress into careers in a range of engineering and design fields.