Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken steps to produce an updated version of the Student Income and Expenditure Survey.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Student Income and Expenditure Survey (SIES) 2021 to 2022 has been commissioned and the report will be published in due course.
The last published SIES survey (2014 to 2015) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/student-income-and-expenditure-survey-2014-to-2015.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to extend the eligibility criteria for free school meals to cover all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit and equivalent benefits.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 2010, the number of pupils receiving a free school meal (FSM) has increased by more than two million. This increase in provision is due to the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals and generous protections put in place as benefit recipients move across to Universal Credit. Over a third of pupils in England now receive FSM, compared with one in six in 2010.
The Department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables children in low income households to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. The Department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for FSM, but will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. The Department continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other Government Departments to provide support to disadvantaged families.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that university students in private rental accommodation (a) are receiving or (b) have received payment from the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and impacted students.
All households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will provide £400 support to those households without a direct relationship to a domestic electricity supplier in England, Scotland, and Wales, who have faced increased energy bill costs since 1 October 2022. This will include students in privately rented accommodation, where they receive their energy from an intermediary, such as a landlord or letting agency, who holds a commercial electricity contract.
The Energy Prices Act passed on 25 October 2022 includes the provision which requires landlords to pass any benefits they receive from energy price support onto end users, as appropriate.
Tenants should not need to take action to receive this benefit as the obligation is on intermediaries, such as landlords, to pass through the benefit and provide the information necessary to do so. If a student believes this obligation has not been met, they are advised to contact their landlord or an intermediary to resolve this in the first instance. Within the regulations, there is also scope to pursue enforcement through civil proceedings.
Further guidance on the pass-through requirement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pass-through-requirements-for-energy-price-support-provided-to-intermediaries/guidance-on-the-pass-through-requirements-for-energy-price-support-in-great-britain-provided-to-intermediaries.
Students in purpose-built student accommodation are not eligible to receive support under the scheme. With fixed rental fees set ahead of the academic year, these students have not been exposed to unexpectedly higher energy bill costs this winter.
For students living in university or private halls, businesses, including those providing student accommodation, are covered by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which provides energy bill relief for non-domestic customers in Great Britain.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers, including universities and private purpose-built student accommodation providers, are protected from high energy bills this winter.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter of 26 January 2023 sent by the Office for Students to accountable officers at registered higher education providers, which states that £10 million which had been set aside for preparation for the Lifelong Loan Entitlement is no longer needed for the purpose originally identified, what progress has been made on implementing the Lifelong Loan Entitlement.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) will be introduced from 2025. The government has already introduced key legislation as part of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022.Building on these measures, on 1 February 2023 the government introduced the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill as a further step towards delivery of the LLE from 2025.
As part of the pathway towards the LLE, we will stimulate the provision of high-quality higher technical education (Levels 4 and 5) and have introduced pilots to inform future flexible and modular provision. As of the start of the 2022/23 academic year, we are trialling loan-funded access to tuition fees for over 100 short courses at Levels 4 to 6 at 22 providers across England. This will help us build and test towards the LLE, and will allow students to study and build up the skills they need more flexibly.
On 6 May 2022, the department concluded its consultation on the LLE, as part of the planned pathway to delivery from 2025. This consultation and other ongoing sector engagement is a critical part of delivering a transformation of student finance. We are carefully considering the contributions and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) educational value and (b) impact on children and schools of proceeding with SATS in the 2021-22 year in the context of disruption resulting from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department recognises that pupils will have missed a critical period of their learning due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Statutory assessments at the end of key stage 2 are an important part of our primary education system. Assessments provide vital information to parents about their child’s attainment and help schools identify where additional support is best targeted to individuals. The school performance measures generated from these assessments play an important role in supporting schools to improve, helping us to hold primary schools to account for the education they provide.
This year, the data from the assessments will help parents, schools, and the department to understand more clearly the impact of the pandemic on pupils and how this varies between particular groups of pupils, schools and local authorities. The decision to return to a full programme of primary assessments in the 2021/22 academic year was considered carefully and in taking this decision, we discussed our plans with a range of stakeholders, including teachers, school leaders and unions.
The department knows that the pandemic has impacted the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and will have an impact in the longer-term. The department expects leaders and teachers to consider their pupils’ mental health and wellbeing as a priority and identify those who may need additional support.
Although schools should encourage all pupils to work hard and achieve well, the department does not recommend that they devote excessive preparation time to assessment, and certainly not at the expense of pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. Schools should support a culture of wellbeing amongst staff and pupils.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 493 on Pupils: Hearing Impairment, what recent assessment he made of the potential merits of providing clear facemasks to enable lip reading for deaf children in schools during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
The use of face coverings may have a particular impact on those who rely on visual signals for communication. Those who communicate with visual signals, or provide support to those who do, are exempt from any recommendation to wear face coverings in education and childcare provision.
Face to face education for all students continues to be our top priority. Our guidance is clear that face coverings in classrooms are no longer required. In circumstances where face coverings are temporarily and exceptionally advised by directors of public health, transparent face coverings can also be worn. Transparent face coverings may be effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, the evidence to support this is currently very limited.
Face visors or shields can be worn by those exempt from wearing a face covering, but they are not an equivalent alternative in terms of source control of virus transmission. They should only be used after carrying out a risk assessment for the specific situation and should always be cleaned appropriately.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on the Teachers' Pension Scheme in the event that independent schools and private academy trusts withdraw from that scheme.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) is principally designed and operated to support recruitment and retention of high-quality teaching staff in maintained schools, who constitute the vast majority of TPS members. All maintained schools, including academy trust schools, are required to participate in the TPS for their teaching staff.
Independent schools participate in the TPS voluntarily, with many independent schools already choosing not to participate. Teachers at participating independent schools represent a small proportion of the overall TPS membership.
All public service pension schemes, including the TPS, are subject to actuarial valuations every 4 years. This helps maintain the sustainability of the scheme by taking a fair and reasonable assessment of the current cost of providing pensions into the future and setting contribution rates accordingly. Amongst a wide range of data and assumptions involved, the actuarial valuation process takes account of changes in member numbers.
Any impact from independent schools choosing to cease participating in the TPS will, therefore, be assessed as part of the actuarial valuation currently taking place. This is due to be reported next year. It is too early in the process to predict the impact, but the reduction in future pension benefits being built up will be considered, as will the reduction in contribution income received.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference the letter of 23 January 2022 from the Minister of State for Higher and Further Education to hon. Members, if he will list the 25 higher education providers noted in the correspondence where less than half of students who began a degree can expect to (a) graduate and (b) find professional employment or further study within 15 months.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Office for Students (OfS) publishes statistics across different aspects of the student lifecycle to help inform regulatory processes.
Proceed, or projected completion and employment from entrant data, is a measure that projects rates of students progressing from entry to first degree programmes through to positive graduate destinations. This has been produced using the methodology described within the research report "Projected completion and employment from entrant data (Proceed)", available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/proceed-updated-methodology-and-results/.
The proceed measure brings together projected data on the number of full time first degree students who complete their studies (completion rates) with data about the progression of recent graduates into professional employment or further study (progression rates). The two components that combine to form the proceed measure (projected completion and graduate progression) are each based on established reporting of that data by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
The attached table contains an extract of the 25 providers, where the proceed measure was under 50 per cent, meaning less than half of students graduate and find professional employment or further study.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing the Funded Early Learning rate given to local authorities for nursery funding to align with the increase in the National Minimum Wage from April 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
At the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, we announced that we are investing additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160 million in the 2022-23 financial year, £180 million in 2023-24 and £170 million in 2024-25, compared to the current year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects cost pressures, like the increase in the national minimum wage, as well as anticipated changes in the number of eligible children.
For 2022-23 we will increase the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three and four-year-old entitlement. Uplifted funding rates for each local authority for 2022-23 were published on 25 November 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2022-to-2023.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of higher education student premium funding was spent on improving (a) access and (b) graduate support in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Student premium funding forms part of the Strategic Priorities Grant allocated to higher education (HE) providers by the Office for Students (OfS). HE providers are autonomous institutions, as prescribed under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, independent from government, and we do not collect data on how student premium funding is spent.
All HE providers wishing to charge tuition fees above the basic fee level (£6,000+) and to be eligible for funding from the Strategic Priorities Grant must agree an access and participation plan with the OfS, setting out their targets and planned expenditure to improve access and participation based on their priorities, and the gaps they need to address for their own institution. The OfS requires a robust evaluation strategy to be in place and for HE providers to publish reports showing the impact of their access and participation activities and expenditure.
Through their access and participation plans, providers deliver a range of activity such as schools outreach, attainment-raising activity, summer schools, financial support, and support targeted at key groups such as care leavers. The OfS cannot set targets or define activity - it is has a statutory duty to protect institutional autonomy over admissions and academic freedom.
Individual provider access and participation plans are published and can be found on the OfS website here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/the-register/search-for-access-and-participation-plans/#/AccessPlans/.