Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase understanding among teachers and support staff of the pathological demand avoidance behaviour profile of students with autism spectrum disorders.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Schools are responsible for the continuing professional development of staff who support children and young people with special educational needs or a disability, including those who are on the autism spectrum and/or exhibit a pathological demand avoidance behaviour profile.
The department has funded the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to deliver autism awareness training to education staff in early years, schools and further education settings. So far it has reached more than 207,000 people – not just teachers and teaching assistants, but also support staff such as receptionists, dining hall staff and caretakers, encouraging a ‘whole school’ approach to supporting pupils with autism. The AET also provides resources for teachers, including a competency framework, a progression framework for assessing children and young people with autism, and a set of standards to help them evaluate their practice in addressing the needs of children and young people with autism.
In addition, the framework for Initial Teacher Training content (published in July 2016), includes specific content on special educational need and autism and the National Association for Special Educational Needs ‘SEND Gateway’ provides access to a range of free, quality assured resources and training materials for schools, including on autism. The SEND Gateway is available here: https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students who are granted European Temporary Leave to Remain would be eligible to access Government funding for under-18 education.
Answered by Anne Milton
European Temporary Leave to Remain will allow European Economic Area citizens arriving in the UK after 29 March 2019 to live, work and study in the UK if the UK leaves the EU without a deal and this includes government funding for pre-16 and 16-19 education and training.
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 6 November 2018 to Question 184973 on Disabled Students' Allowances, whether the research project on the impact of disabled students' allowances on eligible students has been completed; and when he plans to publish that research.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The research project has been completed and its report was published on 17 January 2019. The report is available at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-disabled-students-allowances-dsas.
In an article on 17 January, I called on universities to do more to show disabled students that going to university can be an option for them, and to put disabled students front and centre in their planning to accommodate their needs. A link to the article can be found here:
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether confirmation on funding availability for EU students accessing 16-19 provision for the 2019-20 academic year will be published prior to the publication of funding guidance in March 2019.
Answered by Anne Milton
In order to be eligible for funding for 16-19 education and training, a student must have the legal right to be resident in the United Kingdom at the start of their study programme. Any student, including EU students, who are legally resident in the UK at the start of their course in the academic year 2019 to 2020 will continue to be eligible for funding for the duration of their course.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Education and Skills Funding Agency regulations for 16-19 education provision on student eligibility for funding in 2019-20 will be published.
Answered by Anne Milton
Funding guidance relating to 16-19 provision will be published in the period of March or April 2019 and will be available on GOV.UK.
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 1 November 2018 to Question 185043, what review has taken place of the Immigration Skills Charge, as is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017.
Answered by Anne Milton
Information on income received from the immigration skills charge (ISC) payments for 2017/18 will be available once the Home Office Trust Statement has been audited by the National Audit Office and published.
An internal review of the ISC was undertaken in Quarter 2 2018, based on Home Office data.
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 1 November 2018 to Question 185043, for what reasons the income from the Immigration Skills Charge was not presented to Parliament as detailed in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017.
Answered by Anne Milton
Information on income received from the immigration skills charge (ISC) payments for 2017/18 will be available once the Home Office Trust Statement has been audited by the National Audit Office and published.
An internal review of the ISC was undertaken in Quarter 2 2018, based on Home Office data.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for the Government's ambition to increase the number of BAME students going to university by 20 per cent by 2020 of implementing the recommendations in the University and College Union report entitled Investigating higher education institutions and their views on the Race Equality Charter; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
I welcome the report from the University and College Union. Widening access to Higher Education is a priority for this government. We want everyone with the capability to succeed in Higher Education to have the opportunity to benefit from a university education, regardless of background, ethnicity, or where they grew up.
In 2017, 18 year olds from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to enter full-time undergraduate higher education than ever before.
However, we still have more to do. That is why we asked the Office for Students to continue to ensure ethnic minority groups are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education.
A new transparency condition will also require HE providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, non-continuation and attainment rates by socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity, which will provide greater transparency and help to shine a light on those providers who need to do more.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was spent on procuring supply teachers through agencies in the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The amount spent by local authority maintained schools on supply teaching staff and agency supply teaching staff (as well as costs and receipts from supply teacher insurance) is available on the Department’s School and College Performance website here: https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables.
The amount spent by academies on supply teaching staff and agency supply teaching staff (as well as costs and receipts from supply teacher insurance) can be found in the department’s Statistical First Release ‘Income and expenditure in academies in England’: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data#academy-spending. Data is available from 2011/12, when they were first collected in this format, up to 2015/16. Data for academies in 2016/17 is also published in a newer format here: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/Help/DataSources.
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 28 June 2018 to Question 157123 on Students: Loans, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of those funds for early years providers to meet National Living Wage obligations.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Education’s increased level of investment was based on our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’. The review looked at both the current costs of childcare provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector, including the National Living Wage.
We have commissioned new research from Frontier Economics to provide further data on the cost of providing childcare, which will look at the effect of National Living Wage. This year we will also be enhancing our annual Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers with more detailed research on provider finances and childcare costs, which will take into account the National Living Wage.
In terms of the rate of the National Living Wage, the independent Low Pay Commission makes recommendations, taking in to account the state of the economy and evidence from a wide range of business and workers representatives.