Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of Funded Early Learning support for early years providers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
By 2019 to 2020, we will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support, which is a record amount. This includes spending approximately £1 billion extra a year on 30 hours of free childcare and to fund the increase in hourly rates that we introduced in April 2017.
Our average funding rates are based on the department’s ‘Review of Childcare Costs’. This was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. The review looked at both current and future cost pressures. We recently commissioned new research to provide us with further robust and detailed data for the costs of providing childcare for children under five.
The latest Ofsted data from March 2018 showed that the number of non-domestic providers has remained stable.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether UK nationals resident in the EU who fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement will be treated as home students for the purpose of university fees and student loans at UK universities after December 2020.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
There are currently specific provisions in the rules that provide access to student support for persons who hold settled status in the UK, and who have left England to exercise a right of residence elsewhere in the Economic European Area (EEA) or Switzerland.
We have agreed with the EU that equal treatment principles will continue to apply for those covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. This means that UK nationals resident in the EU (and EU nationals resident in the UK) before the end of the implementation period on 31 December 2020 will be eligible for support on a similar basis to domestic students in the relevant member state. It will be for member states to decide how they will implement the citizens’ rights deal in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement.
Entitlement to student finance, including tuition fee loans and home fees status after 31 December 2020 for those outside the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, is under consideration.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether UK nationals resident in the EU who fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement will be treated as home students for the purpose of university fees after December 2020.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
There are currently specific provisions in the rules that provide access to student support for persons who hold settled status in the UK, and who have left England to exercise a right of residence elsewhere in the Economic European Area (EEA) or Switzerland.
We have agreed with the EU that equal treatment principles will continue to apply for those covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. This means that UK nationals resident in the EU (and EU nationals resident in the UK) before the end of the implementation period on 31 December 2020 will be eligible for support on a similar basis to domestic students in the relevant member state. It will be for member states to decide how they will implement the citizens’ rights deal in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement.
Entitlement to student finance and home fees status after 31 December 2020 for those outside the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement is under consideration.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral Answer of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions of 26 March 2018 on Eligibility Threshold for Free School Meals, when his Department plans to publish the evidential basis for the number of children that will benefit from a taxpayer-funded free school meal by 2022 under universal credit.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have published an explanation of the methodology by which we calculated the figures published in our consultation response on free school meals eligibility, which you can find at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-technical-analysis-note.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the dates of all meetings the Minister for Higher Education has held with (a) Universities UK and (b) the Universities and College Union on the Universities Superannuation Scheme.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
I have held a number of meetings and conversations in relation to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) dispute with interested parties, including Universities UK (UUK) and the University and College Union (UCU).
I consistently urged both UUK and UCU to continue to negotiate in order to find a solution. I welcome the recent vote by UCU members in favour of the proposal to create a Joint Expert Panel to examine the USS valuation.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the English Baccalaureate on access to creative subjects.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Music and the arts are compulsory in maintained schools until the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14). The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) has been designed to be limited in its size in order to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the Key Stage 4 curriculum for the study of other subjects. In July 2017, the department published an analysis of the trends in arts uptake in state-funded mainstream schools where EBacc entry has seen an increase since 2010/11. This analysis shows that there is little correlation between the change in EBacc entry and the change in arts uptake, though what correlation exists suggests that schools where EBacc entry has increased tend to have also seen an increase in their arts uptake. The proportion of pupils in state funded schools taking at least one arts subject has remained broadly stable since 2010. The analysis is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trends-in-arts-subjects-in-schools-with-increased-ebacc-entry.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether non-UK EU students who begin courses at universities in 2019-20 will continue to be treated as home students after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The government is listening to the sector’s concerns and has taken action to provide greater certainty about student funding for EU students. We have confirmed that current EU students and those starting courses at an English university or further education institution in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years will continue to be eligible for student loans and home fee status for the duration of their course.
Future arrangements for EU students starting courses after 2018/19, and who are not settled in the UK or on a pathway to settled status by the specified date, will need to be considered as part of wider discussions about the UK’s relationship with the EU.
Applications for courses starting in 2019/20 do not open until September 2018, and we are working to ensure students applying have information well in advance of this date.
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 ensure that all schools teach awareness of LGBTQ issues in an age-appropriate manner.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We expect schools to ensure that teaching is relevant to all children and young people, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). LGBT issues can be covered by schools within the curriculum and the current Sex and Relationship Education statutory guidance (2000) states that we expect all schools to ensure that young people, whatever their developing sexuality or gender identity, feel that the subject is relevant to them, and sensitive to their needs. All schools must comply with the Equality Act (2010).
The Government Equalities Office launched a £3 million programme from 2016-2019 to prevent and address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. The programme will support thousands of teachers to better identify homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, and to support LGBT pupils.
Following the passage of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, the teaching of Relationships Education in primary schools and Relationships and Sex Education in secondary schools will be mandatory. As part of the current call for evidence, we are working with teachers, parents, experts and others to develop age-appropriate subject content, including on mental health, keeping safe online and LGBT issues.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to empower young people to engage in politics.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Citizenship education is in the national curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4. As a result of the national curriculum review, the Government revised the programmes of study to ensure pupils are taught the core knowledge of citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4. The new programmes of study came into effect in September 2014.
The programmes of study are designed to prepare pupils to play a full part in society, and are organised around core knowledge about democracy, government, and how laws are made and upheld. The programmes of study also require schools to prepare pupils to manage their money well and make sound financial decisions.
In addition, both Citizenship GCSE and Political Studies A-level are available for study with the number of those sitting the latter increasing in 2017.
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 provide additional resources to schools to support the mental health of their students.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools have an important role to play in supporting the mental health of pupils. On 4 December 2017, the Government published the green paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision. We are consulting on proposals which will be supported by over £300 million of funding.
Up to £95 million of this money will be used to fund training for Designated Senior Mental Health Leads in schools, which will cover effective ways to establishing a whole school approach to promoting and supporting good mental health.
Schools also need access to trained and clinically supervised support for pupils with mental health issues. The Government will provide £215 million over three years to fund new clinically supervised Mental Health Support Teams to work closely with designated senior mental health leads in schools to provide evidence based help for pupils with mild to moderate mental health needs. It will also support mental health awareness training for all schools. This preventative approach will provide earlier intervention, to help prevent mental health problems from developing. It will also provide a better link to specialist NHS mental health services.