Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to introduce mandatory SEN and disability law training for all SENCOs, SEN officers, managers and head teachers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) working in schools are required to achieve a National Award in SEN Co-ordination (NASENCO) within 3 years of appointment (unless they were appointed before 1 September 2009). There are no plans to change this.
The NASENCO is a Masters-level award that covers all aspects of leading on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) within schools. It also covers aspects of supporting children and young people with SEND. An accredited Early Years SENCO Award is being delivered by NASENCO. It is not mandatory for SENCOs in early years setting to gain this qualification.
Guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act (2010) affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the act is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools. There are no plans to introduce mandatory training in relation to the Equality Act.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress his Department has made to ensure reciprocal arrangements on student fees with EU partners after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Entitlement to student finance and home fees status in the UK after the implementation period for those outside the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement is under consideration by the UK government and the devolved administrations.
For EU students already enrolled on courses in the UK, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the UK government has already provided certainty. Students from the EU starting courses in England in the 2019/20 academic year will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee status’, meaning they will be charged the same tuition fees as UK students and have access to tuition fee loans for the duration of their studies.
More broadly, the UK government has been engaging directly with their EU counterparts on a range of issues, including securing citizens’ rights reassurances. These span a number of areas including on access to education.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of local authorities currently without any educational psychology service.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally. It is not possible to assess whether there are any local authorities without an educational psychologist (EP) service as no information is collected on outsourced EP services.
The department’s main data source on teachers and other school staff is the annual School Workforce Census. The collection includes a count of educational psychologists (EP) employed centrally by local authorities and any that are reported as being directly employed by schools. It does not show any that are employed on an occasional basis. It also does not include outsourcing of EP provision, nor take into account any sharing of EP provision across local authorities.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to data in the Office for National Statistics's quarterly Economic Review published on 2 May 2019, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding that 31 per cent of graduates had more education than was required for the job they were doing in 2017; and what steps the Government is taking to make more effective use of graduates' skills and education.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Employment outcomes for graduates are strong. The recently published Graduate Labour Market Statistics 2018 shows that the employment rate of working-age graduates was 87.7% in 2018, which is 0.3% higher than 2017. This employment rate is 16.1% higher than the rate for non-graduates (71.6%). 65.4% of working-age graduates were employed in highly skilled roles, compared with 22.9% of non-graduates.
The government’s Industrial Strategy sets out a long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create good jobs and increase the earning power of people throughout the UK by investing in skills, industries and infrastructure. Through this plan, £120 million was provided to fund collaboration between businesses and universities to stimulate local innovation through the Strength in Places Fund.
The primary aim of the Office for Students’ (OfS), the higher education regulator, is to ensure that higher education delivers positive outcomes for students and that it has a regulatory focus to ensure that students are able to progress into employment or further study. The OfS supports graduate employment outcomes in a number of ways. This includes a Challenge Competition, which aims to boost local employment outcomes, and the Institute of Coding, which aims to boost UK digital skills and graduate outcomes.
The government has been improving the information available to students to help them make informed choices when making decisions on higher education providers and subject choice. For example, Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Frameworks, Longitudinal Education Outcomes data and the Higher Education Open Data Competition all provide information to prospective students.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on improving schools' access to local authority support for pupils and families that need it.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education meets regularly with Cabinet colleagues to discuss the Department for Education agenda.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that universities develop courses in consultation with industry professionals to enable graduates to develop adequate skills for the workplace.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
It is important that universities focus on ensuring that their graduates have the skills needed, including technical, vocational and transferable skills, to gain a positive outcome from their degree. The primary aim of the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator, is to ensure that higher education delivers positive outcomes for students and that it has a regulatory focus to ensure that students are able to progress into employment or further study.
Collaboration between universities and business is increasingly important, both in the development of work-ready, highly skilled graduates and in contributing to local and regional economic growth. There is already a strong track record of collaboration. For example, Teesside University’s Digital City innovation initiative is helping local small and medium-sized enterprises to place graduate interns in their businesses by providing recruitment support and a 50% contribution towards their salary.
The government is supporting greater collaboration between businesses and universities in a number of ways:
It is important to remember, however, that universities are autonomous institutions and, as such, that they are responsible for the courses that they develop and that the government does not prescribe that certain content needs to be included.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of holding pupils back a year at school as a result of poor (a) behaviour and (b) academic performance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally, and therefore the Department has made no such assessment.
The Department supports head teachers to create calm and ordered environments so that pupils can benefit from a school culture where teachers can teach and pupils can learn. As part of this, schools must ensure they have and publish a behaviour policy to support staff in managing behaviour, including the use of rewards and sanctions. Sanctions must be proportionate and fair responses that may vary according to the age of the pupils, and any other special circumstances that affect the pupil.
Schools should make regular assessments of progress for all pupils. These should seek to identify pupils making less than expected progress. The first response to such progress should be high quality teaching targeted at their areas of weakness.
Where a child is behaving poorly or is not making the expected progress academically, schools should look to see whether there are underlying factors such as Special Educational Needs, mental health difficulties or issues relating to housing, family or other domestic circumstances. Where a school does identify such causes they are expected to put appropriate support in place, potentially working with other agencies such as Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he can will make an assessment of the effect of OFSTED grades on the recruitment and retention of teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has published analysis linking Ofsted ratings to the mobility and retention of teachers. This showed that of teachers who had moved between schools, 74% moved to schools with the same or better Ofsted rating compared with their previous school. The full analysis is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/615729/SFR33_2017_Text.pdf.
The Department’s recently published Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy has committed to simplifying the school accountability system, which the Department knows can create undue pressure on school leaders and increase teacher workload.
From September, the Department will use a single, transparent trigger - ‘Ofsted requires improvement’ - to offer head teachers funded support and bespoke guidance from an expert leader. This will help reduce pressures on schools, while maintaining robust accountability in cases of failure and a proactive offer of support for those who need it.
The proposed new Ofsted framework will also have an active focus on reducing teacher workload, with inspectors considering staff workload as part of the leadership and management judgment.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to extend the number of free childcare hours for low-income families as a means of tackling social inequality.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
This government is committed to helping working families with accessible, affordable childcare and offers a broad range of childcare support. The government has no plans to extend the package of free childcare entitlement schemes.
Supporting parents who want to work, with the cost of childcare, is important. That is why the government already offers a package of schemes: all 3 and 4–year-olds and the most disadvantaged 2-year-olds can access 15 hours a week of early education. From September 2017, this government doubled the childcare entitlement for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds to 30 hours a week - saving parents up to £5,000 per year in total if they use the full 30 hours of free childcare available. 30 hours free childcare helps a wide range of families, for example, a lone parent only has to earn from just under £7,000 a year to be able to access 30 hours of free childcare and a couple from just under £14,000.
Tackling social inequality is not just about 30 hours free childcare. The government is committed to supporting disadvantaged children, for example, through the 2-year-old entitlement, the early years pupil premium and the actions announced in ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’. We will continue to track the outcomes of disadvantaged children, where the gap continues to close. Tax-Free Childcare provides additional financial help from government to help with any additional costs. Eligible parents can also claim up to 85% of their childcare costs through universal credit.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2019 to Question 233483 on Schools: Counselling, what steps he is taking to (a) set minimum standards for and (b) ensure access throughout England to school counselling services.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is up to schools to decide what counselling support to provide. The ‘Counselling in Schools’ guidance referred to in the previous answer, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools, provides detailed advice on the benefits that counselling can bring to a school and how to provide access to safe and effective services. It gives strong advice that, when commissioning external counselling, schools should look to use providers that can give assurance the counsellor is properly trained, supported, professionally supervised, insured and working within agreed policy frameworks and standards, and accountable to a professional body with a clearly articulated complaints procedure. It also sets out that where schools employ their own counsellor, they should employ staff with a minimum of a diploma in counselling (typically two years part time study), who are on a voluntary register that has been accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, and ideally hold accreditation with a professional body.