Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how frequently the delivery boards for (a) education investment areas and (b) priority education investment areas are provided with data on pupil outcomes in each area.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education Investment Areas (EIAs) do not have delivery boards. The subset of EIAs that are Priority Education Investment Areas do have local partnership boards, but these are advisory only. These boards were provided with data on pupil outcomes for their areas at the outset of the programme to help them advise the Department on the key issues to be addressed in each area and to identify local targets for pupil outcomes. They will continue to be provided with data on a regular basis, to help them advise the Department on the implementation and impact of the programme.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is her policy that (a) education investment areas and (b) priority education investment areas should employ a special educational needs co-ordinator by 2024.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Education Investment Areas (EIAs), including the subset of them that are Priority Education Investment Areas, are places where the department is prioritising a package of activity to raise standards. EIAs are not public bodies and do not employ any staff. Local authorities in these areas are required to publish and maintain a clear, accessible local offer of services to support children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities and to support their families. A SEN coordinator (SENCO) is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a school's SEN policy.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2023 to Question 183685 on Disability and Special Educational Needs: Young People and the Answer of 15 May 2023 to Question 183686 on Education: Finance, how many (a) programmes and (b) activities were funded by local partnerships boards for young people with special educational needs in the last three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local Partnership Boards were established in autumn 2022 to support the prioritisation of new Local Needs Funding.
Activities and programmes to be funded by the Local Needs Funding are currently being commissioned for delivery through to March 2025.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local delivery plans for priority education investment areas are required to include projects specifically to help deliver services for young people with special educational needs and disability.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has established 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIA) with funding for improvements to attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4.
Departmental Regional Directors have led the creation of delivery plans, following a detailed diagnosis of need for each PEIA. These plans are informed by Local Partnership Boards to ensure effective identification and prioritisation of areas for improvement.
To ensure value for money and delivery of improvement aims, funding will be provided for evidence based programmes and activities, and approaches approved by the Department.
The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan sets out the Department’s next steps to deliver an improved experience for all children and young people with SEND and their families. The plan is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure value for money from the funding provided to priority education investment areas for local delivery plans.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has established 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIA) with funding for improvements to attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4.
Departmental Regional Directors have led the creation of delivery plans, following a detailed diagnosis of need for each PEIA. These plans are informed by Local Partnership Boards to ensure effective identification and prioritisation of areas for improvement.
To ensure value for money and delivery of improvement aims, funding will be provided for evidence based programmes and activities, and approaches approved by the Department.
The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan sets out the Department’s next steps to deliver an improved experience for all children and young people with SEND and their families. The plan is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department assesses the adequacy of local delivery plans for priority education investment areas as part of the allocation process for local needs funding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has established 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIA) with funding for improvements to attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4.
Departmental Regional Directors have led the creation of delivery plans, following a detailed diagnosis of need for each PEIA. These plans are informed by Local Partnership Boards to ensure effective identification and prioritisation of areas for improvement.
To ensure value for money and delivery of improvement aims, funding will be provided for evidence based programmes and activities, and approaches approved by the Department.
The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan sets out the Department’s next steps to deliver an improved experience for all children and young people with SEND and their families. The plan is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of children who have been supported by the SAFE Taskforce since 2021; and if she will make an assessment of the impact of those Taskforces on (a) pupils’ attendance, (b) exclusion rates and (c) pupils' attitudes to education.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Since commencing, in December 2021, the SAFE (‘Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed’) taskforces have established a local partnership led by schools, completed a comprehensive strategic needs assessment and begun delivery including interventions to support secondary school transition.
The department does not yet hold data on the number of young people who have been supported by the SAFE taskforces, but the taskforces will be collecting data on the pupils receiving support on a termly basis, as part of the independent evaluation.
RAND Europe, in consortium with FFT Datalab and University of Westminster, have been commissioned by the Youth Endowment Fund to conduct the evaluation of the SAFE programme. The programme evaluation, due to be completed by summer 2026, will include an impact evaluation element, along with a process and cost evaluation strand. The department expects the impact assessment to consider the impact of the programme on pupils’ post-16 outcomes, school attendance and behaviour, and involvement in serious youth violence.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the attendance mentoring pilot commenced; how much her Department has spent on that pilot since it commenced; how many children in the pilot area have been supported through that scheme; and whether she plans to take steps to re-engage severely absent children outside of the pilot area.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department launched a £2.32 million attendance mentoring pilot on 20 October 2022 to deliver one-to-one support to a group of persistently absent pupils and their families. The support will start in Middlesborough, one of the Department's priority education investment areas (PEIAs). In the first year, 335 pupils will be supported. The pilot will be rolled out to an additional four PEIAs in its second and third years.
Barnardo’s, the delivery partner for this contract, have now completed their recruitment and training. Mentoring support for pupils will begin later this month. The evidence gathered from this pilot will be shared with the sector and should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent absence more effectively.
In May 2022, the Department published attendance guidance, which sets out an expectation that schools and Local Authorities should agree a joint approach and plan to support every severely absent pupil. This expectation will work alongside the mentoring pilot to provide targeted support for persistently absent pupils.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle higher than average persistent absence rates in the Education Investment Areas.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In all 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), the Department is taking steps to support underperforming schools to make necessary improvements. 24 of the areas were given priority status as Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs). PEIAs will have access to more intensive support, on top of the significant support available to all EIAs.
Attendance has been identified as one of the key issues to address in many of the PEIAs. The Department is working closely with schools, trusts, Local Authorities and other partners to address the specific issues in each area through the local area needs funding. An attendance adviser from the Department has been assigned to support every Local Authority in a PEIA. The Department is looking at how local plans build on this work. Local attendance action alliances will also be piloted in several PEIAs to share best practice and address area wide challenges.
The Department will track the progress of these and other initiatives in the PEIAs to gauge their impact on improving attendance.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have (a) been offered and (b) accepted use of an attendance advisor; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of attendance advisors in reducing persistent absence from schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Over the next two years, attendance adviser support will be offered to every Local Authority in the country. Advisers work closely with Local Authorities to ensure that they are fully implementing the key expectations in the Department’s new attendance guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.
This includes supporting Local Authorities to make effective use of their attendance data to develop a local strategy, putting in place effective multi-agency support for families to address attendance barriers, and meeting with all schools on a termly basis to discuss and agree support for any persistently absent pupils.
Attendance adviser support has also been offered this year to 24 multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence across their schools. These trusts are responsible for 226 schools in total.
The Department continues to assess the effectiveness of the attendance adviser initiative by monitoring the progress of Local Authorities and trusts in implementing the action plans that they have developed with their adviser to reduce absence. School attendance data continues to be published regularly by the Department in the usual way.