Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with Teesside University on preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
Department for Education officials have been working closely with higher education (HE) representative bodies including Universities UK, Independent HE, Guild HE, the Russell Group and others (representing the full spectrum of HE providers across the UK) on exiting the EU preparations. In all scenarios, the objective was to not only understand any concerns from universities but to also communicate policy.
The department has also published a number of notices providing advice and guidance to support the HE sector to prepare for exiting the EU. We will continue to update these as relevant, ensuring that HE institutions are aware of these updates.
The government has also launched a public information campaign to ensure that UK citizens, businesses, HE providers and EU citizens living in the UK, as well as UK nationals living in the EU, are well informed about how exiting the EU will affect them.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities are maintaining Education, Health and Care plans por young people up to the age of 25.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
All local authorities are maintaining education, health and care (EHC) plans for young people up to the age of 25. The number of pupils with a statement or EHC plan, based on where the child attends school by local authority can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2018.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many young people aged 16 to 24 years old not in education, employment and training have a special educational need.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally. Information on the number of young people who are not in education, employment and training and who have an education, health and care plan is currently being collected from local authorities for the first time and will be published in May 2019 within the “Statements of SEN and EHC plans: January 2019” publication.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of care and support offered to care leavers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The quality of support provided for care leavers is assessed under Ofsted’s framework for the inspection of local authority children’s services. In its annual report (2017-18) Ofsted reported that care leaver services were improving, saying “We have continued to explore the experience of care leavers in different local authorities and have been pleased to find an increasing number of local authorities providing high-quality services for them”. The latest Ofsted report for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council rated its leaving care service as ‘outstanding’. A copy of the report is available at: https://files.api.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/2761258.
Department for Education has appointed Mark Riddell MBE as the national improvement adviser for care leavers. Mark was previously the manager of Trafford leaving care service, which was the first to be judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Mark has worked with over 40 local authorities to help them implement new duties introduced in 2018, which require local authorities to publish their ‘local offer’ for care leavers; and offer support from a Personal Adviser to all care leavers to age 25 (previously support ended at age 21 for most care leavers). Mark has published an annual report highlighting best practice in leaving care services, a copy of which is available via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-implementation-adviser-for-care-leavers-first-year-report.
However, care leavers’ outcomes remain significantly worse than their peers in the general population and the government is determined to further improve the support care leavers receive as they make the challenging transition from care to independence. In addition to the new duties on local authorities mentioned above, government has introduced a range of measures to improve care leavers’ outcomes, including:
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of care leavers that have (a) been homeless, (b) had diagnosed mental health needs, and (c) entered the criminal justice system in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department publishes data annually on the activity and accommodation status of care leavers aged 19-21. It has also published experimental statistics for 17 and 18-year-olds. These data are available in tables F1 to F4 at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Data show care leavers’ activity/accommodation status on or around their birthday, so do not provide answers to the questions in the form they have been asked. However, the latest data for the year ending March 2018 show that of the 28,510 care leavers aged 19 to 21:
The department does not hold data on the number of care leavers who had diagnosed mental health needs.
The department has recently provided funding of £4.8 million to local authorities to enable them to provide additional support to care leavers at risk of rough sleeping – as part of the cross government rough sleeping strategy.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of the (a) homeless and (b) prison populations that are care leavers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally. However, statistics on the number of 17 to 21 year old care leavers who are in custody are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018 as part of our regular National Statistics on looked after children.
Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service collects management information on care leavers. These figures cover England and Wales and are believed to be self-reported meaning they will not be comparable with Department for Education figures. It should be noted that it is not mandatory to record information on care leavers, and therefore no information will be held in respect of some prisoners.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of care leavers aged 16-24 that are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on care leavers aged 16 or aged 22 and over is not held centrally. Of the care leavers aged 17 to 21 in the year ending 31 March 2018, 14,370 were not in education, employment or training. Further information on care leavers can be found in the statistical release ‘Children Looked After in England Including Adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of post-18 care and support provided to young people with special educational needs.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, young adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) aged over 18, who continue in education, are entitled to care and support through their Education, Health and Care plans where it contributes to meeting specified outcomes. We have introduced local area SEND inspections by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) covering education, health and care. These look at implementation of the Children and Families Act reforms, including provision for young people with SEND post-18, moving into adulthood.
The Care Act 2014 requires that where an adult or carer appears to have care and support needs the local authority must carry out an assessment. It must then decide if the person has eligible needs by considering the outcomes the person wants to achieve, what needs they have, and how these impact on their wellbeing. The CQC inspects services to make sure they meet quality and safety standards – in March 2019, 83% of providers of adult social care were rated as good or outstanding.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children eligible for free school meals reached a Good Level of Development at age five in Stockton South constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The requested data is shown in Annex A, which is attached.
The 2016/17 Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results show that the proportion of all children achieving a ‘good level of development’ is improving year on year – in 2017, 71% achieved a good level of development compared to 52% in 2013.
The proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieving a good level of development is also increasing year on year. In 2017, 56% achieved a good level of development compared to 36% in 2013. The gap between disadvantaged children (children eligible for FSM) and others achieving a good level of development continues to narrow. It decreased from 19% in 2013 to 17% in 2017.
The department’s ambition is to provide equality of opportunity for every child, regardless of background or where they live. Good early years education is the cornerstone of social mobility and we are making record investment in this area, including providing 15 hours of free early education for disadvantaged two year olds and £100 million of investment through our ambitious social mobility action plan ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’.
Asked by: Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on trends in the number of people being home-schooled in Stockton South constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally. A consultation on home education, and call for evidence on the issues of registration, monitoring and support for home educating families, closed on 2 July 2018 and responses are now being considered.