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Written Question
Free School Meals: Eligibility
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of permitting the proactive use of data by local authorities to identify and register children eligible for free school meals.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Maximising the take up of free school meals is important in ensuring that as many eligible children as possible benefit from a healthy and nutritious meal. The department aims to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.

To support this, an Eligibility Checking System has been provided to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.

The department has looked at this issue and considers there to be merit in local authorities exploring initiatives to maximise take up and to better understand the barriers that prevent such take up, whilst ensuring adherence to legal and data protection constraints.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Sign Language
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of education health and care plans included funding for courses in British Sign Language in each of the last five years.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department does not hold the data requested.

The department collects data from local authorities on the number of children and young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, but this does not include information on any specific education courses that are included in EHC plans.


Written Question
Sign Language: Training
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve pre-school communication for deaf children (a) in early years settings and (b) between family members.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department wants every child to receive a high standard of early education and we are committed to supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including in early years.

The early years foundation stage statutory framework states that all providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND, including deaf children. Maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard to the SEND code of practice.

The government is also investing approximately £300 million to enable 75 local authorities to create family hubs, and to improve vital services to give every baby the best start in life, including those with SEND. Staff in family hubs should be knowledgeable about SEND services and be able to connect families to appropriate support and services. SEND information advice and support may be physically located within the hub buildings, and should be in an accessible format, addressing wider accessibility needs. Staff can make referrals to appropriate services within the hub network and make families aware of education, health and care request procedure.

Family hubs provide services for children of all ages (0-19 or 0-25 for families with children who have SEND), with a great start for life offer at their core. Family hubs are a way of joining up locally to improve access to services, the connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and prioritise strengthening the relationships. On 10 January 2024, the government announced that every one of the 75 local authorities in the family hubs and start for life programme have now opened family hubs, creating a welcoming place where families with children aged 0-19, or 25 with SEND, can be connected to a wide range of services for families.

It is important that the government leads by example. The duties in the British sign language (BSL) Act encourage government departments to improve how they communicate with and meet the needs of the deaf community. The department is keen to ensure that every department is aware of, and understands, the legal requirements of the BSL Act. The department is also keen that, from one reporting period to the next, every department can show a steady and significant improvement in their use of BSL.


Speech in Westminster Hall - Thu 27 Oct 2022
Colleges Week 2022

Speech Link

View all Peter Aldous (Con - Waveney) contributions to the debate on: Colleges Week 2022

Speech in Westminster Hall - Thu 27 Oct 2022
Colleges Week 2022

Speech Link

View all Peter Aldous (Con - Waveney) contributions to the debate on: Colleges Week 2022

Speech in Westminster Hall - Thu 27 Oct 2022
Colleges Week 2022

Speech Link

View all Peter Aldous (Con - Waveney) contributions to the debate on: Colleges Week 2022

Speech in Westminster Hall - Thu 27 Oct 2022
Colleges Week 2022

Speech Link

View all Peter Aldous (Con - Waveney) contributions to the debate on: Colleges Week 2022

Written Question
Department for Education: East of England
Friday 30th September 2022

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on his policies of trends in the level of population growth in the East of England; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jonathan Gullis

According to the most recent Census estimates, population in the East of England stood at 6.3 million in 2021. This represents growth of 8.3% since 2011 - the highest in England and Wales. The Department recognises both the challenges and opportunities this poses to education in the region.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The Department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities provide school places, based on their own forecast data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.

The funding is not ringfenced, subject to certain conditions, and nor is it time bound, meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities.

In March 2022, the Department announced the East of England will receive just over £68 million to support the provision of new school places needed for 2024 and just over £45 million for 2025.

The East of England also received a total of just below £141 million through the High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) announced in March 2022. This funding is for financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24 and will help the local authority to create new places and improve facilities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. Prior to that, the East of England received just over £26 million through its 2021-22 HNPCA funding announced in April 2021.

This funding is on top of the department’s investment in the centrally-delivered free schools programme.

The Government is also providing schools with the largest cash boost in a decade. Following the 2021 Spending Review, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) will increase by £7 billion in 2024-25, compared to 2021-22. This includes a £4 billion increase in 2022-23 compared to the previous year - a 7% cash terms per pupil boost - and a further £1.5 billion in 2023-24.

The East of England is attracting an extra £88.9 million for mainstream schools, taking total school funding for 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 to over £4.6 billion, based on current pupil numbers. This represents an increase of 8.1% per pupil across two years to 2023-24 compared to 2021-22 (excluding growth funding). Final allocations for 2023-24 will be announced, as usual, in December.


Written Question
Further Education: Staff
Wednesday 27th July 2022

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer to Question 900784 in Prime Minister's Questions on 29 June 2022, Official Report, col 291, if he will publish a breakdown of the planned allocation of the £52m being invested to support the staffing situation in further education.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The department’s £52 million investment in the 2022/23 financial year will allow us to continue to support the further education (FE) sector with the recruitment, retention and development of teachers. The programmes allocated funding from this investment include Taking Teaching Further, T Level Professional Development, bursaries, mentoring support, and the Teach in FE recruitment campaign and digital service.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 04 Jul 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

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View all Peter Aldous (Con - Waveney) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions