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Written Question
Free Schools: Darlington
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on appointing a provider for the new 48 place Autism Spectrum Disorder special free school in Darlington.

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

The application process for potential providers to operate Darlington’s new special free school has been completed. Ministers are considering the outcome before confirming the successful applicant.


Written Question
Holiday Activities and Food Programme: Darlington
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was provided through the holiday activities and food programme to projects in Darlington in each year since it was introduced.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department has invested more than £200 million a year in our holiday, activities and food (HAF) programme since 2021. Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.

For the 2021 programme, Darlington were allocated £519,040 in total, which included £49,090 paid to them in the 2020/21 financial year to help with start-up costs, and a further £469,050 was allocated to them during the 2021/22 financial year.

For the 2022 programme, the department allocated £466,240, for 2023 the department allocated £468,150 and this year, the department has allocated a further £469,170, bringing the total to more than £1.9 million in Darlington since the programme began, ensuring thousands of children across Darlington local authority have benefitted from healthy meals and taking part in a range of enriching activities during the longer school holidays.


Written Question
Children in Care: North East
Friday 9th February 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2024 to Question 11541 on Children in Care, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the higher proportion of looked after children per head of population in the North East; and what steps she is taking to remedy those causes.

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

The number of looked after children across local areas varies for a range of reasons.

In February 2023, the department set out the ambitious and bold plans to reform children's social care through 'Stable Homes, Built on Love'.

The department’s strategy focuses on six pillars of action to transform children’s social care, including to help families overcome challenges at the earliest stage, keep children safe from significant harm, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships and opportunities for a good life.

As part of this, the department is investing over £36 million this Spending Review to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This includes working with local authorities across the North East to co-design the North East Fostering Pathfinder to develop a foster care recruitment and retention programme of support, which launched in September 2023.


Written Question
Care Leavers: Local Government
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of the support provided by local authorities for care leavers.

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

Supporting care leavers to make a successful transition from care to independence is a priority for this government. Care leavers face barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing, which is why the department committed to delivering the actions within ‘Mission 5’ of the Care Review implementation plan to increase the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and to reduce care leaver homelessness by 2027.

This commitment includes bringing forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, for ‘Staying Put’ to support young people for longer and for ‘Staying Close’ to be a national entitlement, recognising that young people in the general population are leaving home at older ages. The department will also bring forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.

The government is providing funding for the following programmes in the current spending review period (2022/2025) to support care leavers to find suitable accommodation. This includes:

  • £99.8 million to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme.
  • £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.
  • £3 million this and next financial year to deliver extra support for care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.

Ofsted inspects the adequacy of the support provided by local authorities for care leavers. In January 2023, Ofsted introduced a new, separate judgement in the inspection framework for local authority children’s services, specifically assessing the experiences and progress of care leavers.

​Alongside this, a care leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by the Secretaries of State for the Department for Education and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, brings together relevant Ministers from across government to consider what more can be done to improve outcomes for care leavers and to help to achieve the five care-leavers-related ‘Missions’ as set out in the government’s children’s social care strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. This includes looking to increase the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and to reduce care leaver homelessness.


Written Question
Care Leavers: Housing
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support care leavers to find a home when they leave local authority care.

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

Supporting care leavers to make a successful transition from care to independence is a priority for this government. Care leavers face barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing, which is why the department committed to delivering the actions within ‘Mission 5’ of the Care Review implementation plan to increase the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and to reduce care leaver homelessness by 2027.

This commitment includes bringing forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, for ‘Staying Put’ to support young people for longer and for ‘Staying Close’ to be a national entitlement, recognising that young people in the general population are leaving home at older ages. The department will also bring forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.

The government is providing funding for the following programmes in the current spending review period (2022/2025) to support care leavers to find suitable accommodation. This includes:

  • £99.8 million to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme.
  • £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.
  • £3 million this and next financial year to deliver extra support for care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.

Ofsted inspects the adequacy of the support provided by local authorities for care leavers. In January 2023, Ofsted introduced a new, separate judgement in the inspection framework for local authority children’s services, specifically assessing the experiences and progress of care leavers.

​Alongside this, a care leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by the Secretaries of State for the Department for Education and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, brings together relevant Ministers from across government to consider what more can be done to improve outcomes for care leavers and to help to achieve the five care-leavers-related ‘Missions’ as set out in the government’s children’s social care strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. This includes looking to increase the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and to reduce care leaver homelessness.


Written Question
Children in Care
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of children that are looked-after in (a) the North East and (b) the UK.

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

The latest information on the numbers and rates of children looked after (CLA) in England as of 31 March 2023, including in the North East, can be found in the 'CLA numbers and rates per 10,000 children aged under 18 years - LA' table in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/213d8053-d566-431e-96a7-08dc1cb7c782.

The department publishes statistics for CLA in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.


Written Question
Bereavement Counselling: Pupils
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department provides on bereavement support for children in educational settings.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Losing a loved one can be a devastating experience for a child. Schools can play an essential role in supporting children with bereavement by providing effective pastoral support and ensuring there is a supportive school culture.

Schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support each pupil needs, including for children who have experienced a bereavement. To help schools make informed decisions about what support to provide, the department is offering every state school in England funding to train a senior mental health lead who can oversee a whole-school approach to mental wellbeing.

This training equips mental health leads to identify pupils or groups of pupils, which could include children affected by bereavement, in need of mental wellbeing support and to put in place effective support, working in partnership with specialists and families as needed. The training also supports leads to identify the training needs of other school staff, ensuring all staff can recognise and respond to pupils’ mental health concerns.

The department has recently launched a mental health lead resource hub and a targeted mental wellbeing support toolkit, both of which signpost mental health leads and other school staff toward resources and guidance, including support for bereavement.


Written Question
Bereavement Counselling: Teachers
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to introduce bereavement training for teachers.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Losing a loved one can be a devastating experience for a child. Schools can play an essential role in supporting children with bereavement by providing effective pastoral support and ensuring there is a supportive school culture.

Schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support each pupil needs, including for children who have experienced a bereavement. To help schools make informed decisions about what support to provide, the department is offering every state school in England funding to train a senior mental health lead who can oversee a whole-school approach to mental wellbeing.

This training equips mental health leads to identify pupils or groups of pupils, which could include children affected by bereavement, in need of mental wellbeing support and to put in place effective support, working in partnership with specialists and families as needed. The training also supports leads to identify the training needs of other school staff, ensuring all staff can recognise and respond to pupils’ mental health concerns.

The department has recently launched a mental health lead resource hub and a targeted mental wellbeing support toolkit, both of which signpost mental health leads and other school staff toward resources and guidance, including support for bereavement.


Written Question
Pupils: Attendance
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Department for Education's press release entitled Major national drive to improve school attendance, published on 8 January 2024, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of this policy on children with long term conditions.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Improving attendance remains a top priority for the department. This is why it has launched a national communications campaign to remind families that “moments matter, attendance counts”.

The campaign reflects feedback from schools and local authorities and aims to primarily reach those parents whose children are taking preventable odd days of absence, or “avoidable absence”. It builds on NHS guidance and messages from the Chief Medical Officer’s letter to schools to reassure families that children can attend school with a mild cough or cold and that prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending school in the future. The guidance can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/, and the letter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance.

The campaign is not aimed at parents of children who face greater barriers to attendance, such as pupils with long term medical conditions. Campaign materials shared with schools and local authorities reminded them that strategies to increase attendance should take a ‘support first’ approach in all instances. The department’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance expects schools to have sensitive conversations with children and families and work with them to put support in place for their individual needs. This guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63049617e90e0729e63d3953/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf. Schools must also follow the ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ statutory guidance that outlines the support that pupils with medical conditions must receive at school so they have full access to education and it is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf.


Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) mental health and (b) suicide prevention provision in secondary schools.

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

​​Schools are best placed to decide what mental health and wellbeing support to offer to pupils. The department does not collect detailed data on suicide prevention provision in schools, but asks questions about schools’ perceptions of mental health support, as part of its regular omnibus surveys, the results of which are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-and-college-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2022-to-2023.

​The department is supporting effective whole school approaches to mental health through our commitment to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This includes training on how to make sure they are including processes for identifying individuals or groups who need additional mental health support. There are 14,400 settings that have claimed a grant up to 31 August 2023, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.

​To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 47% of pupils in secondary schools in England. The department is extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners in all schools and colleges by the end of this financial year and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.

​Suicide prevention is part of school and system wide approaches to mental health and wellbeing, where schools should promote good mental health in children, provide a supportive environment for those experiencing problems, and help secure access to more specialist help for those who need it.

​​Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide.

​​To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department has produced teacher training modules. The mental wellbeing module contains key knowledge and facts to help teachers understand what they must teach, and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.

​​The department has started work on the review of the RSHE statutory guidance. Suicide prevention is one of the key subjects that the department will explore as a priority area, and it will work with a range of experts and those with lived experience to do this.

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