Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the levels of A Level results by county; and what steps she is planning to take to improve standards in areas with lower attainment.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Data on local authority attainment at A level is published in the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release. The latest data relates to the 2022/23 academic year and data for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in November 2024. For example, A level headline measures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/13ce6b93-cebf-43e0-b4e4-08dccb80a395.
Ofqual also publish data from A level results day by county, which may be found here: https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/Alevel/County/.
High and rising standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child and young person, no matter their background. The department want an education system in which all children and young people can achieve and thrive and develop the skills to seize the opportunities they need to succeed in work and life.
The quality of teaching and leaders are the biggest determinants of outcomes for learners within schools and colleges. This government has moved quickly to start driving up standards by beginning work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and have already launched an independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review. Spanning from age 5 through to age 18, the review will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, and the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve. The government is also determined to continue to strengthen school and college leadership and development opportunities for staff across the profession.
Regional improvement teams, to be launched early 2025, will help drive high and rising standards. These teams will encourage and foster improvement across the system enabling schools and trusts to support each other, learn from their peers and share best practice. To drive up standards across the country, all state-funded schools will be able to draw on these new regional improvement teams for help accessing and understanding the array of available improvement programmes proven to make a real impact.
Regional improvement teams will also work with schools to utilise new school report cards for schools to identify where they are performing well and where there are areas of improvement.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a fund for local authorities to (a) set up and (b) expand existing supported lodgings schemes.
Answered by David Johnston
As set out in the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ implementation strategy, it is the department’s intention to increase provision and take-up of ‘supported lodgings’ models, where care leavers live in a family environment with support to develop independent living skills.
The current guidance, ‘Making a difference: Supported lodgings as a housing option for young people’, is available to all local authorities and aimed at advising on the planning and commissioning of supported lodgings. The guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79706aed915d04220686ea/makingadifference.pdf. The department will continue to encourage and support local authorities with the take-up of this provision and set out its plans for implementation of further support in due course.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2021 to Question 138427 on Schools: Discipline, what progress his Department has made on establishing the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the behaviour hubs programme; and if he will publish (a) those criteria and (b) the advice his Department received from the independent evaluator it procured to assess the effectiveness of that behaviour hubs programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has procured an independent evaluator to assess the effectiveness of the behaviour hubs programme. The evaluator is in the process of developing an evaluation framework and set of indicators that will underpin the study. Key measures of success are likely to include improved school behaviour cultures and fewer incidents of disruption, truancy, and bullying. In the longer term, key measures of success are likely to include improved pupil attainment and outcomes, pupil and staff wellbeing, staff recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the impact on children of different local authority policies on school age start dates; and what he plans he has to amend the school admissions code to enable summer-born children to start reception at age five where that is what their parents want.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities do not set policies on school age start dates. Compulsory school age is the start of the term following a child’s fifth birthday. Admission authorities must provide for the admission of children in the September following their fourth birthday, but it is for parents to decide whether to send their child to school before compulsory school age.
For summer born children this means that they do not need to start school until the September after their fifth birthday. It is then the decision of the admission authority whether to admit the child to Year 1 or, at the parents' request, to Reception.
In May, the Department published the results of our latest research surveys of local authorities and parents into the delayed admission of summer born children to school.
It remains our intention to legislate, when an opportunity becomes available, so that summer born children can automatically be admitted to a Reception class, where that is what their parents want, and remain with that cohort throughout their education.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to provide asymptomatic covid-19 testing to all Ofsted registered childminders.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Childminders currently have access to community testing and should continue to use local community testing programmes for regular asymptomatic testing until further notice. More information on where and how these can be accessed is found here: https://www.gov.uk/find-covid-19-lateral-flow-test-site. The Department is continuing to work closely with colleagues in local authorities and across Government to explore the most effective approach for testing childminders.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2021 to Question 147056, on Childminding: Coronavirus, how he plans to prioritise the steps outlined; and if he will set out a timetable for taking those steps.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Childminders currently have access to community testing and should continue to use local community testing programmes for regular asymptomatic testing until further notice. More information on where and how these can be accessed is found here: https://www.gov.uk/find-covid-19-lateral-flow-test-site. The Department is continuing to work closely with colleagues in local authorities and across Government to explore the most effective approach for testing childminders.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of wearing of face coverings on the learning of children with hearing loss; what guidance has been provided to schools and colleges on that matter; and whether he plans to make it his policy to ensure the availability of clear face coverings for pupils with hearing loss.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s guidance on face coverings can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.
As the guidance outlines, during national lockdown, in schools where Year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by adults, such as staff and visitors, pupils, and students. Face coverings should be worn when moving around indoors, outside of classrooms, such as in corridors, and in communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.
Based on current evidence and the measures that schools are already putting in place, such as the system of controls and consistent bubbles, face coverings will not generally be necessary in the classroom.
Children in primary schools do not need to wear a face covering.
Some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This includes people who cannot put on, wear, or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness, impairment, or disability, or if you are speaking to or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate. The same legal exemptions that apply to the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport also apply in schools.
Face coverings can make it more difficult to communicate with pupils and students with additional needs or those who may rely on lip reading or facial expressions for understanding. We expect staff to be sensitive to these needs when teaching and interacting with pupils and students.
The Department continues to provide information to the sector on our guidance, and any changes to it, through regular departmental communications. The Department will also continue to work with Public Health England, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to monitor the latest scientific and medical advice and to understand the impact of the system of controls on staff, pupils and parents.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's press release, Experts to help tackle poor behaviour in schools, published on 28 February 2020, when he plans to rollout behaviour hubs; and what criteria will be used for assessing the effectiveness of those hubs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Behaviour hubs will see schools and multi-academy trusts (MATs) with exemplary behaviour working closely with other schools and MATs that need and want to improve their school behaviour. Support and resources will be available to schools more widely. The programme is overseen by a taskforce of expert advisers. Schools will begin working together in Spring 2021, so that schools can launch their new behaviour approaches in September 2021.
We are in the process of procuring an independent evaluator to assess the effectiveness of the programme. Key measures of success are likely to include an improved whole school behaviour culture, fewer incidents of disruption, truancy and bullying and, in the longer term, improved pupil attainment and outcomes, pupil and staff wellbeing, staff recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on children with ADHD and autism of being mis-described as having behavioural issues; and what estimate he has made of the number of children with autism spectrum condition who have been (a) excluded and (b) isolated in schools in the last 12 months.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Diagnosis and the assessment of needs can offer an understanding of why a child or young person is different from their peers and can open doors to support and services in education, health services and social care, and a route into voluntary organisations and contact with other children and families with similar experiences. Diagnosis of conditions, including ADHD and autism, is carried out by clinical assessment. However, the special educational needs system does not rely on a clinical diagnosis in order to access support. Schools have a statutory duty to use their best endeavours to make suitable provision available for children with special educational needs. This forms part of their broader responsibility to support all children who have a whole range of needs.
While we have not made a formal assessment of the effect on children with ADHD and autism of being viewed as having behavioural issues, to support those working in education, the department has funded the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to deliver autism awareness training to staff in early years settings, schools and colleges. To date [1], the AET has trained more than 277,000 people – not just teachers and teaching assistants, but also receptionists, dining hall staff and caretakers, promoting a whole-school approach to support for pupils with autism. Regional networks have also been established to promote the use of the training developed by the AET in schools and we would always encourage schools to access this training. The AET has also developed national standards for autism support and a progression framework for those who work with children who have autism. These are available from their website at www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk.
The Department publishes guidance to schools on behaviour, suspension and expulsion to reinforce the benefits of arranging multi-agency assessments for pupils who display continuous disruptive behaviour. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusion. A key aspect of these assessments will be to pick up any unidentified special educational needs or health problems, such as ADHD or autism.
The law does not prevent a pupil with SEN or a disability (which could include ADHD or autism) from being suspended or expelled. However, schools have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 not to discriminate against disabled pupils by suspending or expelling them from school because of their disability. Any suspension or expulsion must be lawful, reasonable and fair but schools must balance their responsibilities for children with SEN with their responsibility to ensure that all children are able to experience good quality teaching and learning without disruption in the classroom, and without being exposed to risks to their health or safety. The guidance also sets out that schools should, as far as possible, avoid expelling pupils who have an Education Health and Care plan.
According to our data, 155 children with a SEN primary need of autistic spectrum disorder were expelled and 12,287 received a suspension in 2018/19 (the last year we hold this data for). This is published in the publication ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England’ available at https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england.
The Department does not collect central data on the use of isolation in schools.
[1] As at 30 September 2020.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria was applied for the distribution of the funding of £10 million to improve school discipline announced on the 28 February 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 28 February 2020, £10 million was announced to fund the behaviour hubs programme, which will begin this year and run for three years. The programme aims to improve pupil behaviour and behaviour practices in at least 500 schools by enabling schools and multi academy trusts with exemplary behaviour to work in close partnership with those that need and want to improve, alongside a central offer of support and a taskforce of behaviour advisers.
Schools receiving support must be Ofsted Requires Improvement, have adequate leadership, and be motivated to improve. Schools providing support must meet stringent eligibility criteria including being Ofsted Outstanding, have above average progress for Read, Writing and Maths for two of the past three years for all pupils or disadvantaged pupils, and have exemplary behaviour management practices and culture.
All schools in the country, including those in the programme, will have access to a free online repository of good practice resources curated and developed by the behaviour advisers. Resources may include good practice case studies and tools for schools to audit their own behaviour practice.