Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve teacher retention in (a) Boston and Skegness constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.
This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for the 2024/25 academic year. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a Targeted Retention Incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools. There are seven schools in the Boston and Skegness constituency where teachers are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.
The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve the experience of teaching, including a more comprehensive school report card in place of Ofsted’s single headline grades, providing a clearer picture of schools’ strengths and weaknesses for parents, and more proportionate accountability for staff. We are also making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working, whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Lapal School of Hales Valley Trust is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Boston and Skegness schools.
High-quality continuous professional development is also key to ensuring we have and retain an effective teaching workforce. The department has established 87 Teaching School Hubs across the country, providing approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework and national professional qualifications. L.E.A.D. Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Boston, Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven, East Lindsey and West Lindsey.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department are responsible for (a) processing and (b) responding to Freedom of Information Act requests; and if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of this work.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Answering requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is part of the day-to-day work of all the department’s officials. The costs of officials’ time are not held in such a way that time spent on processing and responding to Freedom of Information requests can be estimated.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on measures to achieve net zero targets in the last five years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High and rising school standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. Ensuring schools have the high quality and sustainable buildings they need is a key part of that.
The department has a critical role to play in all aspects of sustainability, including the drive to achieve net zero and supporting the delivery of the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan and Net Zero Strategy.
Since November 2021, the department has required that all new department-delivered schools will be designed to be net zero carbon in operation, alongside investment to increase green infrastructure and sustainable water management on school sites.
Capital funding is allocated to the school sector each year for improving the condition of the estate and to keep schools safe and operational. Funding can also support projects that improve the energy efficiency, sustainability and resilience to climate change of school buildings. Decisions on which projects to prioritise are primarily taken at a local level.
The department allocated an additional £447 million of capital funding in 2022/23 for schools and sixth form colleges for capital improvements to buildings and facilities, prioritising energy efficiency and supported by guidance for schools on effective approaches.
To make sure that the department is tackling the most urgent need in the school estate, we have committed to rebuilding or significantly refurbishing buildings at 518 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme. New buildings delivered through the programme are designed to be net zero carbon in operation and more resilient to the effects of climate change.
In 2022/23, further education (FE) colleges were allocated £53 million to improve facilities, prioritising energy efficiency. All condition improvement projects receiving departmental grant funding and delivered by FE colleges have been required to consider the 2021 FE Output Specification, which advises how to achieve net zero in operation. FE colleges have also been able to support condition improvement projects that support energy efficiency and sustainability and keep colleges safe and operational.
Schools, as other public bodies, have also been able to access funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which is run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to (a) support the private education sector and (b) encourage its expansion (i) domestically and (ii) internationally.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department encourages private schools to be high quality and is seeking to further improve regulation of the sector through measures outlined in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Amongst other things, the Bill seeks to ensure that all pupils receive both a safe and suitable education and to strengthen and improve the regulatory regime for private schools.
Capacity to expand domestically, within individual school settings, is a matter for private schools themselves. Where they do wish to expand, the department seeks to effectively consider the required material change application. Measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will make these requirements clearer.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) provides support for UK private schools that wish to expand internationally. They do this in a number of ways by:
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of SEN pupils expected to transition to the state sector as a result of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees and (b) the cost to the state education system of those children moving from private to state schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) is responsible for VAT policy. HMT has published its assessment of the impacts of removing the VAT exemption that applied to private school fees, which can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/ac8c20ce-4824-462d-b206-26a567724643#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.
This overall assessment considers special educational needs and disability (SEND) but does not provide a separate assessment broken down by SEND.
Overall, the government predicts that, in the long-term steady state, there will be 37,000 fewer pupils in the private sector in the UK as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population. This movement is expected to take place over several years, and most moves will occur at natural transition points. Of this number, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the long-term steady state, with the other 2,000 consisting of international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, and domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over nine million.
The government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector in England to steadily increase to a peak of around £0.3 billion per annum after several years. However, the government expects to raise around £1.8 billion per annum by 2029/30 from this VAT policy and from removing private schools’ eligibility for business rates charitable rate relief.
Longer term impacts on those who move schools may be lessened by revenue raised by this measure being used to help the 94% of children who attend state schools.
It is important to note that pupils who need a local authority-funded place in a private school will not be impacted by the changes. The majority of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) are educated in mainstream schools, whether state-maintained or private, where their needs are met. The overwhelming majority attend state schools. To protect pupils with SEN that can only be met in a private school, local authorities that fund these places are able to reclaim the VAT they are charged on those pupils’ fees.
The department supports local authorities to provide suitable school places for children and young people with SEND through annual high needs capital funding. This can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced a £2.3 billion increase to the core schools' budget in 2025/26, increasing per pupil funding in real terms. This included a £1 billion uplift to high needs funding in 2025/26, providing additional support for the more than one million children in the state sector with SEND.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed Children Not In School register on families who home-educate their children.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The proposals to require every local authority in England to maintain registers of children not in school, which are to be included in the future Children’s Wellbeing Bill, are intended to help local authorities identify all home educating families in their areas, so that they can ensure children are receiving a safe and suitable education. To ensure these registers can operate effectively, parents of eligible children will be required to provide some information to their local authorities but, as part of the implementation of the legislation, the department would engage with stakeholders to ensure that any burdens on families are minimised. In addition, the children not in school proposals will also include a duty on local authorities to provide support to home educating families should they want it, which will help more families to deliver a suitable education, ensuring more children receive the high standard of education they deserve.