Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) support and (b) funding for training teachers of the deaf; and what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of teachers of the deaf in each local authority.
Answered by David Johnston
It is the responsibility of local authorities, schools and further education settings to commission appropriately qualified staff to support the education of children and young people in their area.
To offer the mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI), providers must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education. The department’s aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing and multi-sensory impairments in both specialist and mainstream settings. There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. The department does not have published data on the number of teachers that have completed the MQSI.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has also developed a sensory impairment apprenticeship and expect it to be available from 2025. This will open a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments by enabling people to undertake high-quality apprenticeships.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers have completed the mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI) in the last five years; and what estimate she has made of how many teachers will complete this qualification in the next two years.
Answered by David Johnston
It is the responsibility of local authorities, schools and further education settings to commission appropriately qualified staff to support the education of children and young people in their area.
To offer the mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI), providers must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education. The department’s aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing and multi-sensory impairments in both specialist and mainstream settings. There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. The department does not have published data on the number of teachers that have completed the MQSI.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has also developed a sensory impairment apprenticeship and expect it to be available from 2025. This will open a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments by enabling people to undertake high-quality apprenticeships.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) economic impact and (b) effectiveness of private tuition funded by the national tutoring programme; and what information her Department holds on the potential impact of this funding on tuition in (i) mathematics and (ii) English.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme. This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. Primary, secondary and special schools are continuing to offer tutoring, with 346,000 courses having started in the first five weeks of the current academic year.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the National Tutoring Programme, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of benefit to cost ratios of the National Tutoring Programme Programme in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme. This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. Primary, secondary and special schools are continuing to offer tutoring, with 346,000 courses having started in the first five weeks of the current academic year.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the National Tutoring Programme, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides schools on protecting children with allergies; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring schools to have access to adrenaline injections for pupil safety.
Answered by Damian Hinds
In 2014, the government introduced a new duty on schools to support pupils with all medical conditions and published the ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ statutory guidance for schools and others. This guidance does not specify which medical conditions should be supported in schools. Instead, it focuses on how to meet the needs of each individual child and how their medical condition affects school life.
Schools also have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures, and policies to ensure that they are not putting those with certain long-term health problems at a substantial disadvantage.
Under the Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017, all schools can buy adrenaline auto-injector (AAI) devices without a prescription, for emergency use in children who are at risk of anaphylaxis, but their own device is not available or not working. The Department of Health and Social Care has published guidance on using emergency AAIs in schools, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/using-emergency-adrenaline-auto-injectors-in-schools.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has set national targets for increasing musical (a) proficiency and (b) engagement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Music is a statutory subject from ages 5 to 14 in the National Curriculum, and pupils have an entitlement to study at least one arts subject at Key Stage 4 in maintained schools. Although only maintained schools are required to teach the National Curriculum, academies are expected to teach a curriculum that is similar in breadth and ambition.
The Department has no plans to set national targets on musical proficiency and engagement. Schools have the autonomy to decide how best to teach music, setting expectations on good musical progression as part of their music curriculum, working with their local music hub as needed.
The Department has set out national expectations on high quality music education. This is reflected in the 2022 ‘national plan for music education’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/music-education-information-for-parents-and-young-people/what-the-national-plan-for-music-education-means-for-children-and-young-people. National expectations are also reflected in the non-statutory ‘Model Music Curriculum’ 2021 guidance for schools. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-music-in-schools. The Department has also committed to continue funding a range of music education programmes, including the national music hubs network and the Music and Dance Scheme.
The national plan for music education also sets out expectations from September 2023 for schools. It outlines that:
The Department’s national network of music hubs will continue to provide support to schools in England, supported by £79 million per annum funding for the music hubs programme up to 2025, and £25 million capital for new instruments.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has an expected timeline for implementing the National Plan for Music Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In June 2022, the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the ‘national plan for music education - the power of music to change lives’. The plan sets out the Government’s priorities for music education up to 2030 and how it aims to achieve them. This plan can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-power-of-music-to-change-lives-a-national-plan-for-music-education.
The Department is on track in delivering all of the commitments within the plan. Since publication, the Department established a monitoring board made up of experts in music, school music teaching, curriculum design, music education beyond schools, music charities and the music industry. The board will support the implementation of the plan, ensuring that the commitments set out in the plan are fulfilled.
As part of the plan, the Department set an expectation for all state funded schools to teach music to pupils from 5 to 14 year olds for at least one hour a week.
The Department’s national network of music hubs will continue to provide support to schools in England, with £79 million per annum funding for the music hubs programme up to 2025, and £25 million capital for new instruments from September 2024.
In the plan, the Department also announced its intention to invite applications for the role of music hub lead organisations, and to transition to fewer music hub areas across England, covering larger geographical areas but working in greater partnerships with schools, other music education providers and the music industry. Arts Council England are leading this process, and following a two stage consultation earlier this year, they launched their investment programme, seeking applications in October with the intention of newly competed music Hub lead organisations being in place for September 2024. This will include all Music Hubs identifying and working with a small number of lead schools, as set out in the plan.
In June, the Department also launched a competition to identify a national partner to deliver the Music Progression Fund, also announced in the plan. The intention is to support up to 1,000 disadvantaged pupils to learn how to play an instrument or learn how to sing to a high standard, over a sustained period. The Department is currently considering grant applications, and more details will be published in due course.
The next phase is to establish national music hub centres of excellence for inclusion, continuing professional development, music technology and pathways to industry. The intention remains to appoint the centres by late 2024, with additional funding to provide specialist support to all music hubs across England.
Finally, the Department will also be working with the monitoring board to establish an impact framework for the plan. This will set out how to monitor and measure the plan’s success, quantitatively and qualitatively, learning from the monitoring arrangements for the original plan.
The Department will also publish a progress report in 2025.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has undertaken an evaluation of the first ten years of the National Plan for Music Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The original national plan for music education was published in 2011 in response to a review of music education in England, commissioned by the Government. The ten year plan set out what every pupil should expect at each stage of their education, and how music education providers would work together, as music education hubs, to ensure all pupils could participate and progress.
In terms of evaluation, to inform the refreshed national plan published in June 2022, the Department launched a Call for Evidence in February 2020 which received over 5,000 responses from parents, teachers, students and 275 responses from young people. The Department published a Call for Evidence report in August 2021, setting out wide ranging findings on music education.
Following this, the Government appointed an expert panel to advise on the development of the new national plan, which included experts representing schools, music hubs and the music industry. As part of this work, the Department also reviewed a range of research, reflecting on the ten years since the publication of the original plan, and proposed approaches for the future.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made establishing new music hubs; and whether she has an expected timeline for when they will become active.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In June 2022, the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published the ‘national plan for music education: the power of music to change lives’. This plan is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-power-of-music-to-change-lives-a-national-plan-for-music-education. The plan sets out the Government’s priorities up to 2030 for music education for pupils, including plans to strengthen the success of music hubs.
In the plan, the Department also announced its intention to invite applications for the role of music hub lead organisations, and to transition to fewer music hub areas across England, covering larger geographical areas but working in greater partnerships with schools, other music education providers and the music industry. Arts Council England are leading this process and following a two stage consultation earlier this year, they launched their investment programme, seeking applications in October with the intention of newly competed music Hub lead organisations being in place for September 2024. This will include all Music Hubs identifying and working with a small number of lead schools in this time frame, as set out in the plan.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many mobile classrooms have been provided to schools as a result of (a) identified and (b) suspected reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by David Johnston
This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the maintenance of their schools. These responsible bodies may deploy temporary buildings for a wide range of reasons, not all of which will relate to building or refurbishment works. In addition, most building and refurbishment works within schools and colleges do not involve RAAC and will not require the involvement of the Department. The Department does not therefore hold information on the number of schools using temporary classrooms.
Where schools need to vacate buildings due to RAAC, they use a range of different types of accommodation including accommodation on and off site. On site accommodation can include semi rigid structures and temporary classrooms. Where this is the case, the Department is working with three contractors to accelerate the installation of temporary units in particular. The Department has not, therefore, produced central estimates of the number of temporary classrooms required, however, we can confirm that we have secured significant capacity to meet current needs, and can increase this if necessary. Our focus is on working closely with individual settings to make sure they have workable plans for their individual circumstances and context. Based on the experience where RAAC assessed as critical was found, the Department expects the vast majority will be able to continue to provide face to face teaching with either minimal or no disruption.