Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the affordability of childcare for families ineligible for free childcare for working parents.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high quality childcare is a priority for this government. Our focus in reforming the system will be to ensure that there are greater and more equal opportunities to access early education for every family, and that there are greater opportunities for children to thrive and develop. As an initial step, we are progressing work to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools.
Families that are not eligible for the childcare entitlements for working parents may be entitled to other forms of support, including the 15 hours entitlement for disadvantaged two year olds and the 15 hours universal entitlement for three and four year olds. The universal entitlement is available to all parents of three and four year olds, regardless of income or immigration status. In terms of the disadvantaged two year olds entitlement, parents do not need to work to claim this entitlement. However, they will need to be claiming certain benefits and have a household net income of less than £15,400 per year. All two year olds with an education, health and care (EHC) plan, those in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and looked after children are eligible regardless of household income. Some two year olds with ‘no recourse to public funds’ immigration status may also be eligible subject to different income thresholds.
Working families claiming universal credit can also claim up to 84% of the childcare costs back through Universal Credit Childcare. This offer can be used alongside the entitlements set out above.
We will be undertaking a comprehensive evaluation programme of the expansion of childcare entitlements for working parents which will explore how families not eligible for the new entitlements experience finding and accessing childcare, including the associated costs. Further, the impact evaluation will assess how the expansion has impacted upon the quality of childcare provision and children’s development, for all children, and wider family outcomes. As per Government Social Research guidelines, evaluation findings will be available within 12 weeks of the projects being finalised. We expect the first to be available from spring 2026.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of maintained nursery schools in (a) Wandsworth and (b) England.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Maintained nursery schools (MNS) are a valuable part of early years provision. There are 381 MNS as at January 2024. They are predominantly located in disadvantaged areas.
Additional supplementary funding is provided to local authorities for MNS in their areas. In the 2024/25 financial year, the initial budget for MNS supplementary funding is £82.6 million, subject to final budget update. The national average hourly rate for MNS supplementary funding is £5.27, the minimum supplementary funding rate is £4.64 and the cap on the hourly rate is £10.
Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high-quality childcare is a priority for the department. This includes delivering new nursery provision in primary schools to help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensuring that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents. The department is continuing to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places.
The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. The department’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that the number of places available has remained broadly stable since 2019. Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department will discuss what action they are taking to address those issues, and where needed, the department will support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Where a MNS does close, or is merged with a school, what replaces it must be of equal quantity, preserve expertise and specialisms, and it must be more accessible and convenient for local parents. The department has not received any reports on sufficiency challenges in Wandsworth.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of supporting maintained nursery schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Maintained nursery schools (MNS) are a valuable part of early years provision. There are 381 MNS as at January 2024. They are predominantly located in disadvantaged areas.
Additional supplementary funding is provided to local authorities for MNS in their areas. In the 2024/25 financial year, the initial budget for MNS supplementary funding is £82.6 million, subject to final budget update. The national average hourly rate for MNS supplementary funding is £5.27, the minimum supplementary funding rate is £4.64 and the cap on the hourly rate is £10.
Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high-quality childcare is a priority for the department. This includes delivering new nursery provision in primary schools to help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensuring that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents. The department is continuing to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places.
The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. The department’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that the number of places available has remained broadly stable since 2019. Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department will discuss what action they are taking to address those issues, and where needed, the department will support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Where a MNS does close, or is merged with a school, what replaces it must be of equal quantity, preserve expertise and specialisms, and it must be more accessible and convenient for local parents. The department has not received any reports on sufficiency challenges in Wandsworth.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided to each school in Tooting constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Individual schools' core revenue funding allocations have been published on GOV.UK. These include core budget allocations determined by the local funding formula in their area, and a number of other revenue funding streams, including the Pupil Premium and the mainstream schools additional grant.
The allocations back to 2013/14 can be found at the links below. Data is not readily available for the years prior to this.
2022-23 - https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics.
2018-19 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2018-to-2019.
2017-18 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2017-to-2018.
2016-17 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2016-to-2017.
2015-16 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2015-to-2016.
2014-15 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2014-to-2015.
2013-14 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2013-to-2014.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children with SEND living in Tooting constituency are not in formal education.
Answered by David Johnston
The department holds data on the number of children and young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan; including the setting in which the child or young person is typically educated, or where they are not in education or training for any reason. The information is available in the National Statistics publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans
The data can be broken down by region and local authority. Data is not available by parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment has she made of the adequacy of the availability of mental health support within universities.
Answered by Robert Halfon
It is a priority for the government that students are provided with the mental health support they need.
We are taking an approach based on three pillars:
The government does not collect data on the number of students seeking support for their mental health, but we know from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student data that 119,480 students with a registered mental health condition were enrolled in UK HE providers in academic year 2021/22, which is the most recent year data is available. This table is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-15.
The department recently conducted research on the design and delivery of mental health and wellbeing services to meet the needs of their students. This found that almost all HE institutions (99%) provided in-house self-help resources and the vast majority (97%) offered in-house psychological support for those experiencing poor mental health, either through face-to-face or virtual contact with a counsellor. Research also found a substantial increase in the proportion of HE institutions that now have a specific mental health and wellbeing strategy in place (two thirds in 2022 compared with just over a half in 2019). The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-practices-in-higher-education.
While good progress has been made by the sector, the department is going further to protect students’ wellbeing. 61 universities are already part of the University Mental Health Charter Programme and are following the principles the charter sets out for a whole university approach to mental health. Students should have confidence in the support they will receive, whatever university they have chosen to study at, and so the department has set a target for all remaining universities to sign up to the Mental Health Charter Programme by September 2024.
To set out a clear plan and targets for further improvements in mental health support, Professor Edward Peck is chairing the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The taskforce includes representatives from students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector, and will deliver a final report by May 2024.
The department is confident the HE sector will rise to meet the challenge set. If the response is not satisfactory, the department will go further, and ask the Office for Students to look carefully at the merits of a new registration condition on mental health.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she made of the number of university students seeking support for their mental health.
Answered by Robert Halfon
It is a priority for the government that students are provided with the mental health support they need.
We are taking an approach based on three pillars:
The government does not collect data on the number of students seeking support for their mental health, but we know from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student data that 119,480 students with a registered mental health condition were enrolled in UK HE providers in academic year 2021/22, which is the most recent year data is available. This table is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-15.
The department recently conducted research on the design and delivery of mental health and wellbeing services to meet the needs of their students. This found that almost all HE institutions (99%) provided in-house self-help resources and the vast majority (97%) offered in-house psychological support for those experiencing poor mental health, either through face-to-face or virtual contact with a counsellor. Research also found a substantial increase in the proportion of HE institutions that now have a specific mental health and wellbeing strategy in place (two thirds in 2022 compared with just over a half in 2019). The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-practices-in-higher-education.
While good progress has been made by the sector, the department is going further to protect students’ wellbeing. 61 universities are already part of the University Mental Health Charter Programme and are following the principles the charter sets out for a whole university approach to mental health. Students should have confidence in the support they will receive, whatever university they have chosen to study at, and so the department has set a target for all remaining universities to sign up to the Mental Health Charter Programme by September 2024.
To set out a clear plan and targets for further improvements in mental health support, Professor Edward Peck is chairing the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The taskforce includes representatives from students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector, and will deliver a final report by May 2024.
The department is confident the HE sector will rise to meet the challenge set. If the response is not satisfactory, the department will go further, and ask the Office for Students to look carefully at the merits of a new registration condition on mental health.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on anti-bullying initiatives for schools in England in the last 12 months.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is providing over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support both primary and secondary schools to tackle bullying. Over the last 12 months, £1.16 million in funding has been provided to the five organisations as part of year two of the programme. This three-year funding programme includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic based bullying.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school students received free school meals in the Tooting constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes figures on the proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals. The most recently published figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the total number of hours that school students have been taught PE in (a) primary school and (b) secondary school for each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of hours taught for each subject is collected from state funded secondary schools as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. Information is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
The number of hours spent teaching physical education in a typical week from 2011/12 to 2021/22 (full time period available), is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/276d8355-0aeb-4b80-7c2c-08db63adc612. Similar data for 2010 is not available, but data related to 2010 is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2010-provisional.
Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the Department.
The subjects taught are only collected from secondary schools that use electronic timetabling software that can produce data in the format required. Data is then weighted to provide national totals.
Information on the number of hours taught for each subject is not collected from primary schools.