Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of the National Tutoring Programme among (a) schools and (b) parents in (i) Bromsgrove District and (b) England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to ensuring that there continues to be a good take-up and engagement with the programme. We are undertaking a range of communications and engagement activities to ensure that schools are aware of the support offered by the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).
We are working directly with multi-academy trusts and local authorities to target schools in particular need of support and increasing our engagement with local and regional school networks. The NTP is also providing regular newsletters and blogs direct to schools, alongside targeted social media activity. Since the programme’s launch in November 2020, the Department has continued to share case studies and good practice to show how tuition can support pupils effectively, including guidance on making the most of tutoring during the recent lockdown period.
We will continue to monitor how many schools in different regions are accessing the NTP so we can bolster our efforts in areas where schools would benefit from the programme.
Over 4,000 schools are now participating in the programme. It is estimated over 250,000 pupils will benefit from tuition provided by Tuition Partners this academic year. This is in addition to the 1,000 Academic Mentors have been placed in our most disadvantaged schools this academic year.
We are continuing to focus on regions with the most disadvantaged pupils who have yet to take advantage of NTP, including the Bromsgrove District. We are engaging directly with head teachers, local networks of schools and national stakeholders to ensure that NTP support reaches as many disadvantaged pupils in these areas as possible. We have also attended local network meetings, including the Handforth Heads Forum in the West Midlands, and have delivered a number of webinars to schools in the regional Midland areas with high levels of disadvantage to highlight the benefits and the support being offered through the programme.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeships and the organisations that support them during National Apprenticeship Week 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The annual National Apprenticeship Week is taking place between 8 and 14 February 2021 and is a celebration of apprenticeships. The theme "Build the Future" will shine a light on the amazing work being done by employers and apprentices across the country. The week will also recognise how employers of all sizes have stepped up to the challenge during this unprecedented time.
National Apprenticeship Week brings together apprenticeship ambassadors, MPs, training providers, apprentices, parents and employers to highlight the work being done across the whole apprenticeship community and to promote apprenticeships and their impact.
Throughout the week, I will be taking part in a series of virtual events, including career fairs, interviews, conferences, and roundtables. I will be meeting with apprentices and employers from a range of industries such as hospitality and financial services, and taking part in several awards ceremonies which recognise and celebrate the achievements of apprentices.
We are encouraging employers and stakeholders to promote the great work of their apprentices through virtual events and social media, whilst highlighting the many benefits apprenticeships bring to their business. These include building the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career and showcasing how apprentices of all ages and backgrounds are helping to transform businesses across the country.
We are sharing the message about how to get involved in National Apprenticeship Week with all employers and education providers on the apprenticeship service through regular emails and webinars. We also share information via our networks of ambassadors, account management teams and through intermediary organisations which has a potential reach of over 6 million employers.
Furthermore, we have been promoting the National Apprenticeship Week 2021 toolkit since December 2020 to support the apprenticeship community with planning their activity for the week. Further information on National Apprenticeship Week and our developed toolkit can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/955827/National_Apprenticeship_Week_2021_toolkit.pdf.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional financial support his Department is allocating to schools to help with exceptional costs incurred as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has provided additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak that could not be met from their budgets. We have paid schools £102 million for all claims in the first claims window that were within the published scope of the fund, and we will shortly process claims made in the second window in December 2020.
Last term, the Department announced a COVID-19 Workforce Fund for schools and colleges, to help those with high staff absences and facing significant financial pressures to stay open. It funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold from 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term. We expect the schools claims form to be launched in Spring 2021.
The Department will also fund school and colleges, which have remained open, for costs relating to COVID-19 testing. We have published a workforce planning tool which illustrates the levels of funding available. Funding will be paid to schools who have conducted testing in respect of workforce costs and other incidental costs relating to testing such as waste disposal.
The Government is delivering catch-up funding worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Alongside this, we have also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils, including the National Tuition Fund for students age 16-19.
Finally, schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the outbreak, regardless of any periods of full or partial closure, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure schools can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Worcestershire.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The government’s Plan for Jobs will help to kickstart the nation’s economic recovery. We believe that apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow - both now and in the long term.
To help businesses offer new apprenticeships, we are providing £1,500 for every apprentice they hire as a new employee from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2020. This will rise to £2,000 if they hire a new apprentice under the age of 25 - in recognition of the particular impacts of COVID-19 on the employment prospects of this group.
The new payment will encourage employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities and take advantage of existing flexibilities to train their apprentices in a way that suits their needs. We will ensure that there is sufficient funding this year to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice.
We also introduced a number of flexibilities to ensure that apprenticeships can continue where possible, helping employers to retain their existing apprentices. We are working with key partners such as the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, the West Midlands Combined Authority, local business to business organisations, sector and trade bodies to raise the awareness of the incentives and the benefits of apprenticeships.
We have increased the amount that levy payers can transfer from 10% to 25% and are seeing numbers of transfers rise steadily. We are also working closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority to promote levy transfers from large employers, to date these include HSBC and Lloyds, BT, BBC, RAC, University of Birmingham and University of Warwickshire. These levy funds are being used to support local small and medium-sized enterprises in the automotive, digital and construction sectors across the West Midlands Region. Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce are actively promoting levy transfers. They are also now producing marketing materials to promote levy transfers to employers across a broad range of sectors.
We have produced guidance to help employers looking to transfer levy funds. This is supported by online tutorials, but we know we need to make the process even more simple. The guidance is avaliable here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transferring-apprenticeship-service-funds.
We are committed to working with large employers to improve the transfer process, making it easier for them to find smaller employers to transfer surplus levy funds to, thus helping them maximise the amount of funding they will be able to transfer. In doing so we will build on successful regional pilot schemes, such as that in West Midlands Combined Authority.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students in (a) the Bromsgrove constituency and (b) Worcestershire enrolled on to a T-Level course in the academic year 2020-2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
There are now 44 schools, colleges and other training providers teaching the first 3 T levels. Five of these 44 are in the West Midlands region. The confirmed enrolment figures for T levels (at a national level) will be available once the September recruitment has been formally reported in summer 2021. We have been monitoring the situation closely and are confident that recruitment has progressed well and a viable cohort of young people will benefit from taking these new, high quality qualifications, leaving them in a great position to move into skilled employment or further training.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what date schools are planned to be able to claim for exceptional costs associated with covid-19, after the first claim window closed on 21 July 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools are eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.
The first claims window for the COVID-19 schools fund closed on 21 July. There will be a further opportunity in the autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs that fell between March and July.
The second claims window will be for available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories. Details regarding the application process will be published later in the year.
Schools have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support schools with smaller premises in the phased wider opening of educational settings as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is our intention for all pupils, in all year groups, to return to school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term. It is the best place for them to learn, and important for their wellbeing to have social interactions with their teachers and friends
On 2 July we published guidance to help schools plan for a full return of all children in September. The measures set out in this guidance provide a framework for school leaders to put in place proportionate protective measures for children and staff, which also ensure that all pupils receive a high quality education that enables them to thrive and progress. All schools must ensure that they adhere to the measures outlined in our guidance, but the way different schools implement some of the requirements will differ based on their individual circumstances.
We do not consider it necessary for schools to make significant adaptations to their site to enable them to welcome all children back to school. We also do not think schools will need to deliver any of their education on other sites such as community centres or village halls because class sizes can return to normal and spaces used by more than one class or group can be cleaned between use.
Following a risk assessment, some schools may determine that small adaptations to their site are required, such as additional wash basins. This will be at the discretion of individual schools, based on their particular circumstances.
Guidance for schools on full opening for the autumn term is available at the link below:
Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he is putting in place for three-tier school systems in Bromsgrove district as part of the phased wider opening of educational and childcare settings.
Answered by Nick Gibb
From the week commencing 1 June, at the earliest, the Department will be asking primary schools to welcome back children in nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, alongside priority groups. We will only do this provided that the five key tests set by the Government justify the changes at the time.
We want to get all children and young people back into education as soon as the scientific advice allows because it is the best place for them to learn. We know how important it is for their mental wellbeing to have social interactions with their peers, carers and teachers. The safety of children and staff is our utmost priority.
The Department’s guidance for schools and childcare settings to prepare for wider opening from 1 June 2020 is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-educational-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020/actions-for-education-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020.
The three year groups within mainstream primary have been prioritised because they are key transition years. Year 6 children are finishing Key Stage 2 and preparing for the transition to secondary school and, in many cases, the secondary curriculum and will benefit immensely from time with their friends and teachers to ensure they are ready. The Department expects all mainstream schools to follow the same approach and are asking middle schools to do the same and welcome back children in Year 6 to ensure a consistent approach across England.