Oral Answers to Questions
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 7 months ago)
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Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)
T4. According to Ofsted, the best educational settings in the country are maintained nursery schools, of which 58% are “outstanding” and 39% are “good”. Remarkably, they perform just as well in poor areas as they do in less affluent areas. What consideration has the Minister given to allowing them to become academies if they wish to do so, in order to ensure that these great institutions continue their work?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Although maintained nurseries provide only 3% of the places in early years, they offer excellent early-years education and, over the past few years, we have seen the structure of maintained nurseries evolve as a number have federated or joined multi-academy trusts. I know that my hon. Friend has a special interest in this area, and I would welcome the opportunity to meet him to discuss how we can promote the excellent work that those nurseries do.
Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)
On 20 April, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir Amyas Morse, provided an adverse opinion for the second year running on the truth and fairness of the Department for Education’s group financial statements. Sir Amyas said:
“Providing Parliament with a clear view of academy trusts’ spending is a vital part of the Department for Education’s work—yet it is failing to do this.”
How will the Secretary of State ensure that Parliament will be able to see whether extending academies is giving the taxpayer good value for money, when that clearly is not happening now?
Condition Improvement Fund
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 8 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
Today I am announcing the outcome of the Condition Improvement Fund 2016-17, which provides funding for the improvement and expansion of existing academy and sixth-form college buildings.
I am announcing funding of £435 million for 1,276 projects across 1,030 academies and sixth-form colleges, which will help to ensure that children across the country have access to world class schools. Ensuring that there is a good local school place for every child, and that all children are being taught in safe and fit for purpose school buildings which help unlock their full potential, is of highest importance to this Government.
The Government announced at the spending review in November that they are investing £23 billion in schools infrastructure between 2016 and 2021. This money will support the opening of 500 free schools, the provision of over 600,000 additional school places, the rebuild and refurbishment of schools and will address essential school maintenance needs. In addition to the funding for expansion of good and outstanding academies and colleges that we are announcing today, we are also making over £200 million capital funding available to support the expansion of special education needs provision and the creation of new special schools. We will say more about how this will be distributed later this year.
We know that being taught in school buildings that are in poor condition can have an adverse effect on pupils and staff and that is why we are continuing to invest in improving our estate. Today’s announcement follows on from the announcement in February of the allocation of £200 million of devolved formula capital to schools and the school condition allocations to local authorities, voluntary aided schools and larger multi-academy trusts.
Details of today’s announcement are being sent to all applicants and a list of successful projects will be published on www.gov.uk. Copies will be placed in the Library of the House. We will look for opportunities to fund further high scoring applications from this year’s bidding round should additional funding become available.
[HCWS649]
School Places
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 8 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
My hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools has today made the following ministerial statement.
Today I am announcing £1.15 billion of capital funding for 2018-19 to support the creation of the new school places needed by September 2019.
Ensuring that every child is able to attend a good or outstanding school in their local area is at the heart of the Government’s comprehensive programme of reform of the school system and vital for delivering educational excellence everywhere. We know that our growing population means that new school places are needed in many parts of the country and the Government are committed to providing capital investment to ensure every child has a place at school. The previous Government more than doubled funding for new places to £5 billion in the past Parliament. We are committed to investing £7 billion in this Parliament, and delivering 500 new schools. By May 2015, this investment had already helped to create nearly 600,000 additional school places since 2010, with 150,000 delivered in 2014-15 alone. Many more places are in the pipeline and still to come—with local authorities already having firm plans for 260,000 more places. This progress follows a decrease of 200,000 primary places between 2004 and 2010.
Today we are announcing £1.15 billion of funding for local authorities in 2018-19. This is in addition to the £3.6 billion already announced for 2015-18, taking total investment through this Parliament to £4.8 billion. In doing so, we continue to recognise that good investment decisions require certainty. Announcing allocations for 2018-19 today means local authorities can plan years ahead with confidence, and make good strategic investment decisions to ensure they deliver good school places for every child who needs one.
In making these allocations, the Government are continuing to target funding effectively, based on local needs, using data we have collected from local authorities about the capacity of schools and forecast pupil projections.
Most local authorities are successfully delivering additional school places as the nearly 600,000 new places created since 2010 clearly demonstrates. However, where authorities are not delivering for parents, we will not hesitate to intervene.
Details of today’s announcement will be sent to local authorities and be published on the gov.uk website. Copies will be placed in the Library of the House.
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School Places (Barking and Dagenham)
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 8 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Dagenham and Rainham (Jon Cruddas) on securing this debate. I also congratulate him and the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge) on speaking so passionately about the educational opportunities available to young children in their constituencies. This debate is timely as it allows me the opportunity to set out clearly the Government’s position on the provision of sufficient quality school places across the country as well as, more specifically, in Barking and Dagenham. I agree with the right hon. Member for Barking that this is about not just the availability of places but the quality of the school buildings.
First, I want to take the opportunity to reiterate that ensuring that every child is able to attend a good or outstanding school in their local area is at the heart of the Government’s comprehensive programme of reform of the school system. We know that our growing population means that new school places are needed in many parts of the country, so the Government are absolutely committed to providing capital investment to ensure that every child has a place at a school.
We have already shown the strength of our commitment to ensuring that good quality places are available, and we are investing a further £7 billion to create new school places between 2015 and 2021. We are also investing £23 billion in school buildings to create 600,000 new school places, open at least 500 new schools and address essential maintenance needs. This is on top of the £5 billion we allocated to local authorities to invest in school places in the last Parliament, which was over double the amount spent in the equivalent four-year period between 2007 and 2011. Today, we released new data showing that nearly 600,000 additional pupil places were created between May 2010 and May 2015, with many more delivered since then and in the pipeline; 150,000 places were delivered between 2014 and 2015 alone.
The hon. Member for Dagenham and Rainham mentioned the Budget, and referred to the absence of commentary on school places. I want to draw his attention to an announcement that we have made today. We are announcing £1.1 billion of funding for local authorities in 2018-19 to create the school places needed by the 2019-20 academic year. I know that he is concerned about that matter. This is part of the £7 billion that I referred to earlier and, alongside our investment in 500 new free schools, we expect this to deliver a further 600,000 new places by 2021. In making these allocations, the Government are continuing to target funding effectively, based on local needs, using data we have collected from local authorities about the capacity of schools and forecast pupil projections. Those are the announcements that we have made today, and I will definitely ask the hon. Gentleman and the right hon. Lady to look at the detail.
Returning to the central point of the debate, ensuring that every child has access to the benefits of a good-quality education is a fundamental responsibility of everyone across the education system. As the hon. Member for Dagenham and Rainham knows, the statutory duty for providing school places rests with local authorities. Our financial commitment is therefore a concrete demonstration of the level of importance that the Government attach to the provision of places and of our wider commitment.
Our manifesto referred to the creation of 500 new free schools, and 40 applications have been approved since the election in May, with many more entering the process. We continue to encourage businesses, cultural and sporting bodies, charities, community groups and parents to come forward with their proposals for new schools, adding to the nearly 400 schools opened since 2010 and the more than 190 currently in the pipeline.
It is important that local authorities across the country seek to capitalise on the opportunities presented here. The free schools programme is working alongside local authorities to create the school places we need in order to provide a good education for all our children, and many authorities are choosing to work actively with the Government to meet the challenge. I pay tribute to all those in authorities and in schools who have helped to deliver the significant progress of recent years. The task is not yet done, however, as the increase in the number of pupils moving through the primary phase is now beginning to be felt at secondary level. Local authorities and schools must rise to that additional challenge. We should not pretend that that will be easy, which is why we are committed to helping through funding and through establishing new schools directly under the free schools programme.
London’s situation is unique, and the unsurprising surge in pupil numbers has been mentioned. As a thriving global city, London has a large part to play in meeting that challenge. Some 34% of new places delivered by 2015 were in London, and the capital will clearly have a big part to play in coming years. As the hon. Gentleman will know, the London borough of Barking and Dagenham has played its part in that regard. The local authority has effectively created places to meet demand, but it will face, as he pointed out, further challenges as pupil numbers continue to rise and larger primary cohorts transfer into the secondary sector. Rising pupil numbers in neighbouring local authorities will also reduce the number of pupils able to take up places outside Barking and Dagenham, further increasing the challenges to be managed.
The way we provide funding for new places is based on local authorities’ assessments of the number of pupils that they expect to have, taking local factors into account. That approach has helped the Government to allocate Barking and Dagenham a further £6 million, taking the total to £167 million in funding for school places from 2011 to 2019, on top of more than 3,300 places in free schools that we have funded centrally. The funding has been put to work. By May 2015, there were 7,450 more primary places and 4,450 more secondary places than there were in 2010, with plans to create many more when they are needed in the coming years. Barking and Dagenham has four open free schools, including an all-age special school. In addition, it has a university technical college and a further secondary school is due to open in 2017.
Of course, providing sufficient quality places is about not only capital investment, but ensuring that revenue money for schools gets to where it is needed most. The hon. Gentleman was bang on the money when he talked about the likely consequences of the national funding formula for Barking and Dagenham. In the spending review, we delivered on our manifesto pledge to maintain per pupil funding for the core schools budget for the duration of the Parliament, providing an overall real-terms protection. That includes protecting the extra funding for our most disadvantaged children through the pupil premium, worth over £2.5 billion this year. Next year, we will be providing over £40 billion of schools funding, the highest ever level of any Government.
We also committed in the spending review to introduce a national funding formula for schools and for pupils with high needs from 2017 to ensure that funding reaches the places where it is needed. I believe these reforms will be transformative and the biggest step towards fairer funding in more than a decade.
The current funding system is unfair and out of date. It means that a primary pupil with low prior attainment in Barking and Dagenham attracts £800 to his or her school, but in neighbouring Newham the same child would attract nearly £1,800. The situation is similar for pupils with high needs—funding is not correlated to need and there is wide local variation in the way children’s needs are assessed. Earlier this month, we launched the first stage of our consultation on proposals to end this postcode lottery and to put in its place a funding system that gives every pupil the same opportunities in education; where children with the same characteristics and the same needs are funded at the same rate, wherever they live; and where there is one, consistent, fair formula, instead of 152 local variations.
Across all our proposals for a national funding formula, we want to deliver three key priorities: to allocate funding fairly and get it straight to the frontline; to match funding to need, so that the higher the need, the greater the funding; and to make sure that the transition for such significant reforms is smooth. The proposals in our consultation include arrangements for funding schools with significant growth in their pupil numbers, and I look forward to the response to the consultation from the Barking and Dagenham local authority. This Government are committed to long-term investment in education. We have already protected revenue funding for this Parliament and we are acting now to make sure this money is allocated equitably for all pupils, wherever they are in the country. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Dagenham and Rainham for raising this important issue today.
Question put and agreed to.
Oral Answers to Questions
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 8 months ago)
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Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)
16. What progress the Government have made on implementing provision of 30 hours of free childcare for working parents.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
We are delivering on our commitment to provide working parents of three and four-year-olds with 30 hours of free childcare. To ensure providers can deliver high quality childcare, we will increase funding for childcare by more than £1 billion by 2019. The Childcare Bill has cleared its parliamentary stages. Twenty five local authorities will be piloting the programme in the summer, ahead of full delivery in the summer of 2017.
Karen Lumley
Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating St George’s in Redditch for the fantastic work it already does? Does he agree that the 30 hours of free nursery education will make such a difference to one of the most deprived parts of my town?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Families in deprived parts of Redditch will see £5,000 a year as a result of the 30 hours of free childcare. If they need further support, they can get it through the child tax credit system. The 30 hours of free childcare will help families with the cost of living, enable them to work more hours and give children the best start in life.
Julian Sturdy
I very much welcome the fact that one of the pilot schemes is in York. I congratulate the Minister on all his work on that. As the Minister knows, there is some concern among nursery providers over the future funding levels, driven by the disparity between the amount local authorities pay. Will the Minister consider future ring-fencing to avoid top-slicing by local authorities? Will he also consider visiting nurseries in my constituency to see how the pilot is working?
Mr Gyimah
I should like to reassure my hon. Friend that later this year we will be consulting on an early years national funding formula. As part of that, we will set a firm expectation on local authority top-slicing to ensure that the record investment being made in childcare is allocated fairly and reaches providers on the frontline. I am particularly impressed by the innovation in childcare brought about by the local authority in York, which is why we chose it as one of our early implementers. I would be delighted to visit again.
Oliver Colvile
Has my hon. Friend made an assessment of the number of nursery places in Plymouth, and of whether there is enough provision and capacity?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend asks a very important question. The key point is that doubling the entitlement of free childcare is not the same as doubling the demand for childcare. Many parents already buy more than 15 hours and there is spare capacity in the system. The £6 billion funding going into childcare each year should incentivise more providers to enter the market. Where there are specific local difficulties, £50 million has been made available through the spending review to tackle capacity constraints.
Joan Ryan (Enfield North) (Lab)
I have heard nothing today to assure me that when parents seek the 30 hours free childcare they will be able to find them. I do not know if the Minister is aware that in Enfield since 2010 482 early-years childcare places have been lost and 114 providers have disappeared. When parents are looking for those places, I would be very surprised if they are there on the ground. What will the Minister do to ensure that he can meet the promises his Government have made?
Mr Gyimah
I am afraid I have to disagree with the right hon. Lady. In the previous Parliament, the childcare sector created 230,000 new places. I am confident that with record investment the sector will rise to the challenge of delivering the 30 hours. It is about time that we stopped talking down the childcare sector and recognise the continued growth of the industry.
Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)
At recent constituency surgeries, I have had representations from both private providers and state maintained nurseries telling me that the funding simply will not be there. It is no good blaming the sector or blaming local authorities for the fact that the Government have a model that is half-baked, underfunded and running behind time. What is the Minister going to do to make sure that the pledge the Conservatives made to parents at the general election is made real through the availability of places and, crucially, the funding to go with it?
Mr Gyimah
Let me puncture the hon. Gentleman’s question with a dose of reality. The Government are investing more in childcare than any previous Government. At a time when other Departments are facing financial constraint, the Government have made childcare a strategic priority. That is why we undertook the first ever cost of childcare review to ensure that funding is fair to providers and sustainable for the taxpayer.
Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)
The National Audit Office report published last week raised concerns about how the 30 hours of childcare for some three and four-year-olds could impact on current provision for disadvantaged two-year-olds. What steps will be taken to ensure that increased provision for one group will not impact on the good work being done with disadvantaged two-year-olds?
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady asks a good question, and the answer is that there will be no adverse impact on the offer for two-year-olds. We were the first Government to introduce 15 hours of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds, and that will carry on. We have increased the hourly rate for the funding for two-year-olds and ensured that the early-years pupil premium continues, so that two, three and four-year-olds who are particularly disadvantaged do not fall even further behind.
Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)
The Minister is right to talk about incentivising providers to come forward, and this is a big opportunity, but may I urge him to take into account the needs of different types of provider—childminders, as well as nurseries and all the other types of setting—all of which should be able to take part in this larger and exciting opportunity?
Mr Gyimah
I totally agree with my hon. Friend. One of the great things about the UK childcare market is the diversity of provision—childminders, nurseries, school nurseries—available to parents, as it means we can meet all parents’ needs, especially when it comes to work. We will make sure that flexibility for parents is at the heart of how the 30 hours is delivered.
Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)
It really is all about delivery. The Minister talks about meeting all parents’ needs, but already 59 local authorities say they do not have the places to meet current obligations to three-year-olds, never mind the additional hours. What is he going to do?
Mr Gyimah
Once again, I shall give a dose of reality: 99% of four-year-olds and 96% of three-year-olds are accessing the existing 15 hours of childcare. I am happy to compare our record with that of the previous Labour Government. After 13 years in office, it had provided 12.5 hours of free childcare. In half that time, the Conservative party has provided 30 hours of free childcare. Labour never offered anything for disadvantaged two-year-olds; we have a programme for disadvantaged two-year-olds. We are investing more than any previous Government. It might not like it, but it must accept it: the Conservatives are the party of childcare.
Jenny Chapman
My party introduced Sure Start. There was no Sure Start and there were no children’s centres—no universal offer for any kind of childcare—prior to the Labour Government in 1997. The test of this will be how many families actually use the additional hours and who those families are. How has the Minister managed to concoct a system where a household with an income of £200,000 a year benefits from the additional hours, whereas 20,000 single parents on the minimum wage will not be eligible? How has he managed to come up with something so deeply unfair?
Mr Gyimah
Let me explain the policy to the hon. Lady. She should be familiar with it by now. Our eligibility criteria make absolute sense. To get 30 hours of free childcare, someone needs to be in work and earning more than £107 a week and not more than £100,000 a year—it does not matter if they are a lone parent. That means that if anybody in the family earns more than £100,000 a year, they will not be eligible. I know that Labour Members do not want to hear it, but Labour’s childcare voucher scheme meant that parents earning more than £1 million could get childcare subsidies but the self-employed could not. We are not allowing that to happen in our childcare scheme.
Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con)
3. What steps her Department is taking to support provision of STEM subjects in schools.
Rebecca Harris (Castle Point) (Con)
10. What progress the Careers & Enterprise Company has made on improving careers education and inspiring young people about the world of work.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Careers & Enterprise Company has made excellent progress in its start-up year. It is opening up schools to the world of work and opening up the world of work to schools, which, as all experts agree, is a key ingredient of high-quality careers education and guidance.
Craig Tracey
I was delighted to meet representatives of the Careers & Enterprise Company recently in my role as chairman of the all-party women and enterprise group. What steps will be taken to ensure that great models and mentors are provided to supplement the company’s work, and that students from all backgrounds are aware of the wealth of opportunities that are available to them once they have left education?
Mr Gyimah
That is an excellent question. In the past, too much emphasis has been placed on one-to-one careers advice, which is often provided too late and not delivered effectively. That is why £70 million has been made available over the current Parliament to fund careers services, including a new national mentoring scheme that will focus on the most disadvantaged. My hon. Friend is absolutely right about mentors, especially for young girls, and especially in relation to STEM subjects and professions.
Rebecca Harris
Does my hon. Friend agree that the old careers service is all too often regarded as a source of mild and gentle humour by people when they remember their schooldays, perhaps because they were approached too late? Is it not enormously important for businesses and, indeed, employers throughout all sectors to offer work experience—and not just to young people, to whom I know many Members offer that here in the House?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Careers advice has long been the punchline for a joke, and many people found that the advice that they were given did not make sense to them at all. In our careers strategy, we are focusing on real, practical employer interactions so that the world of work can go into schools, and so that children can see what is out there, have their passions roused, and work out what is best for them.
Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)
The Minister will be delighted, because he has lost the punchline for his joke. He should go easy on the self-congratulation, given that the Government have presided over the disintegration of careers services for young people. Cuts have decimated council-led youth support and Connexions, and the Department has failed to include work experience in the curriculum. No wonder the CBI told it that the careers service was broken. Young people will need that help from the Careers & Enterprise Company to start repairing five years of damage. Will the Minister tell us what resources will be given to volunteer enterprise advisers—after all, only £17 million a year is going to the company—and just how many of them there will be for the thousands of schools and further education colleges that need them?
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Gentleman talks as though there had once been a golden age of careers advice and service, but anyone could tell him that there has never been such a golden age. The missing piece in careers advice and guidance was employer interaction, and that is what the excellent Careers & Enterprise Company is setting up. As part of its strategy, it is rolling out enterprise advisers, and 30 local enterprise partnerships have signed up to be part of that. Every school will have an enterprise co-ordinator to link it to the world of work.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
9. What plans she has to expand the Priority School Building programme.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Priority School Building programme was established to rebuild and refurbish those schools in the very worst condition across the country. The £4.4 billion programme is targeting funding to address urgent condition need at 357 schools. The Department has made no decision in relation to a third phase to the programme.
Rachael Maskell
The Priority School Building programme, which was downgraded in the last Major Projects Authority report, has resulted in just one school in York being earmarked for repairs, rather than addressing the urgent needs of 10 schools, including three overdue rebuilds. It is costing the local authority £1.23 million just to keep those schools open. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the urgent need for funding for school buildings in York? Will he also review the Education Funding Agency’s condition survey, given that the data collected do not provide the comprehensive evidence base necessary to match local authority priorities?
Mr Gyimah
I would be delighted to meet the hon. Lady to discuss the issues in York. Just to give her an update, two schools are being rebuilt or refurbished in York Central under the Priority School Building programme. Carr Infants School is under construction as part of PSBP phase 1, and Badger Hill Primary School will have its condition need met under PSBP phase 2. A total of seven schools have applied for both phases and are being considered, but I would be happy to meet her to discuss these matters.
Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)
I recently visited Paignton Academy, which serves my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston). Some of its buildings are in quite poor condition, with many of them dating from the 1930s. Will the Minister agree to meet me, my hon. Friend and a delegation from the school to assess what can be done to get a rebuild on track?
Mr Gyimah
I did not realise that this was going to be a diary session, but I am of course happy to meet the Minister and other members of his local authority to discuss their funding needs. As I have said, the Priority School Building programme is for schools in urgent condition, and schools in his area could also apply to the condition improvement fund.
Mr Speaker
The hon. Gentleman himself is the Minister. “Know thyself” is quite a useful principle in politics, as it is more widely in life.
Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (SNP)
What steps is the Department taking to promote the installation of fire suppression systems while repair work is being done to schools as part of this programme?
Ben Howlett (Bath) (Con)
Will the Minister join me in welcoming the news that the Comenius Trust has just been selected to build a brand new primary school at Endsleigh in Bath? This will help to plug a growing hole in the primary school numbers in our city, which is ever popular with young families.
James Cartlidge (South Suffolk) (Con)
11. What steps the Government are taking to support the educational attainment of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)
Given the strong link, in some cases, between early-age cannabis use and future mental health issues, what is the Minister’s assessment of efforts by schools to tackle and deter illegal drug use?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Government have taken steps to tackle behaviour and discipline in schools, and teachers’ powers to search pupils for prohibited items, including illegal drugs, have been strengthened. They have the power to discipline pupils for misbehaviour and to confiscate, retain or dispose of a pupil’s property as a disciplinary penalty where reasonable to do so. A school’s behaviour policy should set out its approach to confiscating prohibited items.
School Estate
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 9 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) has made the following written statement.
Today, I am announcing £1.4 billion of funding allocations to maintain and improve the condition of the education estate. Investing in our school buildings is a key part of the Government’s long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future. It will help to ensure children across the country can learn in schools that are safe and in good condition.
For the financial year 2016-17, the Department for Education is allocating £200 million of devolved formula capital to schools and £1.2 billion to local authorities, voluntary aided partnerships, multi-academy trusts and academy sponsors, to invest in their own condition priorities. This includes funding for the repair and refurbishment of academies and sixth-form colleges through the condition improvement fund, the outcome of which we will announce later this year.
Good investment decisions require some certainty and stability of funding, which is why in February 2015 we announced three-year indicative allocations covering 2015-16 to 2017-18. The allocations we are announcing today, for 2016-17, update those allocations to reflect how the school system has changed, with schools opening and closing and more schools becoming academies. We have implemented these changes with minimal variation to the approach we set out last year. These updated allocations are also indicative of funding for 2017-18.
Details of today’s announcement will be published on the gov.uk website. Copies will be placed in the Library of the House.
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Childcare Bill: Early Implementation
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 9 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
Today I announced £13 million to allow councils across the country to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for hard-working parents of three and four-year-olds—a year ahead of schedule. As a result, some working parents in York, Wigan, Staffordshire, Swindon, Portsmouth, Northumberland, Newham and Hertfordshire will benefit from the offer from this September. The extra hours of childcare will make it easier for these parents to work and is another move designed to meet the Government’s commitment to make work pay. These councils will develop practical solutions to the barriers that parents face in accessing the childcare they need for work—for example, childcare to support non-standard shift patterns, in rural areas, for homeless working parents, and for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Their experiences will be used to support full roll-out in 2017, with the aim of removing significant barriers to parents taking up their entitlement. In York, parents will test a new joint online application system being developed for 30 hours and tax-free childcare. The Department for Education ran an open competition to test how the 30 hours would work, and received 69 applications from local authorities working with childcare providers.
I have also announced £4 million to support an additional 25 “early innovator” local authorities to develop innovative, flexible childcare for working parents, and to make sure that the 30 hours works for children with special educational needs and disabilities, in homeless working families, and in rural communities ahead of full roll-out. The 33 local authorities will work together in regional clusters, enabling joint working and generating national learning. As part of this Government’s commitment to helping hard-working people, it will be investing more than £1 billion extra per year by 2019-20 to fund the extension of the free childcare entitlement.
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Oral Answers to Questions
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)
5. What progress the Government have made on implementing their policy to provide 30 hours of free childcare for working parents.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
We are making rapid and substantial progress towards our manifesto commitment to provide 30 hours of free childcare for working families. The Chancellor has committed to an increase in funding for free places of more than £1 billion a year by 2020. The Report stage and Third Reading of the Childcare Bill will take place this afternoon, and early implementation is on track for this autumn, with full roll-out in 2017.
Mr Jayawardena
In rural areas, nurseries are often smaller which can result in higher costs per pupil. Can the Minister assure me that those nurseries will not be adversely affected, and will he visit my constituency to see some of those nurseries at first hand?
Mr Gyimah
May I reassure my hon. Friend that our review of childcare costs, in consultation with the sector, took into account the cost of childcare for every type of provider right across the country? We have announced an increase in the average national funding rate from £4.56 an hour to £4.88 for three and four-year-olds from 2017-18 and will be consulting to ensure that that reaches the frontline. In response to my hon. Friend’s request, I would be delighted to visit nurseries in Hampshire, which, I know, are at the forefront of innovation in the sector.
Graham Evans
Next month, I will be holding my fifth annual jobs and apprenticeships fair at the outstanding Mid Cheshire College. Does my hon. Friend welcome the extension of this Government’s commitment to 30 hours of free childcare to help parents get back to work?
Mr Gyimah
I congratulate my hon. Friend on the Weaver Vale jobs fair. He is absolutely right that the purpose of the 30-hour commitment is to help make work pay, help with the cost of living and give children the best start in life. May I suggest that he invites local childcare providers to his jobs fair so that parents can talk to them as well as to potential employers, and I encourage all colleagues to do the same?
Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)
Does the Minister agree that a parent’s childcare needs do not end when a child reaches four, and that after school and school holiday childcare is absolutely essential, particularly for working parents? Does he therefore share my disappointment that Westminster City Council is ending all funding for its school-age childcare service, or play service, as part of a £665,000 cut to their children’s services budget?
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady asks a very important question about childcare for school-age children. I cannot comment on the specific case of Westminster City Council, but I do know that tax-free childcare, which we have legislated for and which comes into force from 2017, will allow parents to purchase childcare out of school for children from nought to 12, and for disabled children up to the age of 18.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
Will the Minister say what support schools will be given to accommodate the extra intake?
Mr Gyimah
That is an excellent question. There are many excellent school nurseries available. She may be aware that, as part of our last spending review, we announced £50 million of capital funding, and that we will be working with schools that need to expand to be able to deliver the cost of childcare.
Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)
The Government’s plans for introducing 30 hours of free childcare for working parents have rightly received cross-party support, but, as we have already heard, there is still some way to go with regard to parents seeking employment. What work will the Minister do with parents who are currently seeking employment to enable them to access the childcare?
Mr Speaker
The hon. Lady appears to have phoned not one friend, but two. We are deeply grateful to her and to those hon. Members.
Mr Gyimah
It is encouraging to see that the Scottish National party has followed the Conservative party’s lead and is now pledging 30 hours of childcare in the upcoming Scottish elections. The hon. Lady will be aware that we have the childcare element of tax credits in England, so that parents who do not qualify for the second 15 hours can get support for up to 75% of their childcare costs through that policy.
Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)
On 14 April last year, the Prime Minister boasted—I cannot do a David Cameron impression—that with a Conservative Government
“you will get 30 hours of free childcare a week”.
As I recall, there was much rejoicing throughout the land. However, can the Minister now confirm that one in three of the families who he said would get the 30 hours of free childcare—and they believed it because the Prime Minister told them that they would—will receive no additional hours at all?
Mr Gyimah
I welcome the hon. Lady to her post. I look forward to her future contributions as vice-chair of Progress, especially as I now understand that to be a front for hard-right views in the Labour party. She will know that for the first 15 hours, the offer is universal— 99% of four-year-olds and 94% of three-year-olds get it. We have been very clear that the second 15 hours is a work incentive. Surely she does not believe that Islington parents on £100,000 a year should be entitled to free childcare. I know that she wants to represent the new core constituency of the Labour party.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
3. What discussions she has had with education providers on reviews of post-16 education and training.
Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)
7. What steps she is taking to implement the recommendations of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission’s report, “State of the Nation 2015: Social Mobility and Child Poverty in Great Britain”, published in December 2015.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Prime Minister made it clear in his first major policy intervention this year that improving life chances is a key priority for this Government. We will, in due course, publish a strategy setting out all the ways in which we will be fighting disadvantage and spreading opportunity. The strategy will focus on the root causes and human dimensions of child poverty. We will work with the reformed Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, which will play an important role in this.
Tom Brake
I am sure that the strategy that the Minister mentions will recognise that early intervention is key to improving social mobility. Has he looked at the impact of the removal of the ring-fencing of the early intervention grant, which has led to a 40% drop in the money available for early intervention? What will the impact of that be on social mobility?
Mr Gyimah
The right hon. Gentleman will know that Conservative Members take social mobility very seriously, and we have an excellent record on it; we even allowed the Liberal Democrats into government once. On the early intervention grant, we have increased the amount of money for troubled families and are deploying it in a very targeted way to help the families who need it most.
Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
9. What plans the Government have to meet demand for school places in Thirsk and Malton.
Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)
11. What assessment she has made of the affordability of childcare.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
This Government understand that for many parents childcare is the main issue. That is why we will be helping parents with the cost of childcare to the tune of £6 billion a year from 2019 onwards.
Marie Rimmer
Childcare and early education are vital to help children to get the best start in life, particularly in the most disadvantaged families, yet this policy does nothing to help the most disadvantaged children, and the Minister’s decision to change eligibility means that those who may benefit most will miss out on the extra 15 hours. What plan does he have to raise its quality in the early years, particularly to address the issue of disadvantaged children who will not benefit?
Mr Gyimah
Disadvantaged children are at the heart of our childcare policy. This Government introduced 15 hours of childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds, and all three and four-year-olds get the first 15 hours free. As for the second 15 hours, which is a work incentive, it is logical to say that before someone gets 16 hours of childcare, given that they get 15 free, they work one additional hour. That makes total sense.
Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)
14. What progress the Government are making in giving summer-born and premature children the choice to defer starting school.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
21. What progress the Careers and Enterprise Company has made on improving the provision of careers education and inspiring young people about the world of work.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The Careers and Enterprise Company has made significant progress since its incorporation last February. It has set up a national network of enterprise advisers to improve the employer-school link, it has launched a £5-million fund to help in areas where careers provision is particularly poor, and it is developing an enterprise passport for all young children in school.
Karen Lumley
More than 3,000 apprenticeships have been created in Redditch since 2010. What will the new company do to ensure that there are another 3,000 by 2020?
Mr Gyimah
First, I congratulate Redditch on its excellent work to create apprenticeships. That is at the heart of the work this Government are doing. Pupils should be given every opportunity to fulfil their potential. As my hon. Friend knows, the Government will create 3 million apprenticeships. The Careers and Enterprise Company will help young people find the right route to continue their development.
Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)
The CBI said in its “Future possible” report 18 months ago that
“the transfer of responsibility for careers guidance to schools has been a failure.”
Will the Minister recognise that the CBI is correct?
Mr Gyimah
There are a number of ways to develop comprehensive careers advice and guidance. The Careers and Enterprise Company, in which we invested £20 million, is one part of that. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said, in the spring we will publish a comprehensive strategy for how schools can work with the company and the plethora of other organisations out there to deliver the right level of careers education, starting from primary level right through to the end of school.
Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.
Childcare Bill [Lords]
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jenny Chapman
It’s fantastic stuff, isn’t it? There is more:
“With a Conservative Government, you will get 30 hours of free childcare a week”.
Marvellous! Had I believed it, I might just have voted for it myself.
The trouble is that thousands of families did believe the Prime Minister when he promised to double the 15 hours of free childcare per week. How disappointed they will be to discover that the promise was false! Even those who dug deep and read the small print will be disappointed. When he made the promise, there was a caveat in the notes at the bottom of the press release: children will get the free childcare only if their parents are working more than eight hours a week. Thousands of families in which both parents worked more than eight hours a week each could plan on that basis, or so they thought—the Bill says nothing about eight hours. The Government now say that both parents must be working at least 16 hours a week, at the minimum wage, or, just to confuse things a bit more, earning above the equivalent earnings of 16 hours per week on the minimum wage but in fewer hours.
The Government, in their spin, misled the public, then they misled families with the detail, and now they are confusing parents and providers with the implementation. That is why I support new clause 1. It is necessary to ensure the Government examine the Bill after its enactment, which could have some serious unintended consequences. The first potential consequence I would like the Government to monitor is the impact on the supply and quality of childcare places.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
All parties at the last general election promised to increase the free entitlement. Labour promised to increase it from 15 hours to 25 hours for working parents. The Conservative party promised to increase it from 15 hours to 30 hours for working parents. Who would she have included or excluded from Labour’s definition of working parents?
Jenny Chapman
As I will explain, the problem is with who the Government are excluding. People earning more than the minimum wage but working fewer hours would be entitled to the Minister’s 15 additional free hours, whereas someone working 15 hours on the minimum wage will not be entitled to them. If I am wrong, I will gladly let him intervene to correct me.
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady mentioned the hon. Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass), who, at the end of the Committee stage, said it was a good Bill and that she could find nothing in it with which to disagree. I hope, in their handover, they had that discussion. The eligibility criteria are very straightforward. Eligibility will be judged on income. If someone is under 25 and earning the national living wage, they will need to earn £107 a week. If they are over 25 and earning the national living wage, which the Government are introducing, the calculation will be the national living wage times the number of hours they can work. It is very straightforward.
Jenny Chapman
Well, I am glad that’s as simple as it gets. I said at the outset that I supported the Bill reasonably enthusiastically, but it is a bit arrogant of the Minister to suggest that it is a perfect Bill and that it has no complexity. As he just demonstrated incredibly well, there is huge complexity. Somebody on low earnings and working fewer than 16 hours a week will not qualify, but someone on higher earnings—
Jenny Chapman
Is the hon. Lady looking at the wrong piece of paper? I shall go on to explain what is in new clause 1, and if she listens carefully, she will understand what we are trying to get at.
The new analysis by the House of Commons Library reveals a black hole of £480 million in the funding of this childcare offer. That shortfall represents £470 per child each year for those taking up the full 30 hours of free childcare. Independent research undertaken by research company Ceeda, as commissioned by the Pre-School Learning Alliance, suggests that the Department’s funding review has underestimated the cost of delivering childcare. The researchers found that, if funded at the average rate of £4.83 an hour—£4.88 minus the early years pupil premium, which the Department claims is worth 5p an hour—announced by the Government on 25 November, nurseries and pre-schools would face an annual shortfall of £233.70 per child for three and four-year-olds taking up the existing 15-hour entitlement, and £467.40 for those taking up the full 30 hours.
What could be the consequence of that funding gap? Childcare providers will have some difficult choices to make. There is every possibility that in an attempt to make ends meet, the gap will be met through driving down quality, while some providers might leave the market altogether, resulting in less choice for parents and a lack of supply. The Pre-School Learning Alliance warns, rather ominously, that as the existing scheme is significantly underfunded, it is now “crunch time” for the sector. The sector is already in a precarious position, and the Minister needs to reflect on the fact that the Family and Childcare Trust reports that a quarter of local authorities have a shortage of places for children in their existing schemes. There are 40,000 fewer places now than there were in 2010. Given that the Government failed to build capacity in the sector, how are the extra hours going to happen and how does the Minister think providers are going to pay for it? New clause 1 flags up those issues for the Government and asks Ministers to monitor the effect of the new arrangements.
Mr Gyimah
I thank the hon. Lady for being so generous in giving way. The Conservative party promised at the election to increase the average funding rate and it is delivering on that promise. The Labour party did not promise to increase the hourly rate. If the hon. Lady is arguing that the funding rate is not enough, will she tell us what the Labour party considers to be the right funding rate for the entitlement?
Jenny Chapman
I do wish it was my Bill that we were debating here. I really do, but it is not; it is the Minister’s Bill and it is for him to defend it and to argue against my new clause. That is why we are here. This is not a re-run of the election campaign. I am sure we are all glad about that—I know I am!
New clause 1 also asks the Government to evaluate the impact on parental employment and the administrative burdens placed on parents and providers. What parents want, aside from high-quality and affordable provision, is a scheme that is easy to understand and predictable. After someone has had a baby, deciding when to return to work and for how many hours is a difficult and finely balanced choice. Employers and parents need certainty. As parents fret over the balance between work and family life, employers and co-workers also make choices about their hours and staffing. We want those parents who choose to work to be able to do so. Any opaqueness about eligibility is damaging to take-up of the scheme and harms the confidence that the Government will not move the goalposts once complex family arrangements have been put in place. The proposed scheme, under which someone earning £107 in half a day would be eligible for 30 hours per week of free childcare but someone who works 15 hours a week on the minimum wage is not eligible, will seem bonkers to most people. I therefore urge the Government to do as new clause 1 suggests and monitor the impact of this change, in particular on parental employment patterns.
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady raises important questions about parents on zero-hours contracts and how they will be monitored. The first point is that parents on zero-hours contracts are self-employed; they are all entitled to the childcare under this scheme. HMRC will check the income levels, and in the case of the self-employed will know how much they earn over a period of time. In addition, and more importantly, there is a grace period so that if someone falls out of work for a period they will not lose their childcare.
Jenny Chapman
I am, of course, grateful to the Minister for his intervention, but I might just suggest that he will get the opportunity to make his own speech when I have finished, and he might want to answer some of my questions then. I will move on—
Mr Gyimah
I am grateful for the opportunity to hold this important debate, and I once again welcome the hon. Member for Darlington (Jenny Chapman) to her position. The amendments that have been tabled raise a number of interesting issues, which I shall deal with in turn. Let me say at the outset, however, that extending the 15 hours to 30 hours is primarily a work incentive. That is why the first 15 hours are universal, but the second 15 hours are based mainly on economic eligibility criteria. In judging and evaluating the impact of the policy we should bear in mind the work incentive.
Jenny Chapman
What the Minister says is correct—that is his intention—but does he accept that in new clause 1 our intention is simply to hold him to that and to assess the success of the Bill in delivering that intention?
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady is right to ask the questions. However, I shall resist the new clause, and the main reason is that a number of evaluations, which she has asked for, are under way. There are important programmes, as I shall explain, that focus on reducing the gap between disadvantaged children and other children.
New clause 1 asks us to evaluate the impact of the new entitlement for working parents. That is extremely important and I hope that Members will be reassured to know that we have a very strong evidence base about the impact of free early education entitlements. We know, from studies such as the effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project that early education has a significant impact on child outcomes. Children attending high-quality provision for two or three years before school have a seven or eight-month developmental advantage in literacy compared with their peers.
The Department for Education has commissioned another longitudinal study, if the hon. Member for Darlington will listen: the study of early education and development, which follows 8,000 two-year-olds from across England to the end of key stage 1. It looks at how childcare and early education can help to give children the best start in life and at what is important for high-quality childcare provision. The study is being carried out by NatCen Social Research, working with Frontier Economics, the University of Oxford and 4Children, on behalf of the Department.
Mrs Flick Drummond (Portsmouth South) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend congratulate Portsmouth, where children do extremely well in their early years? The chief inspector’s report of April 2015 ranked Portsmouth as 12th out of 150 authorities, which is a massive improvement and great for the good development of children, who are entitled to free school meals at the age of five.
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The quality of early years provision has improved significantly; 85% of early years settings are now rated good or outstanding. The previous Government introduced the common inspection framework for early years education, which has raised the bar and will continue to do so over the course of this Parliament.
Regular surveys commissioned by the Department also provide rich data. These include the childcare and early years provider and parent surveys. The provider survey collects information about childcare and early years providers, including the composition and qualifications of the workforce. The parent survey collects data on parents’ use of childcare and early years provision and their views and experiences.
Alex Cunningham
Various groups have raised concerns about capacity and quality of provision and stressed the need, to which the Minister has just referred, to have the best trained people in order to deliver it. They do not accept his reassurances, but the new clause gives him an opportunity to have his achievements measured all together. I know that he says that some of the issues are covered elsewhere in legislation, but this would pull it all together in one big round circle that he could fill in over time. Why does he not just accept the scrutiny that the new clause offers him?
Mr Gyimah
The Government will be spending £6 billion a year from 2019-20 on early years and childcare. The suggestion that we will be doing that without measuring or evaluating it is simply not true. The question is where we carry out this evaluation and whether it needs to sit in primary legislation. Had the hon. Gentleman been listening, he would have heard me explain that we currently have a survey following 8,000 two-year-olds across England, so what he is asking for is already under way. We do not need primary legislation to evaluate the impact of the important investment to achieve very important goals in this sector.
The latest early years foundation stage profile data reveal that an increasing proportion of children are achieving a good level of development at age five—66% in 2015, compared with 52% in 2013. That is an impressive 14.6 percentage point increase over the past two years. I know that there is more we can do to understand the impact of this extended entitlement. However, as drafted, the proposed amendments are not workable. They call for an evaluation of the impact of discharging the Secretary of State’s new duty within 12 months of the Act coming into force, which is far too soon to make any judgment about impact. That would not be adequate time to collect the data, assess the impacts and produce a report.
Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)
Many kinship carers of young children are pensioners, so they will not meet the work thresholds to access the 30 hours of free childcare, despite arguably being in greatest need of support and respite. Does the Minister plan to take any steps to address the needs of these unsung carers in our nation?
Mr Gyimah
Every three and four-year-old is entitled to 15 hours of free childcare. The question is who is entitled to the second 15 hours. [Interruption.] If Opposition Members will bear with me, I will answer the question. Lone parents are entitled to it, as are self-employed parents and parents looking after disabled children. I will seek inspiration from the officials’ box specifically on kinship carers. But the issue is that everybody gets the first 15 hours if they work, and the second 15 hours is a work incentive. If people are not working, they do not need that amount of childcare.
Alex Cunningham
But that is not the point. Kinship carers are some of the most pressed individuals in our society. They need respite care. The Minister says that there might be 15 hours available, but they need respite care and comprehensive support, perhaps even more than working parents. Surely he should be considering this.
Melanie Onn
I thank the Minister for being so generous in giving way. I want to echo the sentiment expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), and reinforce it by pointing out that many kinship carers are pensioners who cannot work and cannot meet their thresholds. When it comes to respite care, children often need additional educational or emotional support, which takes an incredible toll. Those carers are saving the state huge amounts of money, because they are not foster carers.
Mr Gyimah
Again, the hon. Lady has made a very good point. If the children of kinship carers need additional care, the early years pupil premium that was introduced by the Conservative-led Government will ensure, to the tune of £50 million, that any additional educational needs are funded. That is a completely different issue from that of how many hours of childcare are needed.
Melanie Onn
Does the Minister not think that it would be more appropriate for very young children to be in settings where there are mixed social and accessibility needs, so that if they have special educational needs, there is no division between them? Such children will not require access to the additional funding that the Minister has mentioned, but they will need socialisation in those early-years settings.
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady is now asking a very different question. If a disadvantaged child has additional educational needs in a mixed setting, there will be additional funding for that child. In response to the hon. Lady’s original question, I can say that a kinship carer who formally takes parental responsibility for a child will be able to access the 30 hours of free childcare.
New clause 1 concerns evaluation. While we are committed to monitoring and collecting data on the impact of the Act, assessing all the issues together would not be feasible, or the most effective way of evaluating the policy. As I have said, the Department has already begun to consider the feasibility of conducting an impact evaluation, and to consider what data would be necessary effectively to monitor the take-up and impact of the new entitlement. I assure Members that the implementation of the extended entitlement will be tested before roll-out. It will be introduced a year early in some areas, from September this year, which will provide an important opportunity to test it and to show that it can be rolled out in a way that meets the needs of working parents. I am pleased to say that local authorities and providers expressed a strong interest in taking part in the early implementation phase, and that the successful candidates will be announced shortly.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
When the Minister and I met after the Committee stage, we talked a great deal about how we would implement the entitlement and make it work for the parents of disabled children. The Minister referred to the early implementers, and we talked about how he would measure their success. Has any progress been made? We discussed talking to parents’ groups, for instance, to ensure that they could contribute to the early implementation process.
Mr Gyimah
It was a pleasure to meet the hon. Lady in the Department, along with some of my officials, to discuss how we could test the early implementers for children with special educational needs and disabilities. I assure her that that will be at the heart of the process. We will conduct specific research with parents’ groups to establish how they access childcare and what challenges they experience during the early implementer phase.
More broadly, the Department and HMRC recently commissioned a feasibility study to consider how best to evaluate the labour and childcare market impacts of both tax-free childcare and the free early education entitlement, both of which policies are aimed at working parents. The study is due to be published in February, and will inform the development of an evaluation framework for both the 30 hours and tax-free childcare.
Chris Davies (Brecon and Radnorshire) (Con)
Will people undertaking apprenticeships be eligible for the 30 hours, and what scope is there for the childcare sector to support more apprenticeships themselves?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The eligibility criteria are based on whether a person is under 25 and working 16 hours a week on the minimum wage, so the amount they earn is roughly £107. If an apprentice is earning that, then of course they will be entitled to the free entitlement. I agree that the early years sector can benefit from the huge investment in apprenticeships that this Government are making.
Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)
Although I endorse and support the main thrust of what my hon. Friend is saying, and indeed the Government’s agenda, will he and the Department, and ministerial colleagues, make certain that parents who decide that getting back to work is not for them and prefer to stay at home to look after their children, particularly in the early years, do not feel penalised or ostracised from Government thinking? A number of my constituents have said to me that having taken that decision they feel slightly obligated to take a different one to try to meet different agendas.
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend makes a good point about a concern felt by some parents. The first 15 hours is universal, but it is voluntary—parents do not have to take it. The previous Government were very mindful of supporting parents who chose to do something else, so we introduced the marriage tax allowance, which supports those parents. In terms of school readiness, the key thing is that the evidence shows that it is helpful for children to attend an early years setting little and often. The universal part of this offer is 15 hours so that those children do not lose out.
Where a family choose to work because that is right for their family circumstances, it is right that the Government respond to the cry from many parents that childcare is too expensive. That is precisely what this Bill does. Rather than widening divisions in society, as the hon. Member for Darlington suggested, this Bill, by enabling more parents to fulfil their aspirations to work, is helping to narrow the economic gap that she mentioned.
Jenny Chapman
The Minister is making quite a bold assertion about the impact of this measure. He does not know that his Bill will narrow the gap, nor does he know that the most disadvantaged children will be able to benefit from the 15 hours, because in fact they will not.
Mr Gyimah
The early years foundation stage profile data show that the gap is already being narrowed. Economically enabling more parents to work if they want to is a positive thing for us to do for the growth of our economy.
Funding has been mentioned several times. This Government have invested a record amount—more than any other—in the early years entitlement and in childcare more broadly, but we also know that there are inefficiencies in the system. For example, not all the money that is allocated is distributed fairly to different local authorities, and not all of it reaches the frontline. We will therefore engage in a comprehensive package of reform by introducing a national funding formula for the early years so that funding is transparently and fairly matched to need, and fairly distributed between different types of provider in different parts of the country.
Chloe Smith
I welcome the announcement of the funding increase, which is very important as a reassuring message to many providers who sometimes have concerns about what it costs to provide these places. May I urge the Minister to press local authorities to pass as much of this money as possible on to their frontline and to review their own funding formulas where appropriate?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. If central Government make the funding available but we do not have an efficient way of distributing the money to the providers on the frontline, we should not be surprised if those providers then say that they are not seeing the increased funding. That is why it sits alongside a package of reforms to ensure that the money reaches the frontline—the providers who are delivering these high-quality places for parents.
The hon. Member for Darlington touched on the attainment gap, and I now want to turn briefly to new clause 2 on the important issue of attainment and development. Let me reassure hon. Members that the Government want all children to have the best possible start in life and the support that will enable them to achieve their potential. We want high-quality early education and childcare for all children, wherever they live and whatever their background.
The early years foundation stage framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. The framework recognises that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. It is an inclusive framework that seeks to provide quality and consistency in all early years settings so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.
Our approach is working. As I mentioned earlier, more children are achieving a good level of development. There have also been improvements in provision for disadvantaged children, for whom high-quality childcare can help to mitigate the risk of falling behind early on. For children with eligibility for free school meals, there has been a 6 percentage point increase in the number achieving a good level of development in 2015 compared with 2014. That is the equivalent of an extra 5,800 children with free school meal eligibility achieving a good level of development, which the whole House should welcome. Furthermore, the gender gap has also continued to narrow. Although girls continue to outperform boys, the gap is narrowing—falling from 16.3 percentage points in 2014 to 15.6 percentage points in 2015.
Children with special educational needs and disabilities are also benefiting from our policies. Early years providers must ensure that the necessary arrangements are in place to support children with SEN or disabilities, and providers delivering funded places must have regard to the SEN code of practice. In preparation for that, we will of course meet our duty, under the Equality Act 2010, to consider the potential impact on groups with protected characteristics. We will also undertake the families test and consider the potential impacts on family relationships.
Finally on the new clauses, I will briefly mention the qualification levels of the early years workforce, which have risen in recent years. Continuing this increase is a key aim of the Government’s workforce strategy, through the introduction of early years educator qualifications, which are equivalent to A-level standard, and early years initial teacher training.
As far as evaluation is concerned, I hope I have reassured the House that a substantial amount of work is already going on to evaluate all our policies in the early education area. [Interruption.] It is a two-year study. If the Labour Front Benchers had been listening to me, rather than chuntering from a sedentary position, they would know that I have discussed it in detail. We are following 8,000 children from the age of two, and we will publish the study’s conclusions.
The hon. Member for Darlington mentioned student nurses and their eligibility for the free entitlement, and I will now turn to amendment 2. The current funding system means that two out of every three people who want to become a nurse are not accepted for training. In 2014, universities were forced to turn down 37,000 nursing applicants. This means that the NHS suffers from a limited supply of nurses, and has to rely on expensive agency nurses and overseas workers. The changes announced by the Chancellor in his autumn statement will place trainee nurses on the same system as all other students, including teachers and doctors. As I outlined in my letter to the hon. Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass), the Department of Health and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills plan to run a consultation on the detail of the Government’s reforms early this year.
Specifically in relation to support with childcare costs from 2017, students can be reimbursed under the student support regulations for up to 85% of their childcare costs—up to a maximum of £155.24 a week when they have one child and up to £266.15 a week when they have two children. The child must be under 15 years of age, or under 17 years of age when they are registered with special educational needs. In addition, students may also be entitled to the means-tested parent learning allowance of up to £1,573. That recognises some of the additional costs that a student incurs from supporting children while training.
I make it clear that, aside from the support available under student support provisions, parent student nurses, along with all parent students, can and will continue to benefit from the existing 15 hours of free early education for all three and four-year-olds. This is a universal entitlement, regardless of whether or not parents are in work. Parent student nurses may also be entitled to 15 hours of free early education for two-year-old children, depending on their circumstances.
I hope I have reassured the House that although student nurses do not qualify for the second 15 hours, other student support programmes, reimbursing them to the tune of 75% of their childcare costs, will achieve the same objective as that of amendment 2. In addition, those entitled to any tax credits would receive support in that way.
I hope my arguments have reassured hon. Members that we care about the robust evaluation of our policies and that it would be inappropriate to evaluate the impact of the policy according to the timescales in the new clauses. We care about children, and no one wants to get this right more than the Government. We put the Bill into the Queen’s Speech—the first childcare Bill in a Queen’s Speech—and we are determined to get it right. That is why we have put evaluation at the heart of what we are doing. I do not believe that stating that in the Bill in the way drafted in the new clauses—within a year—would actually work.
Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) (Lab)
Although I am not sure Mr Speaker saw me do so, I almost fell over when I tried to catch his eye earlier. As I am doing dry January, I assure hon. Members that it was not for the usual reasons why people fall over in Parliament. In fact, my heel got caught on my bag.
I rise to speak to amendment 1 in my name, which is about victims of domestic violence. I give credit to my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Melanie Onn) for finding another vulnerable group in kinship carers, whose needs may not be well met by the Bill. I would put them in a similar category to the people I am going to talk about. She made some very interesting points. I hope the Minister will take them away and try to understand what it is like for senior citizens to take on children who have been in very traumatic circumstances.
The purpose of the amendment I have tabled is to ask the Government once again to look at the possibility of exempting those fleeing domestic violence from the 16-hour employment threshold. As someone with years of experience working in this field, I know that one of the single biggest barriers to women attending and seeking recovery services is access to childcare. For example it is pretty difficult for a woman to engage in trauma counselling for the repeated rapes she has suffered with a four-year-old running around her feet.
When women flee their homes and seek refuge for them and their children, they are very often forced to give up their jobs as well. That is usually brought about by an anomaly in the benefits system regarding rates of housing benefit in supported accommodation. Similarly, however, many women find that, in order to give up their home and surroundings, they are forced out of work for a period of time, as staying in work becomes totally impossible logistically. A woman who came to my surgery just a few weeks ago—she was living in her car, while her children stayed on relatives’ floors—had to give up her job as a care worker once we were able to place her in a refuge. That is not uncommon.
I ask all Conservative Members to imagine for a second leaving all their belongings, shutting the door of their home, and giving up their job and their financial security. Most women I have met do this for the sake of their children, but imagine the effect of that on a three-year-old. There are only so many times they can be convinced that it is just a big adventure before the difficult reality sets in.
Now, this Bill will tell those children that they will lose their place in nursery too. That might be the only consistent thing left in their chaotic lives. I can see that there is confusion among Government Members. If a woman loses her home and her job and is no longer working 16 hours, she will lose the nursery places she had for her children. I just wanted to clear that up. [Interruption.] Would a Minister like to intervene? They seem confused.
Mr Gyimah
The hon. Lady raised this point in Committee and we debated it extensively. I promised to write to her about the needs of women in refuges. Having looked at the matter, I want to give her an assurance. First, I want to put it on the record that £40 million of extra support is going to women who find themselves in that tragic situation. In terms of childcare, they will get the first 15 hours for their three and four-year-olds, as everyone does. If they are entitled to the extended entitlement and, as a result of their situation, their children have to leave childcare, there will be a grace period of three months, which we have discussed.
Jess Phillips
Yes, that is the word I will use. There is now a firm commitment from the Government.
I was about to say that I recognise that the Bill includes a three-month grace period, which I welcome, but that the children will still have to give up their place in the end. I do not need to say that anymore because the Minister has made his commitment. He has recognised that it is laughable that a woman, after escaping violence, would be tickety-boo, back in another property and gainfully employed after just three months. Unfortunately, the reducing availability of social housing for families to move on to means that many women and children live in refuge for much, much longer than three months. The cuts in local authority spending have meant that newly localised social funds, which are there to help such families, have limited women in respect of where they can and cannot move across local authority boundaries. That leaves them stuck in supported accommodation, even if they are ready and safe to move on.
These children need and deserve consistency. I welcome the Minister’s intervention because he said that he will give it to them.
Mr Gyimah
I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Lady that such children need consistency and support. To extend the commitment that I have made, I will meet her to discuss how we can do that. We will be consulting on the grace period and I want to get her input on what we can do for this particular group.
Jess Phillips
I was going to say that, whereas other Departments have shown a clear commitment to taking their role in the fight against domestic violence—the Minister has mentioned the £40 million—I had felt, until now, that the record of the Department for Education, with the constant wrangling over personal, social, health and economic education and healthy relationships education, could be described as woeful. I am delighted that the Minister has proven me wrong. As someone who has masses of experience, I would be delighted to meet him and talk about how this policy will work in practice.
I will say no more on the matter, other than to thank the Minister for his commitment.
Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.
Mr Speaker
I can now inform the House of my decision about certification. For the purposes of Standing Order No. 83L(2), I have certified that clauses 3 and 5 of the Bill relate exclusively to England on matters within devolved legislative competence, as defined in Standing Order No. 83J. For the purposes of Standing Order No. 83L(4), I have certified that amendment 3 to clause 2 made to the Bill in Committee, which is now Clause 1(5) in the Bill as amended, relates to England. Copies of my certificate are available in the Vote Office. Under Standing Order No. 83M, a consent motion is therefore required for the Bill to proceed. Does the Minister intend to move the consent motion?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the Minister for the requisite nod. [Interruption.] I am quite sure the Minister does know to what he is agreeing.
Mr Speaker
That was a useful lead in to another nod, which the Minister has graciously provided.
The House forthwith resolved itself into the Legislative Grand Committee (England) (Standing Order No. 83M).
[Mr Lindsay Hoyle in the Chair]
Free School Funding (Sixth Forms)
Sam Gyimah Excerpts(8 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer) on securing this debate. He raises a very important issue surrounding the ability of good free schools to expand the educational provision they offer. I assure him that this Government fully support good free schools expanding, but we must make sure that such decisions are based on a rigorous and evidence-based process to ensure that the school will remain educationally and financially viable.
The Government have a manifesto commitment to create at least 500 free schools by 2020, creating 270,000 school places. We have revised the application process for new schools to encourage more applications from good and outstanding schools, and high-performing trusts and sponsors. We are encouraging businesses, charities, cultural and sporting bodies, community groups and parents to enter the free schools programme. As announced in the spending review, the Government are investing a further £23 billion in school buildings up to 2021. This comes after we changed the rules to make it easier for good schools to expand.
We are opening free schools quicker, and at a lower cost, than in previous school-building programmes. We have opened over 350 free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools since 2010, creating over 190,000 school places. We have opened 69 free schools since the 2015 general election, and have over 150 free schools aiming to open in 2016 and beyond, creating 100,000 places. I am pleased to say that almost half of free schools have been opened in the most deprived communities in our country. The vast majority of those approved in recent years have been in areas where there was a recognised need for additional school places.
As my hon. Friend is aware, the Government want every parent to have access to a good school place for their child. This means that all new places need to be of good quality. The Department therefore expects that proposals for new sixth forms should usually be put forward only by good or outstanding schools. The current guidance from the Department sets out the process that existing academies have to follow in order to add a sixth form. This starts with a local consultation process to ensure that all those affected are able to comment. A business case on the proposal is then made to the Department. The relevant regional schools commissioner will consider the case and make a decision on behalf of the Secretary of State. As part of this business case, the academy will need to show that it has funding in place for the expansion.
As my hon. Friend said, free schools, like academies and sixth-form colleges, are eligible to apply to the Department for the condition improvement fund for additional capital funding to support expansion. The core priority of the fund is to keep academy, free school and college buildings safe and in good working order by tackling poor building condition, building compliance, energy efficiency and health and safety issues. A smaller proportion of the fund is available to support the expansion of good or outstanding free schools, academies and sixth-form colleges. That includes cases of overcrowding as well as sixth-form expansions.
The 2015-16 allocations for the condition improvement fund provided funding for 1,482 projects across 1,170 academies and sixth-form colleges at a total of £421 million. All applications were considered against rigorous criteria and prioritised to ensure that projects with the greatest need were successful.
Once a new sixth form has been agreed, day-to-day funding for pupils is based on the national 16-to-19 funding formula. All institutions providing education for 16 to 19-year-olds are funded on the same basis, whether they are academies, free schools, maintained schools or sixth-form colleges.
We announced as part of the spending review that we will protect the national base rate of £4,000 per student for the duration of the Parliament. I am sure that my hon. Friend will welcome the stability that that will bring to the sector and the vote of confidence it represents in 16-to-19 education. Within that formula, funding for existing sixth forms is based on lagged student numbers—that is to say, the funding in one year reflects the number of students recruited in the previous year. That would clearly not work for new sixth forms, so in those cases funding in the first year is often based on a third of the capacity of the sixth form. However, in some cases, particularly some free schools, funding is based on the school’s estimated numbers.
I understand my hon. Friend’s frustration at the challenges faced by Archer Academy in securing funding to add a sixth form. Archer Academy is subject to the same robust processes as all other academies and free schools that wish to expand. The Government do not perceive that process to be holding back good free schools from expanding; rather, it ensures that there is a need for high-quality places within the local area, and ascertains whether the school would remain both financially and educationally viable if it did expand.
My hon. Friend raised two particular questions towards the end of his speech. First, I assure him that the condition improvement fund is under review, as occurs annually, and the proportion of the fund available for expansion is also being reviewed. The Government have consistently supported good schools expanding, as I have demonstrated, but the process needs to be rigorous and evidence-based and we will consider applications on a case-by-case basis.
Secondly, I and my departmental colleagues and officials regularly meet headteachers and governors, and take great pride in doing so. I would very much like to meet my hon. Friend, headteachers and governors to discuss the specific issues in his constituency and those relating to Archer Academy.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this important issue. I hope he is happy with the confirmation that the Government fully support the expansion of successful free schools such as Archer Academy, which I look forward to seeing go from strength to strength.
Question put and agreed to.