Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 25 July 2022 to Question 37600 on Students: Finance, what progress her Department has made on delivering an Alternative Student Finance product compatible with Islamic finance principles.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government is committed to delivering an Alternative Student Finance (ASF) product compatible with Islamic finance principles as soon as possible. To support the delivery of an ASF product to date, the government has taken new powers in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 to enable the Secretary of State to provide alternative payments, in addition to grants and loans. We have further carried out work with specialist advisers, the Islamic Finance Council UK, on the design of an ASF model.
As set out in the answer of 25 July 2022 to Question 37600, the government is introducing the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE), which will significantly change the ways students can access learning and financial support.
Work is underway to assess how we can ultimately deliver an ASF product alongside the LLE. We are procuring advice from experts in Islamic finance and will be working with the Student Loans Company to better understand timescales for delivery of an ASF product.
In our response to the LLE consultation, published on 7 March 2023, we set out our aim that students will be able to access an ASF as part of the LLE as soon as possible after 2025.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) provision of first aid training at schools and (b) levels of training given to teachers to provide first aid training to students.
Answered by Robin Walker
Schools are now required to teach first aid as part of statutory health education. In this subject, pupils are taught how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services, administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.
To support teachers to deliver this topic the department published a first aid teacher training module, which was produced with expert input from St John Ambulance and Resuscitation Council UK. This module is freely available on GOV.UK.
We do not expect teachers to provide first aid training to pupils unless they are qualified to do so. Many schools use organisations such as St John Ambulance, the British Heart Foundation and the British Red Cross to support delivery of the topic.
Ofsted will inspect the delivery of relationships, sex and health education in schools as part of the personal development category. The department plans to monitor delivery of the subjects, including measuring teacher confidence to teach the statutory subjects.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made contingency plans to support students in secondary education who were affected by exam cancellations in the last year.
Answered by Robin Walker
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has acted swiftly to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provided extensive support for schools.
Whilst we believe that exams are the fairest way of judging students’ performance, the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak meant we could not guarantee all students would be in a position to fairly sit their exams either in 2020 or 2021. Teachers were best placed to determine grades for GCSE, AS and A level qualifications in the absence of exams, as they have a good understanding of their students’ performance.
Given that some students have suffered more disruption than others, students were only assessed on the content they had been taught. Teachers were able to use evidence from across the duration of a student’s course to determine their grade.
Parents and pupils can have confidence in the grades awarded this summer. Supported by thorough guidance and a robust quality assurance process, the department trusted teachers’ judgements as they were best placed to understand the content students have covered and their students’ performance. Further to this, an appeals system was also in place as a safety net to fix any genuine errors that were not identified earlier on, and the Joint Council for Qualifications published detailed guidance to centres setting out the process for appealing results.
The department also encouraged schools and colleges to support students to take autumn exams if they have the capacity. In addition, we helped schools and colleges to offer autumn exams to students by assisting with additional space and invigilators where required, as well as covering fee deficits to ensure that exam fees are not passed on.
For those students who need support in catching up on lost education, we have announced education recovery funding of nearly £5 billion. Our latest investment of £1.8 billion is targeted at those we know will need it most, delivering a universal uplift of hours for those with the least time left in education, in 16-19 colleges and an additional £1 billion to extend the recovery premium for disadvantaged pupils for the next two academic years.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect that the reduction to the Strategic Priorities Grant allocated to universities and higher education colleges for the 2021-22 financial year will have on students in London.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
In January 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Strategic Priorities Grant for the academic year 2021/22. The Strategic Priorities Grant is a limited funding pot provided by government to support the provision of higher education. Reprioritisation of this funding is needed to ensure value for money, and support strategic priorities across the sector, including provision of courses vital for the economy and labour markets, and continued support for disadvantaged students and underrepresented groups. The reforms for 2021/22 included the removal of the London Weighting element of the grant.
The OfS consulted on the Secretary of State for Education’s proposals and has recently published its conclusions[1]. The consultation responses were carefully analysed, and the issues raised were considered by both the OfS and the Secretary of State for Education in reaching their respective decisions about the allocation of the Strategic Priorities Grant for the 2021/22 academic year.
The London Weighting (additional grant money given to London-based providers to cover the higher costs of delivery in London) accounts for a small proportion of London-based providers’ income. Providers in London received around £64 million London Weighting in the 2020/21 academic year, which is less than 1% of their estimated total income.
The removal of London Weighting is required to enable the reprioritisation of the Strategic Priorities Grant towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and specific labour market needs. As a result of these reforms, including the removal of London Weighting, total funding for high-cost subjects for the 2021/22 academic year, such as medicine and engineering, is 12% higher than last year, an increase of £81 million. This additional high-cost subject funding will be available to providers in London, supporting provision for London-based students.
[1] https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/consultation-on-recurrent-funding-for-2021-22/
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department has made available to parents of children with special needs who are having to homeschool without any respite during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
During periods of national lockdown, settings remained open to vulnerable children and young people, including those with education, health and care plans. From 8 March 2021, pupils in all year groups have been expected to attend their education setting in line with the wider return to face-to-face teaching. Where it is not possible for a child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to attend their education setting, there is a legal duty on schools and colleges to use their best endeavours to meet the special educational needs of their pupils or students.
To support remote learning, the department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy, both for the summer term of the 2019-20 academic year and the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception to Year 11. This includes specialist content for pupils with SEND, along with therapy-based lessons and resources.
We have recognised that some pupils and students with SEND may not have been able to access remote education without adult support and so have expected settings to work with families to deliver an ambitious curriculum appropriate for their level of need. Further details on delivering remote education for children and young people with SEND are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/remote-education-good-practice/remote-education-good-practice. These decisions should be considered on a case-by-case basis which takes account of the needs of, and circumstances specific to, the child or young person, avoiding a ‘one size fits all’ approach. All settings should have systems for checking, daily, whether pupils and students are engaging with their work, and work with families to rapidly identify effective solutions where engagement is a concern.
We are also providing £40.8 million for the Family Fund in the 2020-21 financial year to support over 85,000 families on low incomes raising children with disabilities or serious illnesses. This includes £13.5 million to specifically address needs arising from the COVID-19 outbreak, which may include assistive technology to aid remote learning.
Throughout all restrictions to date, children's social care services and early help services have continued to support vulnerable children and young people and their families. Local authorities have been allocated an additional £4.6 billion to help their communities through the COVID-19 outbreak. This funding is un-ringfenced, recognising local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 service pressures in their local area, including support to children’s services.
Parents and carers may continue to access respite care to support them in caring for their disabled children while the restrictions are in force. This applies to services which care for children in and away from home. We continue to encourage local authorities to prioritise this support for disabled children, and to consider flexible and pragmatic options to deliver that support including using direct payments and carrying out activities virtually. Where parents have a disabled child under 5, we have enabled exemptions so they can establish a support bubble with another household to provide respite care.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the cost to schools of repairs for faulty devices provided via the Get help with technology programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
As of Monday 15 February, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities (LA) and further education colleges.
The Department has signed contracts with Computacenter and XMA to supply a variety of device types according to the needs of schools and end-users. Unit costs of specific devices distributed by the programme are not published as these are commercially sensitive.
Every laptop and tablet that the Department provides meets a set of minimum specifications designed to enable children to learn remotely. Devices were issued with a 1-year warranty from the manufacturer. All devices are still within warranty until at least June 2021.
The laptops and tablets are the property of the school, LA or academy trust, and they should assume responsibility for their ongoing maintenance and support as part of this. If a device develops a fault that is not caused by a user, a free replacement can be requested via our enhanced support service. Schools, academy trusts and LAs can raise requests for replacement devices on the Computacenter Support Portal. This service is designed to minimise the time the user is without a working device. Since June 2020, the Department has completed 2425 replacements.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average cost is of a (a) Windows laptop, (b) Windows tablet and (c) Chromebook provided to schools via the Get help with technology programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
As of Monday 15 February, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities (LA) and further education colleges.
The Department has signed contracts with Computacenter and XMA to supply a variety of device types according to the needs of schools and end-users. Unit costs of specific devices distributed by the programme are not published as these are commercially sensitive.
Every laptop and tablet that the Department provides meets a set of minimum specifications designed to enable children to learn remotely. Devices were issued with a 1-year warranty from the manufacturer. All devices are still within warranty until at least June 2021.
The laptops and tablets are the property of the school, LA or academy trust, and they should assume responsibility for their ongoing maintenance and support as part of this. If a device develops a fault that is not caused by a user, a free replacement can be requested via our enhanced support service. Schools, academy trusts and LAs can raise requests for replacement devices on the Computacenter Support Portal. This service is designed to minimise the time the user is without a working device. Since June 2020, the Department has completed 2425 replacements.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many devices sent to schools under the Get help with technology during coronavirus programme were out of warranty.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
As of Monday 15 February, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities (LA) and further education colleges.
The Department has signed contracts with Computacenter and XMA to supply a variety of device types according to the needs of schools and end-users. Unit costs of specific devices distributed by the programme are not published as these are commercially sensitive.
Every laptop and tablet that the Department provides meets a set of minimum specifications designed to enable children to learn remotely. Devices were issued with a 1-year warranty from the manufacturer. All devices are still within warranty until at least June 2021.
The laptops and tablets are the property of the school, LA or academy trust, and they should assume responsibility for their ongoing maintenance and support as part of this. If a device develops a fault that is not caused by a user, a free replacement can be requested via our enhanced support service. Schools, academy trusts and LAs can raise requests for replacement devices on the Computacenter Support Portal. This service is designed to minimise the time the user is without a working device. Since June 2020, the Department has completed 2425 replacements.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many devices provided to schools via the Get help with technology programme have been returned to the manufacturer for repair.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
As of Monday 15 February, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities (LA) and further education colleges.
The Department has signed contracts with Computacenter and XMA to supply a variety of device types according to the needs of schools and end-users. Unit costs of specific devices distributed by the programme are not published as these are commercially sensitive.
Every laptop and tablet that the Department provides meets a set of minimum specifications designed to enable children to learn remotely. Devices were issued with a 1-year warranty from the manufacturer. All devices are still within warranty until at least June 2021.
The laptops and tablets are the property of the school, LA or academy trust, and they should assume responsibility for their ongoing maintenance and support as part of this. If a device develops a fault that is not caused by a user, a free replacement can be requested via our enhanced support service. Schools, academy trusts and LAs can raise requests for replacement devices on the Computacenter Support Portal. This service is designed to minimise the time the user is without a working device. Since June 2020, the Department has completed 2425 replacements.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has written to academy schools requesting them to remain open throughout the second national lockdown and the latest tier 3 period in boroughs where the local authority had asked schools to consider closing.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There have been 3 cases involving writing directly to schools asking them to remain open throughout the second national lockdown and the latest tier 3 period, where some local authorities had asked, or were considering asking, schools to move to remote education provision for the remainder of the current school term.
The 3 cases are: