Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Ah yes, a south-east London knight. Sir David Evennett.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the introduction of T-levels, but what action has been taken to upskill the teachers and lecturers who will be delivering them? That process is vital to the success of the project.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

I think, if memory serves me correctly, and after due consultation, that post 16 the right hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Sir Nicholas Soames) was at cadet school. I feel sure that I speak for the House in saying that we are all convinced he was a very athletic fellow. I call Sir Nicholas Soames.

[Sir Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con)]

Different days, Mr Speaker, I am afraid. May I thank my right hon. Friend for the incredible work and leadership that she has offered, together with officials in her Department, in the reopening of the sixth-form college in Haywards Heath in my constituency? Will she pay tribute to the work of Mid Sussex District Council, whose leadership in this matter has been absolutely exemplary?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. In calling the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Alex Norris), I wish him a very happy birthday—a mere stripling of 35, I believe. I cannot say that I remember such a time in my life.

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As you can tell, I had a tough paper round. I am very keen for youngsters in my community to take up STEM subjects, but Park Vale Academy is struggling because Carillion went bust a year ago and its school work stopped. A year later, it remains unfinished. This is having a significant impact on the quality of provision for those young people. Different Departments are discussing who should resolve this issue but not agreeing. Could a Minister please step in and get this resolved?

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[Nick Gibb]

I am very happy to do so. I know that my right hon. Friend takes a particular interest in special-needs education in her constituency. High-needs funds for Essex were increased to £139.1 million this year, and will rise to £141 million next year, but she is right to point to the increase in pressures on the high-needs budget, which is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in December an extra £250 million over two years. We will work closely with the Treasury as we prepare for the next spending review to ensure that we secure the best funding settlement possible to address this and other school funding issues.

[Mr Speaker]

I am very glad to hear it. I should add, in parenthesis, that the county is of course also home to the life-transforming University of Essex, of which I am very fortunate to be chancellor.

[Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)]

And it is also home to the Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford.

Schools in my constituency in Essex were delighted to see in the NHS long-term plan that the NHS intends to help schools with funding for mental health support. How do my local schools access these funds?

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[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Question 17, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

I was hoping that the hon. Gentleman would shoehorn his inquiry into question 15, because he cannot leapfrog question 16, which would displace it. I thought that if he applied his little grey cells he would realise that the subject matter of his own inquiry was pertinent to that of question 15. I should have thought that a scholar of his repute was capable of making that mental calculation, but if he wants to wait, he will have to take his chances. [Interruption.] Oh, very well.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

And it’s his birthday.

[Mr Speaker]

I do not know whether it is his birthday, but he has made a bit of a mess of the matter. Never mind, we will seek to accommodate him at a later stage in our proceedings.

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[Nick Gibb]

These multi-academy trusts are driving up academic standards. In primary schools, disadvantaged pupils in MATs make significantly more progress in writing and maths than the average for disadvantaged students, and the gap in progress between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged primary school pupils is smaller in MATs than the national average. I could go on with more examples of how MATs are raising standards in our country. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the MAT performance table and he will see which MATs are the highest performers.

[Mr Speaker]

I hope the House now keenly anticipates Mr George Freeman.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

17. What progress he has made in closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged children.

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[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

We will accommodate the hon. Lady in topical questions if we can.

[Sir Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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[Anne Milton]

May I take this opportunity to wish my hon. Friend a very happy birthday? New industry-designed standards, increasing off-the-job training, rigorous end-point assessments and strengthening the register of apprenticeship training providers all mean that doing an apprenticeship these days gives young people the opportunity to get high-quality qualifications, with a great life and a fabulous career ahead of them.

[Mr Speaker]

On the matter of birthdays, it is also the birthday of the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham), and I see that he is seated next to another birthday boy, the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Alex Norris), which is very encouraging—birthday boys sitting together.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

T10. In response to my recent Adjournment debate on the relationship between exclusions and youth violence, the Minister for School Standards failed to address how the Government’s strategy links to the vital role that education plays in the public health approach. My hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) just asked a similar question, which was also not answered. I have since sent the Minister a copy of the Youth Violence Commission’s report. Has he read it, and if so, can he update us on what he will do?

Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

I agree with some of what the hon. Lady says. Data collection has been a burden and there has been an over-obsession with data and its collection. Ofsted has made it very clear in the new framework that it will not be seeking that data; it will not want to see any internal assessment data on the progress that pupils make. It will be looking at the wider curriculum and more substantive issues when schools are inspected.

The hon. Lady is right about workload, and both I and the Secretary of State take that very seriously. That is why we had the workload challenge in 2014 and why we have taken a series of measures to reduce both workload and data collection. We have a data collection toolkit and we have a leading academic from the Institute of Education looking into the question of data collection to try to get rid of some of the unnecessary data collection points that she mentions. Ofsted has just published its new framework for consultation, and that has landed well with the sector. When the hon. Lady has a chance to see it, she will see that it focuses on those things that really matter to a child’s education.

On CPD, one aim of the recruitment and retention strategy is to create a more diverse range of options for career progression, including a new teacher development national professional qualification—[Interruption.] I think I have said enough, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

I have known the right hon. Gentleman for 33 years and I must say that he has a mildly eccentric approach to these matters. Nobody could accuse the Minister of State of excluding from his answer any matter that might at any stage to any degree be judged to be material—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Worthing West (Sir Peter Bottomley) has not stood, but I have just been advised that he has been twitching. Let’s hear the fellow.

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

As I said in October 1990 when I raised the question of leadership with the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher—especially mentioning Peter Dawson, who had run Eltham Green before becoming general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers—the culture that good heads can set, followed by other senior teachers, can bring people in not just to teach first but to teach second, bringing the experience of their own careers to expand our schools and academies. They can do a great deal of good for children across the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. High needs funding for children and young people with more complex SEN has risen by more than £1 billion since 2013. It is now £6 billion. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced yesterday, there will be another £125 million this year and another £125 million next year for high needs.

[Mr Speaker]

I gently exhort the Minister of State to face the House so that we can all benefit from his mellifluous tones.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

The level of educational funding will be radically affected by the new treatment of public sector pensions. Can the Minister confirm that it is the Government’s policy to cover the majority of costs for schools and colleges, but not for universities, and explain the different treatment?

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[Jamie Stone]

I thank the Minister for his answer. One way to stimulate learning foreign languages in our schools is by using foreign exchange students. Indeed, in my school days, a charming French lady greatly stimulated my knowledge of the language. I am not a member of the governing party in Scotland. I therefore ask whether Her Majesty’s Government will do everything they can to continue using exchange students and to build on that in future.

[Mr Speaker]

I think the whole House would digest the hon. Gentleman’s personal memoir. We are indebted to him for it.

[Nick Gibb]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point and I can absolutely confirm that.

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[Nadhim Zahawi]

I attended the conference that the Parents and Carers Network held in Coventry. It is important to listen to the sector. Many local authorities are co-creating their SEND provision with parents, and it is important that we listen and deliver the £250 million additional funding announced yesterday, and of course the £100 million in capital funding as well, taking the funding to over £6 billion per annum on SEND students. I know you take a great interest in this matter, Mr Speaker, as well.

[Mr Speaker]

Thank you; that is very much appreciated.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

18. Brooke School in Rugby caters for children with autism, physical disabilities, medical needs and learning difficulties, and it has recently opened a shop in Rugby town centre where pupils learn to produce products from recycled materials and sell them to the public. Does the Minister agree that that is an excellent opportunity to learn workplace skills? Will he join me in commending the inspirational head teacher, Chris Pollitt, for this initiative?

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[Damian Hinds]

I am very happy to do that; they have my absolute backing.

[Mr Speaker]

I would have thought that the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) strongly disapproved of the very creation of the mobile phone in the first place.

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

T2. Parents and staff in maintained nursery schools are waiting for the Government to stop dithering on future funding. Excellent schools in Cambridge and all over the country face a funding cliff edge next year. Can the Minister give them the assurance they need, and commit today to the future of our maintained nursery schools?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

One sentence of fewer than 20 words.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Some 3,000 parents have signed a petition against King Edward VI School’s policy now of attracting students by catchment area, rather than by the 11-plus. What is my right hon. Friend’s view of the petition?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

One short sentence.

[Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)]

Despite the Government’s warm words, headteachers tell me that they do not have enough money for children with special needs. What comfort can the Secretary of State give to the headteachers of maintained schools in my constituency of Bristol West that children with special educational needs will have the funding they need in 2019?

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Anne Milton]

The hon. Gentleman’s term “shambles” is not inappropriate. This has been a shocking case, and it is from such cases that we learn lessons to make sure that it does not happen again. He talks about paying the money back, and I am sure the ESFA is looking at all possible options to make sure that his constituents are well served.

[Mr Speaker]

I have a feeling the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) might seek an Adjournment debate on the matter. Who knows, he might be successful.

[Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

2. What steps his Department is taking to improve the quality of apprenticeships.

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[Anne Milton]

We have a lot more to do; there is no doubt about it. Wherever I go, I often hear from student apprentices who say that they had very little support from their school. Since January 2018 schools are required to allow technical education and apprenticeship training providers to come in to talk to pupils, and our apprenticeship support and knowledge project provides schools with resources to help them promote apprenticeships. The apprenticeship ambassador network also visits schools so that pupils can hear at first hand about the fantastic opportunities that an apprenticeship can bring.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Rachel Maclean. [Interruption.] Beetle in, beetle in. It is very good of the hon. Lady to drop in on us. I hope she was advised of the grouping by the Government—I am sure she was. I hope she is now ready, as I have given her a bit of injury time.

[Rachel Maclean]

I thank the Minister for her response—[Laughter.]

[Mr Speaker]

I am doing my best to help the hon. Lady. While I am burbling on, she has an opportunity to prepare her question, which I feel sure is now fermenting satisfactorily in her mind.

[Rachel Maclean]

What steps is the Department taking to improve the quality of apprenticeships?

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[Damian Hinds]

I thank my hon. Friend for that. Of course, the attainment gap has narrowed by 10% at secondary school, but she is right to say that we need constantly to be thinking about aspiration, which is why our careers strategy and the work of the Careers & Enterprise Company are so important.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Adam Afriye.

[Adam Afriyie]

No. 10, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

No, no.

[Adam Afriyie]

Grouped—I understand, Mr Speaker. I was slightly wrong-footed, as ever.

Irrespective of political persuasion or ideology, everyone in this House will agree that the state has a special responsibility towards vulnerable children in care. Only 6% or 7% of them get to university, and 60% of them have behavioural and mental health challenges. We must congratulate the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation and Buttle UK on their work in providing bursaries for university. Does the Minister agree that we must look to expand work in this area?

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[Damian Hinds]

These are big topics and, indeed, stubborn statistics that take quite some time to move. As anybody who has compared the 1970 cohort with the 1958 cohort will attest, it is a problem that goes back through multiple Governments, but we need to keep working on it. The most recent OECD statistics show a more encouraging picture than there was previously thought to be. [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

There is an enormous amount of rather noisy chuntering from a sedentary position, principally emanating from a senior statesman in the House—namely the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman). His colleague the hon. Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) is trying to encourage him in good behaviour; I urge her to redouble her efforts, as she has some way to travel.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

Given the Government’s apparent commitment to social mobility, would it not be a good idea to introduce a social mobility impact assessment for all Government policies and budget plans? That way, we might avoid stories such as the one that appears today in Nursery World, which details how across the country 27 schemes targeted at the most disadvantaged children in the early years have had to be scrapped because of changes to the early years funding formula.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

If the hon. Members for Ipswich (Sandy Martin) and for Hitchin and Harpenden (Bim Afolami) were listening to what the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) had to say, they will have observed that references to SEN are perfectly orderly in the context of this question. That is a hint; whether they take the hint is up to them, but the Speaker is trying to be helpful to Back Benchers, which is what I have spent nine and a half years doing.

[Justine Greening (Putney) (Con)]

An independent review of higher education funding is under way. Does the Secretary of State agree that any proposals in that review that are regressive in nature, that would reintroduce a student number cap or that would act in effect as a brake on social mobility are not recommendations that this Government should accept?

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[Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister knows that key to closing the social mobility gap is access to high-quality early years education for those who need it most. Therefore, he will be as concerned as I was to see a report by PACEY—the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years—released today, finding a downward trend in qualification levels for childminders while the number of nursery workers in training is dropping too. His own Department’s figures show that only one in four families earning under £20,000 is accessing 30 hours of free childcare a week, which might be because the same report shows that more than half of private nurseries have put up their fees in the past 12 months. Can he tell us how less well-off families unable to access more expensive childcare with less qualified staff closes the social mobility gap?

[Mr Speaker]

That was so good that one would think the hon. Lady had experience of acting.

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Lady is right to identify the centrality of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated people who work in nurseries and early years settings. She mentioned the 30-hours offer and the differences in different income groups. A lone parent has to earn just over £6,500 to be able to access the 30-hours offer. That is one of five extensions of early years and childcare support that have been made available by our Governments since 2010. Overall, by the end of the decade, we will be investing an extra £1 billion, rising to £6 billion in total, on early years in childhood.

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[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Rather than spending time, energy and money on new schools in London or in England, would it not make far more sense to spend more time, energy and money on Alaw Primary School, whose children are in the Public Gallery? In fact, they have just left.

[Mr Speaker]

That was the end of your peroration? We are grateful.

[Chris Bryant]

It was short.

[Mr Speaker]

It was very short. I am sure they did not leave because of you. Do not worry—don’t be too sensitive about it.

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[Damian Hinds]

We are investing in the school system, both through the additional £1.3 billion we found last year and through the capital moneys, to which I just referred, to fund the large expansion in the school system. Although these are questions to the Government, I think that everybody would be keen to hear more from the hon. Lady about how no school would be under threat from Labour party policy.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Gill Furniss—not here. Oh dear.

[Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

13. When he plans to publish the results of the asbestos management assurance process survey of schools and academies.

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[Matthew Pennycook (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)]

17. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for maintained nursery schools.

[Mr Speaker]

Minister Zahawi.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker—I will clear my throat. Maintained nursery schools support some of our most disadvantaged children, and they do experience higher costs than other providers. We will therefore be providing local authorities with supplementary funding of about £60 million a year up to 2020.

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 10th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Hon. Members on both sides of the House will want to be satisfied that our schools are getting a proper allocation of funding. Will my right hon. Friend indicate how UK education spending compares to the OECD average?

[Mr Speaker]

In relation to sixth-form students.

[Alex Chalk]

Precisely, Sir.

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[Ruth George (High Peak) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

No, no. High Peak is a beautiful part of the country, of which the hon. Lady is an articulate champion, but it is a long way from Westminster, on which the question is focused.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

She is here now.

[Mr Speaker]

She is here now, but she could be patient until later, when she will also be here.

[Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)]

3. What recent discussions he has had with schools on promoting apprenticeships to pupils.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Finally, I call Clive Lewis.

[Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab)]

Under this Government, children with special needs are six times more likely to be excluded than their peers. In Norwich, headteachers have described provision for special educational needs as a complete mess because of a funding shortfall. Will Ministers commit to increasing funding support for these children to ensure that they get the education they do not just deserve, but is their right?

Department for Education

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

I will not give way, if my hon. Friend will forgive me.

In 2014, we introduced a more demanding primary curriculum. In the first standard assessment tests, taken in 2016, which reflected that new curriculum, 70% of pupils reached the expected standard in the more demanding maths and arithmetic SATs. A year later, that had risen to 75%. But we want it to go higher still, which is why we are spending £75 million funding 35 maths hubs across the country, promoting the highly effective south-east Asian maths mastery approach to teaching maths. Our ambition is for half of all primary schools to be trained to use that approach by 2020, and for 11,000 primary and secondary schools to be in that position by 2023.

Next year, we are rolling out a computer-based multiplication tables check for all nine-year-olds, ensuring that every child knows their times tables by heart. What a contrast to the days when teachers were told they must not teach times tables. We are promoting the use of high-quality textbooks in primary schools, undoing the damage from the 1970s, when textbooks in primary schools were consigned to the store cupboard. High-quality, knowledge-rich, carefully sequenced textbooks promote understanding and reduce teacher workload.

In a global trading nation, we need to reverse the decline in the study of foreign languages that began under Labour in 2004. Since 2010, the proportion of 16-year-olds taking a GCSE in a foreign language has increased from 40% to 47%, but our ambition is for 75% to be studying for a GCSE in a foreign language by 2022 and for 90% to be doing so by 2025.

Let me respond to the typically thoughtful speech of my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow, in which he paid tribute to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for securing a five-year funding settlement. He is right that longer-term visibility is helpful in every sector, and we are committed to securing the right deal for education in the spending review. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for raising this important issue. Our track record gives us much to be proud of, but we will of course continue to listen carefully and take into account the issues raised today and the findings of the Education Committee inquiry. Investing in our young people’s future is one of the most important investments that we can make as a country. As a Government, we are committed to getting it right.

[Mr Speaker]

For the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) to be denied at least a minute would seem to be an act of cruelty, and that is unwarranted, so he can certainly have at least a minute.

[Robert Halfon]

I thank Members from all parties for speaking on this important matter. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Mike Kane), was kind about my speech, but then said that he preferred textbooks to Tories and compared himself to the England captain; I have to say that Harry Kane is a lot better at scoring goals.

On the general question of education, in the 1970s, we Conservatives often felt that if there was enough economic capital, everything else would be solved. We now realise that we have to build economic capital and social capital hand in hand. I hugely respect my right hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards. He has built up academic capital, transformed reading in our country and done many good things to improve standards in schools, but we have to concentrate as much on social capital and skills capital as on academic capital. Great social injustices remain in our education system. As Government and Opposition Members have said, we have to deal with early-years injustice and with maintained nursery schools, which were described as the jewel in the crown. We have to deal with the problem of exclusions, with 833 fixed exclusions every day for special needs pupils, and we have to deal with further education. I urge my right hon. Friend to support a 10-year plan for education, just as has been achieved for the NHS.

Question deferred (Standing Order No. 54).

[Mr Speaker]

It would be churlish not to mention it at this point in our proceedings, so I will mention that today represents a very special birthday for the hon. Member for Ealing North (Stephen Pound), who is himself a distinguished alumnus of the Hertford Grammar School and other educational institutions. I predict only with modest confidence that, as he has now served 21 years in the House, he might have reached the mid-point of his parliamentary career.

Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 25th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I spoke at the launch of the—

[Mr Speaker]

Ten years on.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

Ten years on from the Bercow review; I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker. We are looking very carefully at the recommendations of that report. One thing we are already doing is working with Public Health England to ensure that the health workers who go to see parents at that crucial young stage are trained in speech and language therapy.

Schools That Work For Everyone

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am keen to accommodate all colleagues, but there are a lot of you, so brevity is of the essence.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

The absolute tragedy is that there is more evidence available to Ministers now than there has ever been about what will improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged, so why on earth do the Government persist with targeting funding on selective education? That may theoretically benefit the pupils who attend Ilford County High School or Woodford County High School for Girls, which serve my constituency, but what will it do for every other school in my constituency, not least the schools that serve some of the most disadvantaged communities but whose buildings are in dire need of refurbishment? This statement does absolutely nothing for them, and that is the absolute tragedy of the Government’s education policy: it is elitist in the wrong sense of the word.

[Damian Hinds]

I fear that there may be a misunder- standing. We are talking about either £200 million over a period, or £50 million over one year for selective schools expansion, but that is in the context of a much, much larger capital budget for school expansion overall of £1 billion this year, and an even bigger capital budget again, if we are talking about how we address the existing condition of schools—over a period of four years, that is something in excess of £20 billion.

[Mr Speaker]

Brevity will be exemplified as always by the right hon. Member for Wokingham.

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[Damian Hinds]

I see what she did there—but no. Selective schools are part of the diverse school system that we have. We allow schools in general to expand. The vast majority, as I say, are comprehensive-intake schools. Where there is a basic need, parental demand, and when the schools commit to extending their inclusivity in very practical ways, it makes sense to allow them to expand as well.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the author of the standard textbook on brevity, Sir Desmond Swayne.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

What argument persuaded the Secretary of State to drop the manifesto commitment on the cap for free schools?

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Anne Milton]

I look forward to visiting the hon. Gentleman’s constituency at the earliest opportunity. I am spread rather thinly, and there are many colleges for me to get round. [Interruption.] I missed a football match yesterday.

[Mr Speaker]

Which Arsenal won.

[Anne Milton]

Well, Mr Speaker, I know quite a lot about sixth-form colleges and FE colleges, although I am due a visit to the hon. Gentleman’s, and a great deal less about football, so I will not be drawn into making a comment.

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point: having sixth-form colleges, further education colleges, independent training providers and higher education institutes all working together is how we can raise standards to the levels that we all want to see.

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[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

What about Shakespeare?

[Mr Speaker]

Well, we cannot mention Shakespeare in every question, but I am sure that the Minister will take his opportunity ere long.

[Thelma Walker (Colne Valley) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to improve basic skills.

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[Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Con)]

This Wednesday is National Numeracy Day. Speaking as a mathematician—not a historian—I welcome the fantastic work that the Government are doing to increase critical basic maths participation for longer in our schools, especially for girls. Does the Minister agree that, as our all-party group on maths and numeracy report on early years highlighted last year, we need to invest more in basic skills in maths-focused learning and teacher training for early years education, so that through the development of number sense, all children can flourish in maths once they get to school?

[Mr Speaker]

It is also Mental Health Awareness Week, colleagues, as I am sure you will all be aware. I commend the ribbon to you—on top of the important point that the hon. Lady has made.

[Anne Milton]

I fear that when I take the national numeracy test on Wednesday, as I intend to do, my stress levels will be rising; I gave up maths at 15 after I took O-level. We should be shocked that one in two adults have the numeracy skills of an 11-year-old or younger—the figure is one in six for English—and that 11 million adults lack basic digital skills. We live in a rarefied atmosphere in this place, and some of us find it quite extraordinary to appreciate those facts. The test on Wednesday is a must for every Member of this House. I hope that they will join me in taking it, tweeting the picture, and making sure that everybody understands the need to be numerate.

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[Steve McCabe]

I am grateful for that information. About this time last year, Ministers and officials told us that they could afford to close Baverstock school in Druids Heath because they had more than sufficient places in south Birmingham. Now it transpires that around that time they were planning to build another school a mile and a half down the road on playing fields used by local residents, including Maypole Juniors FC, for a variety of recreational activities. Can the Minister talk us through the economics of his decision?

[Mr Speaker]

Briefly.

[Nick Gibb]

The decision to locate and build the new school in Yardley Wood rather than on the Baverstock site is supported by Birmingham City Council, as that location will help address the need for new secondary school places not only in the Selly Oak area but in the neighbouring Hall Green area. The feasibility study shows that the site can accommodate a school and make greater use of the playing fields, and will significantly improve sporting facilities for both pupils and the local community.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

No, no. Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is a splendid place, but it is a considerable distance from south Birmingham. I know that I can rely on the ingenuity of the hon. Gentleman to give us his thoughts on another matter at a later point in our proceedings, but not much later, I am sure.

[Fiona Onasanya (Peterborough) (Lab)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the quality of safeguarding for 16 and 17-year-olds.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nadhim Zahawi]

This year, we will be enhancing our annual survey of childcare and early years providers with more detailed research on provider finances and childcare costs. This will provide us with robust, up-to-date evidence on childcare costs. I remind the hon. Lady that funding to local authorities for three and four-year-olds, delivered through the early years national funding formula, has increased from £4.56 to £4.94. As of April 2017, our funding rate to deliver the entitlement for two-year-olds increased by 7% in every local authority.

[Mr Speaker]

We move on to Topical questions. I give notice to the House that I would like to move on to tributes to Baroness Jowell at 3.30 pm, so it is important that colleagues are either characteristically or uncharacteristically, as the case may be, brief.

[Luke Graham (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure that a brain of the brilliance of the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) can produce a question of fewer than 20 words.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Whitworth School in Spennymoor has had to close its sixth form. What is the Minister going to do about it?

School Funding

John Bercow Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

There have been some late withdrawals, but a not insignificant number of Members wish to speak in this debate. Therefore, although there is no time limit on Front-Bench speeches, I am sure that both the shadow Secretary of State and the Secretary of State will wish to tailor their contributions sensitively to take account of the fact that others wish to contribute.