Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Budget 2018 how much of the £400 million capital funding for schools will be allocated to schools in (a) Jarrow Constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the North East.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is allocating an additional £400 million of capital funding to schools in 2018–19. This funding is in addition to the £1.4 billion of condition allocations already provided this year to those responsible for maintaining school buildings.
The Department will publish a calculation tool by December that will enable schools to estimate their own allocation. Final allocations for all schools in England will be published in January. The Department expects an average size primary school to receive £10,000 and an average size secondary school to receive £50,000 from the £400 million investment.
The additional funding will be allocated to: maintained nurseries, primary and secondary schools, academies and free schools, special schools, pupil referral units, non-maintained special schools, sixth-form colleges, and special post-16 institutions that have eligible state-funded pupils.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle any disparities in education and skill levels in North East England compared to other regions of the UK.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department is aware of the specific education, skills and employment challenges faced by some areas in the North East.
We consider this when designing education programmes. For example, we have launched two Maths Hubs in the North East, these school-led centres of excellence in mathematics teaching seek to boost teaching for children from primary school age up to 18-year olds.
Our technical education reforms, along with the work of Skills Advisory Panels, will give local areas the capability and tools to produce high-quality skills needs analysis to evidence their Local Industrial Strategies, and for providers to work closely with local employers to better meet local skills needs. The government announced on 24 July the next wave of Local Industrial Strategies including Tees Valley and North of Tyne.
We are on track to devolve adult education budgets from the 2019/20 academic year to mayoral combined authorities, including the Tees Valley. This will give local areas the opportunity to provide adult education that serves the needs of the local economy and local people. We will also be working with the North of Tyne area as they prepare for devolution from 2020.
We will work closely with combined authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and councils on future ways of working which support the successful delivery of both local and national adult education provision.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside and (iii) the North East.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has made a significant extra investment of £1.3 billion in the core schools budget across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This means that funding will be maintained in real terms per pupil.
The national funding formula, supported by this extra investment, has allocated up to 3% more funding per pupil for underfunded schools and it will allocate further gains of up to 3% per pupil in 2019-20. Under the formula, every school attracted at least 0.5% for every pupil in 2018-19 and will attract at least 1% more funding for every pupil by 2019-20, compared to the 2017-18 baselines.
The Department has also introduced minimum per pupil funding levels in recognition of the challenges faced by the lowest funded schools. Under the national formula, in 2019-20 all secondary schools will attract at least £4,800 per pupil, and all primary schools will attract at least £3,500 per pupil. In 2018-19, as a step towards these minimum funding levels, secondary schools attracted at least £4,600, and primary schools £3,300. The minimum per pupil funding levels are not subject to the gains cap, and so allocate faster gains to the very lowest funded schools.
The Department has published information about the impact of the national funding formulae at school and local authority level at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding the Government has provided to maintained nursery schools in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Maintained nursery schools (MNS) make an important contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. In recognition of the costs that MNS experience over and above other providers, we are providing supplementary funding of around £60 million a year. This is in addition to funding received under the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF). It will enable local authorities to protect MNS pre-EYNFF funding levels until 2019 to 2020. This funding is allocated and spent at a local authority level rather than at a constituency level. MNS supplementary funding was introduced from 2017 to 2018.
Final allocations of 2017 to 2018 MNS supplementary funding at local authority, regional and national levels are at column M of the 2017-18 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations tab of the ‘DSG allocations 2017 to 2018’ spreadsheet. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018.
Provisional allocations of 2018-19 MNS supplementary funding at local authority, regional and national levels are at column M of the 2018-19 Early Years Block tab of the ‘DSG allocations 2018 to 2019’ spreadsheet. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities in Jarrow constituency are adequately funded to deliver effective special educational needs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Funding for special educational needs (SEN) comes from both the schools block and high needs block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG).
When setting the local formula which determines the distribution of the schools block, local authorities are required to delegate funds to a level that enables mainstream schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN, up to £6,000 per annum, from their annual budget.
When a school can demonstrate that the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This funding comes from the authority’s high needs budget. The high needs budget also covers the costs of place funding, at £10,000 per place, for all special schools.
The introduction this year of national funding formulae for allocating both schools and high needs funding to local authorities is supported by significant extra investment of £1.3 billion across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This will allow us to maintain schools and high needs funding in real terms per pupil for the next two years, and ensures that local authorities will see additional funding for their most vulnerable children and young people.
The Gateshead and South Tyneside councils are both receiving increases in funding for 2018-19, proportionate to pupil number and movement changes, compared to what they planned to spend in 2017-18. Gateshead Council will receive £22.1 million in high needs funding, a 2.8% increase on what they planned to spend in 2017-18. South Tyneside Council will receive £19.6 million in high needs funding, a 3.3 per cent increase on what they planned to spend in 2017-18.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships available in the Jarrow constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
We have introduced a wide range of reforms to apprenticeships to improve their quality and encourage employers to increase the number of apprenticeships they offer. This includes moving to new apprenticeship standards, designed by employers themselves, to give apprentices the skills, knowledge and behaviours that businesses need. Over 250 standards have already been approved, with nearly 300 more in development.
The apprenticeship levy and wider funding changes are designed to encourage employers to invest in apprenticeships and improve the skills of their workforce. To help employers to take advantage of the changes and increase the number of apprenticeships they offer, levy payers can now transfer 10 per cent of their levy to other employers, and we have released an additional £68 million to fund apprenticeships among smaller employers.
In the Jarrow constituency, there were 1,250 apprenticeships starts in 2016/17; and there have been 3,470 starts since May 2015.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to improve social mobility in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In December 2017, the department published ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’, an action plan for driving social mobility through education. This plan sets out how we will tackle entrenched barriers to opportunity at every life stage. Increasing equality of opportunity across the country and tackling regional disparity sits at the heart of this approach.
Our plans build on this government’s reforms since 2010, which are transforming opportunities for all children and young people right through their educational journey. This includes 1.9 million more children in good and outstanding schools than in 2010, record numbers of young people in education or training and more disadvantaged pupils going to university. Furthermore, the attainment gap between 16-year-olds who are disadvantaged and those who are not has closed by 10 per cent since 2011.
In addition, we are investing £70 million through the government’s Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy to tackle areas of underperformance and weak capacity. As part of this, we are investing in a £5 million scheme in the north trialling projects to tackle the ‘word gap’ that exists between disadvantaged children and their peers at age five. We are also investing £12 million in the north as part of our commitment to establish a national network of English Hubs with a specific focus on improving early language and literacy, and expanding the reach of the Maths Hubs network in the North to spread excellence in maths teaching.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state school teachers in England have not had Qualified Teacher Status in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East, and (d) England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The full time equivalent (FTE) number and percentage teachers without Qualified Teacher Status in state funded schools in, (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside local authority, (c) the North East Region and (d) England, is shown in the tattached table.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of nursery school funding for nurseries in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, and (c) the North East.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Maintained nursery schools make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children, and as is the case for all early years providers, it is for local authorities to decide the rate of funding that they receive. Our supplementary funding of approximately £60 million a year enables local authorities to protect maintained nursery school funding until 2019-20. Budgets after 2019-20 will be set at the next Spending Review.
We continue to work closely with the sector to find the best long-term solution for maintained nursery schools.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people from (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England graduated from university in the 2016-17 academic year.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes information on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK higher education institutions. The latest statistics, referring to the 2016/17 academic year, were published on 11 January 2018 at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics.
The number of qualifiers from higher education courses who were domiciled in Jarrow constituency, South Tyneside local authority, the North East region and England, prior to study in the 2016/17 academic year, has been provided in the table below.
Higher Education qualifiers1)2)3) by place of domicile prior to study4)
UK Higher Education Institutions
Academic year 2016/17
Academic year | Jarrow constituency | South Tyneside local authority | North East region | England Total |
2016/17 | 615 | 1,080 | 20,905 | 459,425 |
Source: Department for Education analysis of HESA’s Student Record
Notes:
1) Figures are based on the HESA qualifications obtained population (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/definitions/students).
2) Includes qualifiers from both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study.
3) Figures are rounded to the nearest multiple of five.
4) Constituency and local authority is derived from the student's postcode prior to study.