Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the transparency data entitled School rebuilding programme: schools in the programme, update on 8 February 2024, how much funding her Department has (a) allocated and (b) distributed to each school selected in Suffolk Coastal constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There is one school selected for the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) in the Suffolk Coastal constituency. This is Farlingaye High School.
The SRP is a centrally delivered programme. Therefore, no funding is allocated or distributed directly to schools. Once contracts are awarded for building works, they are published on the Contracts Finder within 30 calendar days. The Contracts Finder can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency and (b) Suffolk.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £36 million this Parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.
Suffolk County Council is participating in this programme and is working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster East’, which is led by Norfolk.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/25, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year, as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, which is an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase nursery staff in Suffolk, in the context of the Government's plans to expand the number of free childcare places.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has launched a range of new workforce initiatives to boost early years staff numbers. The department's £6.5 million-backed recruitment campaign ‘Do something BIG. Work with small children’ is raising the status of early years to boost recruitment of talented staff. The department has also launched Skills Bootcamps for Early Years, which enables learners across the country, including in Suffolk, to progress on an accelerated Level 3 Early Years Educator Apprenticeship.
On top of this, the department has launched a pilot to test whether financial incentives help to boost recruitment, and have made it easier for managers to make the most of the skills of their existing staff through changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage, including the removal of the Level 2 maths requirement for staff to count in Level 3 child to staff ratios. A link to the statutory framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Suffolk, about the sufficiency of childcare in their area, including their work to support Early Years (EY) workforce recruitment and retention.
The department will continue to monitor the recruitment of EY staff alongside the sufficiency of childcare provision and are committed to continuing to work with the sector to understand how the department can further support EY workforce recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free childcare places were provided through childminders in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of nurseries that provide access to free childcare in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of childminders that provide access to free childcare in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free childcare places were provided through nurseries in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in child minders during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in nurseries during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help monitor the availability of childcare during school holidays in (a) Suffolk and (b) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £200 million per year, until March 2025, in free holiday club places for children from low-income families, through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, with all 153 local authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.
The HAF Programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things, and improving socialisation.
While the Programme is targeted primarily towards children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals (FSM), local authorities also have flexibility to use up to 15% of their funding to target and support other children and families that align with the local authorities’ own priorities.
This summer, the programme reached more than 580,000 children and young people in England, including over 460,000 children eligible for FSM.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.
This year, the department has allocated over £2.2 million for the HAF programme to support children and families across Suffolk, building on the £2.2 million that was allocated to them for 2022/23.