Tom Hunt

Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. It has always been the case that where we are made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, the Department takes immediate action.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day-to-day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building.

The Department has acted decisively and proactively to tackle this issue. This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK. The Department issued comprehensive guidance in 2018, and subsequent years, to all responsible bodies highlighting the potential risks associated with RAAC and supporting them to identify this within their buildings, as well as to take appropriate steps in meeting their obligations to keep buildings safe. The most recent guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-estates-guidance.

There are over 22,000 schools and colleges in England, and the vast majority are unaffected. A significant proportion of the estate was built outside the period where RAAC was used, with around one third of the estate built since 2001, therefore, the Department has focused efforts on buildings built in the post-war decades.

The Department issued a questionnaire in March 2022, asking responsible bodies to inform the Department of any suspected RAAC identified in their estates. Responsible bodies have submitted questionnaires for over 98% of schools with blocks built in the target era, of which there are 14,900. We are pressing all remaining schools to get checks completed, to determine which schools require surveys.

The Department is contacting responsible bodies to help them respond to this request and to advise on what needs to be done, so that they can establish whether they believe they have RAAC. This work will continue until we have a response for all target era schools.

Schools and colleges where RAAC is suspected are being fast tracked for surveying, which is used to confirm whether RAAC is actually present. All schools and colleges that have already told us they suspect they might have RAAC will be surveyed within a matter of weeks, in many cases in a matter of days.

All schools where RAAC is confirmed are provided with a dedicated caseworker to support them and help implement a mitigation plan and minimise the disruption to children’s learning.

Across Government, Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out. The Department for Education published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.

Schools will contact parents where RAAC is identified and inform them of any impacts on their child. The vast majority of schools are unaffected. Any parents that are unsure if their child’s school is affected should contact their school directly.

While some short term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to pupil learning and ensure that pupils continue to receive face-to-face teaching. Where there is any disturbance to face-to-face education, schools will prioritise attendance for vulnerable children and young people and children of key workers. The guidance published by the Department in August also includes guidance on provision for pupils with SEND and sets out expectations that schools continue to provide free school meals to eligible pupils.

The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the department will provide that support for all reasonable requests. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.

All previously confirmed Schol Rebuilding Programme projects announced in 2021 and 2022 will continue to go ahead. A full list of confirmed projects can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.

Further information on RAAC in education settings is available on the Education Hub: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/06/new-guidance-on-raac-in-education-settings/.

Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. It has always been the case that where we are made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, the Department takes immediate action.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day-to-day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building.

The Department has acted decisively and proactively to tackle this issue. This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK. The Department issued comprehensive guidance in 2018, and subsequent years, to all responsible bodies highlighting the potential risks associated with RAAC and supporting them to identify this within their buildings, as well as to take appropriate steps in meeting their obligations to keep buildings safe. The most recent guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-estates-guidance.

There are over 22,000 schools and colleges in England, and the vast majority are unaffected. A significant proportion of the estate was built outside the period where RAAC was used, with around one third of the estate built since 2001, therefore, the Department has focused efforts on buildings built in the post-war decades.

The Department issued a questionnaire in March 2022, asking responsible bodies to inform the Department of any suspected RAAC identified in their estates. Responsible bodies have submitted questionnaires for over 98% of schools with blocks built in the target era, of which there are 14,900. We are pressing all remaining schools to get checks completed, to determine which schools require surveys.

The Department is contacting responsible bodies to help them respond to this request and to advise on what needs to be done, so that they can establish whether they believe they have RAAC. This work will continue until we have a response for all target era schools.

Schools and colleges where RAAC is suspected are being fast tracked for surveying, which is used to confirm whether RAAC is actually present. All schools and colleges that have already told us they suspect they might have RAAC will be surveyed within a matter of weeks, in many cases in a matter of days.

All schools where RAAC is confirmed are provided with a dedicated caseworker to support them and help implement a mitigation plan and minimise the disruption to children’s learning.

Across Government, Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out. The Department for Education published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.

Schools will contact parents where RAAC is identified and inform them of any impacts on their child. The vast majority of schools are unaffected. Any parents that are unsure if their child’s school is affected should contact their school directly.

While some short term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to pupil learning and ensure that pupils continue to receive face-to-face teaching. Where there is any disturbance to face-to-face education, schools will prioritise attendance for vulnerable children and young people and children of key workers. The guidance published by the Department in August also includes guidance on provision for pupils with SEND and sets out expectations that schools continue to provide free school meals to eligible pupils.

The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the department will provide that support for all reasonable requests. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.

All previously confirmed Schol Rebuilding Programme projects announced in 2021 and 2022 will continue to go ahead. A full list of confirmed projects can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.

Further information on RAAC in education settings is available on the Education Hub: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/06/new-guidance-on-raac-in-education-settings/.

Political issues relating to racial and social justice can be taught in a balanced and factual manner, just as pupils are often taught about a range of different views on other topics, but schools should not teach contested theories and opinions as fact.

The Department is aware that there has been increasing focus on political impartiality in schools over the last few years. This has been challenging for head teachers, teachers and staff with a lack of clarity about what the legal duties in this area really mean.  That is why the Department has published clear and comprehensive guidance to help those working with and in schools to better understand legal duties on political impartiality. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools.

As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects. It is important that schools take full responsibility for ensuring lessons and materials are age appropriate, suitable and politically impartial, particularly when using materials produced by external organisations. When teaching, schools should consider the age of pupils and their religious and cultural background.

Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans are a fundamental part of the vision described in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published in March 2023. The department recognises the vital role that local authority staff play in supporting families in the SEND system. We will consider the skills and training that these teams receive and, when consulting on amending the SEND Code of Practice, we will propose new guidance on delivering a responsive and supportive SEND casework service to families.

The department does not play a direct role in the monitoring of timeliness or quality of EHC plans. Officials do monitor key performance indicators, including statutory timeliness and tribunal rates. This evidence can inform decisions to provide improvement support to local areas, which includes training and workshops on EHC plan quality. It is the role of Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to monitor the quality of EHC plans through their Area SEND inspections.

Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans are a fundamental part of the vision described in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published in March 2023. The department recognises the vital role that local authority staff play in supporting families in the SEND system. We will consider the skills and training that these teams receive and, when consulting on amending the SEND Code of Practice, we will propose new guidance on delivering a responsive and supportive SEND casework service to families.

The department does not play a direct role in the monitoring of timeliness or quality of EHC plans. Officials do monitor key performance indicators, including statutory timeliness and tribunal rates. This evidence can inform decisions to provide improvement support to local areas, which includes training and workshops on EHC plan quality. It is the role of Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to monitor the quality of EHC plans through their Area SEND inspections.

The department does not have access to individual Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and, as a result, we are unable to make an assessment of how many young people are not admitted to the school named in their plan.

Starting from summer 2023, the department plans to collect data from local authorities on the capacity of special schools and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) units and resourced provision in mainstream schools, as well as forecasts of the numbers of specialist placements local authorities expect to make in SEND units and resourced provision, special schools (of all types) and alternative provision (AP). We expect this to be an annual data collection forming part of the existing School Capacity Survey, which will support local authorities in managing their specialist provision.

The department is investing £2.6 billion between now and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision, including opening 33 new special free schools, with a further 48 in the pipeline.

In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan of March 2023, we set out our proposal to require local authorities to provide families with a tailored list of settings as part of an amended process for naming a placement in an EHC plan.

A tailored list would allow local authorities to give clear choices to families and better meet the needs of children and young people, while supporting them to manage placements in a way that ensures financial sustainability for the future.

The Department does not hold information on which children are referred to local Fair Access Protocols.

Parents do not apply for a school place via the Fair Access Protocol directly. Parents are referred to the Protocol when they are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable measures have been taken to secure a place through the usual in-year admission procedures.

Children with special educational needs, disabilities or medical conditions but without an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan are eligible for the Fair Access Protocol. Paragraph 3.17 of the Schools Admissions Code outlines the groups of children who are eligible for a place via the Fair Access Protocol.

All children whose EHC plan names a school must be admitted to the school.

The department is committed to ensuring that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), wherever they live, get the support they need, including those with education, health and care (EHC) plans. The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan outlines the department’s mission to create a single, national SEND and AP system with the proposal to develop national standards as a fundamental part of this. The standards will set out what support should be available and who is responsible for providing it, to give families confidence and clarity on how the needs of children and young people will be met. As these standards will apply nationally, Ipswich is automatically included.

The plan also sets out proposals to improve the assessment and planning process for EHC plans, by introducing standardised forms and processes, and supporting guidance to provide greater consistency.

Quality teaching and support is vital for all children with SEND to reach their potential. The department will introduce a new leadership level Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator National Professional Qualification for schools. We are also taking steps to build teacher expertise in meeting the needs of children with SEND through a review of the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework and Early Career Framework.

The department has invested in a range of programmes aimed at encouraging young people and adults to train, retrain and get the skills they need for employment, including in the Trade industry.

We are providing an extra £1.6 billion in 16-to-19 education by the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 2021/22. This includes up to £500 million extra a year for T Levels when fully rolled out.

The Adult Education Budget, which is £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support them to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

The department has introduced T Levels, which are two-year, level 3, technical study courses that offer young people a choice of high-quality training. 16 T Levels are now available in further education providers across the country, with T Levels in Construction leading to careers in plumbing and heating engineering, carpentry and joinery, bricklaying, plastering & painting and decorating, along with many other trade occupations.

There are nearly 100 high-quality employer-designed apprenticeship standards available in the construction sector. The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 to support more apprenticeship opportunities, and we continue to offer £1,000 payments to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or 19 to 24 where they have an education, health and care plan. In addition, our Career Starter apprenticeships campaign is promoting apprenticeships that offer great opportunities to those leaving full-time education, such as Engineering Fitter and Plumber.

We have introduced Skills Bootcamps which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people over the age of 19 the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Training is available in skill areas such as construction, engineering and other technical sectors including courses in welding, electrical installation and plumbing amongst others.

Following the recent Budget announcement of an additional £34 million investment in the 2024/25 financial year, building upon the £550 million investment across the 2022/25 financial years, we will target making 64,000 training places a year available by 2024/25 to ensure that even more adult learners across all areas of the country can access Skills Bootcamps.

The Free Courses for Jobs offer gives eligible adults the chance to access high value Level 3 qualification for free. This offer includes many qualifications that are delivered flexibly and online. Qualifications are available across the country in a wide range of sectors including building, construction and engineering.

All teachers are teachers of special education needs and disabilities (SEND), and high quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with SEND are given the best possible opportunity to achieve at school.

Quality teaching is the most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for all children, particularly those with SEND. From September 2020, all new teachers have benefited from at least three years of evidence based professional development and support, starting with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) based on the new ITT Core Content Framework (CCF), and followed by a new two year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF).

All courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 1, that teachers must set goals that stretch and challenge pupils of all backgrounds, abilities and dispositions as well as Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.

The CCF sets out a minimum entitlement of the knowledge and experiences that trainees need to enter the profession in the best position possible to teach and support all pupils to succeed. The Department will be conducting a review this year of the CCF and ECF to identify how the frameworks can equip new teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of pupils with SEND.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), which was £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above, including those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and neurodivergent adults, from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning.

The AEB includes learning support funding to enable colleges and training providers to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and meet the costs of reasonable adjustments as set out in the Equality Act 2010. Learning Support can cover a range of needs including an assessment for dyslexia, funding to pay for specialist equipment or helpers, and arranging signers or note takers.

The department is working to ensure that a learning difficulty or disability is not a barrier to people who want to realise the benefits of an apprenticeship. To ensure that employers are supported to create new apprenticeship opportunities, we provide targeted financial support directly to training providers to help remove barriers for people with a learning difficulty or disability.

Providers can access learning support funding of £150 per month where a reasonable adjustment is delivered and evidenced. Employers can access the Department for Work and Pensions’ Access to Work scheme to better support apprentices with disabilities.

The department has also improved the Find an Apprenticeship service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities. The department has launched a Disabled Apprentice Network in partnership with Disability Rights UK to provide valuable insight and evidence on how to attract and retain people with disabilities into apprenticeships.

Additionally, the department’s skills offers include Skills Bootcamps and Free Courses for Jobs. Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion.

There are now hundreds of Skills Bootcamps available across the country, offering training in digital, technical (including engineering and manufacturing), construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy, including heat pump engineer and electric vehicle maintenance and repair and zero carbon construction.

The Free Courses for Jobs offer gives eligible adults the chance to access high value level 3 qualification for free, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job. The courses available offer good wage outcomes and address skills needs in the economy, empowering adults with the tools they need to secure a better job.

Adults in England without a full level 3 are eligible for these qualifications. In addition, adults in England are also eligible if they are earning under the National Living Wage annually, or £18,525 from April 2022, or are unemployed, regardless of their prior qualification level. There are over 400 qualifications on offer in areas such as engineering, social care and accounting, alongside many others. These qualifications have been identified for their strong wage outcomes and ability to meet key skills needs.

Both of these offers are open to all eligible learners, including adults with a disability or for neurodiverse adults.

Neurodiverse adults and those with disabilities can access free, up-to-date, and impartial information, advice and guidance on the full range of skills training opportunities through the National Careers Service. Discussions are tailored to meet the individual needs and circumstances of each customer. Adults with special educational needs and/or disabilities are one of six priority groups who are eligible for more targeted support from careers advisers. The website https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ is regularly updated, with a programme of continuous improvement. The content currently includes around 800 job profiles, a course directory and information on how to find a job, build a CV, and interview techniques.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), which was £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above, including those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and neurodivergent adults, from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning.

The AEB includes learning support funding to enable colleges and training providers to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and meet the costs of reasonable adjustments as set out in the Equality Act 2010. Learning Support can cover a range of needs including an assessment for dyslexia, funding to pay for specialist equipment or helpers, and arranging signers or note takers.

The department is working to ensure that a learning difficulty or disability is not a barrier to people who want to realise the benefits of an apprenticeship. To ensure that employers are supported to create new apprenticeship opportunities, we provide targeted financial support directly to training providers to help remove barriers for people with a learning difficulty or disability.

Providers can access learning support funding of £150 per month where a reasonable adjustment is delivered and evidenced. Employers can access the Department for Work and Pensions’ Access to Work scheme to better support apprentices with disabilities.

The department has also improved the Find an Apprenticeship service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities. The department has launched a Disabled Apprentice Network in partnership with Disability Rights UK to provide valuable insight and evidence on how to attract and retain people with disabilities into apprenticeships.

Additionally, the department’s skills offers include Skills Bootcamps and Free Courses for Jobs. Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion.

There are now hundreds of Skills Bootcamps available across the country, offering training in digital, technical (including engineering and manufacturing), construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy, including heat pump engineer and electric vehicle maintenance and repair and zero carbon construction.

The Free Courses for Jobs offer gives eligible adults the chance to access high value level 3 qualification for free, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job. The courses available offer good wage outcomes and address skills needs in the economy, empowering adults with the tools they need to secure a better job.

Adults in England without a full level 3 are eligible for these qualifications. In addition, adults in England are also eligible if they are earning under the National Living Wage annually, or £18,525 from April 2022, or are unemployed, regardless of their prior qualification level. There are over 400 qualifications on offer in areas such as engineering, social care and accounting, alongside many others. These qualifications have been identified for their strong wage outcomes and ability to meet key skills needs.

Both of these offers are open to all eligible learners, including adults with a disability or for neurodiverse adults.

Neurodiverse adults and those with disabilities can access free, up-to-date, and impartial information, advice and guidance on the full range of skills training opportunities through the National Careers Service. Discussions are tailored to meet the individual needs and circumstances of each customer. Adults with special educational needs and/or disabilities are one of six priority groups who are eligible for more targeted support from careers advisers. The website https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ is regularly updated, with a programme of continuous improvement. The content currently includes around 800 job profiles, a course directory and information on how to find a job, build a CV, and interview techniques.

The Department works across Government to support all young people to lead happy, healthy and safe lives, and to foster respect for others.

The statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education contains content that can help address the underlying causes of gun and knife crime. This includes references to situations that often lead young people to carry weapons, such as criminal exploitation though involvement in gangs and county lines drugs operations. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.

Gun and knife crime can also be taught as part of a school’s wider curriculum. Schools can choose to include lessons on weapons awareness and gangs as part of their personal, social, health and economic education or citizenship curriculum.

The Department works across Government on wider initiatives to prevent serious violence. As part of the cross Government Beating Crime Plan, the Department has worked with other government departments to make over £45 million available to fund specialist support in mainstream and alternative provision schools in the areas where serious violence like knife crime most affects young people.

One cross government project that the Department is implementing is the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces (APST). This places multidisciplinary taskforces of specialists, including speech and language therapists, youth workers, family support workers, and mental health workers in schools in 22 areas where serious violence is most prevalent. The Department works closely with cross Government partners, including the Youth Justice Board and NHS England to deliver the APST programme, including the placement of their frontline specialists in schools.

The Department continues to work with other departments and stakeholders on curriculum content and will be reviewing the statutory guidance this year, looking at areas of the guidance that need to be strengthened.

The new Local Skills Improvement Plans bring together employers, skills providers and other local stakeholders to identify the key skills needed in an area and to determine the changes required to local skills provision. For the Norfolk and Suffolk area, the Secretary of State for Education designated the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce to lead the Local Skills Improvement Plan.

At a national level, the Green Jobs Delivery Group, which brings together representatives from government, business, industry, trade unions and academia, is the key vehicle for achieving our green skills aims and is examining nuclear skills needs.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has approved five apprenticeship standards for the nuclear industry, with another in development. The Free Courses for Jobs offer includes the ECITB level 3 Certificate and Diploma in Nuclear Engineering and Science.

Skills Bootcamps are short, flexible courses designed to meet the needs of employers. In additional to the national Skills Bootcamp offer, New Anglia LEP, in partnership with Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils, is using Department for Education grant funding to run Skills Bootcamps that meet local needs. Some of these new skills, such as construction, are valuable for the development of Sizewell C. It is expected that the Skills Bootcamp offer will develop as the Sizewell C project progresses.

Sir Michael Barber has been appointed to provide private advice to my righ hon. Friends, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Education, on the implementation of the department’s current skills reforms programme. As part of those reforms, the department is investing £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the Parliament, to ensure people can access high-quality education and training, including T Levels, that lead to good jobs.

The department is investing a further £3.8 billion in further education and skills over this parliamentary session to ensure people across the country have access to the skills they need to build a fulfilling career in jobs the economy needs. Providers of post-16 education, including further education colleges, can benefit from the investment announced in the 2021 Spending Review, which made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 2021/22 - the biggest increase in 16-19 funding in a decade. This will help to fund the additional students anticipated in the system, 40 extra hours per student, and provide an affordable increase in funding rates per 16-19 student, including an up-front cash boost which will see the national rate of funding increase by over 8% in 2022/23, from £4,188 to £4,542 per student.

The department are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) at £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

As part of the department’s £2.5 billion investment aimed at re-skilling and up-skilling opportunities for adults, we have introduced the Free Courses for Jobs offer and Skills Bootcamps. The Free Courses for Jobs offer enables learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free. Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer.

The department is committed to supporting more employers in using apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need, and to supporting more people to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer. To support more employers and learners to access apprenticeships we are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year.

The department is also investing £2.8 billion of capital funding for skills over the Spending Review period, including to improve the condition of further education estates, create more post-16 places and support the rollout of T Levels.

Local authorities must ensure there are sufficient good school places for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Children and Families Act 2014, requires local authorities to keep the provision for children and young people with SEND under review, including its sufficiency, working with parents, young people, and providers.

There are currently six special schools within Ipswich, providing 368 places to children up to the age of 16 with SEND, including social, emotional, and mental health needs and specific learning difficulties. Two of the six schools, The Bridge School and Sir Bobby Robson School, are yet to be inspected by Ofsted. Two schools, Thomas Wolsey Ormiston Academy and Stone Lodge Academy, are rated Good. The other two schools, West Lodge School and New Skill Centre, are rated Requires Improvement.

The department continues to support Suffolk local authority and academy trusts with special schools in Ipswich in a range of ways, to help their efforts with providing sufficient good special school places for children with SEND in Ipswich.

The department does not collect data on how many children are waiting for school places on a constituency basis. However, each January, the department collects data from local authorities, covering the number of children and young people and the type of provision attended. This includes mainstream schools, special schools, alternative provision, pupils educated elsewhere, and those awaiting provision.

The most recent return shows that in January 2022, there were 1,503 children of compulsory school age across England with education, health and care (EHC) plans who were not in education and awaiting provision. This is up from 1,460 in January 2021. In Suffolk, in January 2022, there were 36 children of compulsory school age with EHC plans not in education and awaiting provision, up from 26 in January 2021.

The department does not collect data about the specific circumstances of the children awaiting provision. The department knows that this category includes children and young people in a wide range of circumstances, including some who are in an education setting, but awaiting provision in another setting (including those currently attending a mainstream school who are to move to a special school), and some who have only recently moved into the area. The local authority keeps its special school place provision under continual review and has detailed plans for increasing the number of good places available in Ipswich and across Suffolk.

To support these plans, the department collaborates with Suffolk local authority on helping all schools in the county to continually improve their whole-school special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) approach, including ensuring that academies fulfil their obligations to pupils with SEND. While statutory responsibility for providing SEND places rests with Suffolk local authority, the department actively supports the local authority to secure sufficient, good quality SEND places in Suffolk, including in Ipswich.

Apprenticeships are jobs and are available for all people of all backgrounds, including people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), to start an exciting career in a variety of industries.

In recent years, the department has seen an improved representation of learners who have declared SEND starting apprenticeships, and we want this to continue. The department has improved its ‘find an apprenticeship’ service to allow people to identify Disability Confident employers offering opportunities and ensuring apprenticeships are available to all.

In partnership with the Disability Rights UK, the department has launched a Disabled Apprentice Network to provide valuable insight and evidence on how to attract and retain disabled people into apprenticeships. Disability Rights UK published a report during National Apprenticeship Week 2022 to support employers to improve the diversity of their apprenticeship programmes, whilst highlighting the barriers people may face when undertaking an apprenticeship. In this report, the apprentices identified the opportunity to build confidence, skills, and networks with people with different experiences and gain paid work experience as the key points which influenced them towards undertaking an apprenticeship.

To ensure that more people who declare learning difficulty or disability (LDD) feel confident to undertake apprenticeships, the department has lowered the English and maths requirements to apprenticeships for a defined group of individuals with LDD. We have also introduced British Sign Language (BSL) as an alternative to English Functional Skills for those who have BSL as their first language.

Furthermore, the department makes £1,000 payments to employers and providers for taking on 16 to 18 year olds, or those aged 19 to 24 with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. We also offer £150 per month to help providers make reasonable adjustments for eligible apprentices with special educational needs. Providers can claim additional funding if the cost of support exceeds this rate.

More widely, the department is investing up to £18 million over the next three years to build capacity in the supported internships programme, providing extra support to people with EHC plans to build the necessary skills they need to secure and sustain paid employment or transition into an apprenticeship if they wish to do so.

Suffolk County Council, in which Ipswich is located, will attract a year-on-year increase in its high needs allocation of 12.5% per head of their 2-18 population this financial year, bringing its total high needs funding allocation in 2022-23 to £96.1 million.

Suffolk County Council’s allocation of high needs funding is calculated through a national funding formula (NFF) that includes an element of funding based on the number of pupils in special schools in the county, which contributes to the cost of the place funding for those schools. This basic entitlement factor allocates a per-pupil amount of £4,660, to which an area cost adjustment is added, that reflects higher staffing costs in some areas of the country, such as London. The area cost adjustment weightings and basic entitlement per-pupil amounts for each local authority in England are set out in the published NFF calculations which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2022-to-2023. The Impact of the schools NFF, 2022 to 2023 spreadsheet shows how the financial year 2022/23 NFF allocations have been calculated. This shows that Suffolk’s area cost adjustment is 1.000. How area cost adjustment is calculated is set out here in Annex A: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2022-to-2023.

A significant proportion of overall funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is delivered through the schools NFF and subsequently through each local authority’s local schools funding formula. The information collected from local authorities or schools does not allow us to make a comparative assessment of total SEND or high needs funding on an overall per-pupil basis, at local authority or constituency level, or taking into account the severity of pupils’ needs.

Suffolk County Council, in which Ipswich is located, will attract a year-on-year increase in its high needs allocation of 12.5% per head of their 2-18 population this financial year, bringing its total high needs funding allocation in 2022-23 to £96.1 million.

Suffolk County Council’s allocation of high needs funding is calculated through a national funding formula (NFF) that includes an element of funding based on the number of pupils in special schools in the county, which contributes to the cost of the place funding for those schools. This basic entitlement factor allocates a per-pupil amount of £4,660, to which an area cost adjustment is added, that reflects higher staffing costs in some areas of the country, such as London. The area cost adjustment weightings and basic entitlement per-pupil amounts for each local authority in England are set out in the published NFF calculations which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2022-to-2023. The Impact of the schools NFF, 2022 to 2023 spreadsheet shows how the financial year 2022/23 NFF allocations have been calculated. This shows that Suffolk’s area cost adjustment is 1.000. How area cost adjustment is calculated is set out here in Annex A: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2022-to-2023.

A significant proportion of overall funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is delivered through the schools NFF and subsequently through each local authority’s local schools funding formula. The information collected from local authorities or schools does not allow us to make a comparative assessment of total SEND or high needs funding on an overall per-pupil basis, at local authority or constituency level, or taking into account the severity of pupils’ needs.

There are currently six special schools within Ipswich providing 368 places to children (up to age 16) with special educational needs, including social, emotional and mental health needs and specific learning difficulties. More information on the special schools can be found here: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Search?tok=8UB4PirD.

Two of the six schools (The Bridge School and Sir Bobby Robson School) are yet to be inspected by Ofsted. Two schools (Thomas Wolsey Ormiston Academy and Stone Lodge Academy) are rated good. The other two schools (West Lodge School and New Skill Centre) are rated requires improvement (to be good). Further queries regarding the adequacy of specialist educational settings should be directed to Ofsted.

This 2022/23 financial year, schools in the Ipswich constituency area are attracting an average of £5,089 per pupil through the schools national funding formula (NFF). This compares to a national average of £5,358 per pupil through the NFF.

In the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, a further national increase in the core schools budget of £1.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year was announced. This has been allocated to schools through the schools supplementary grant (SSG). Schools in the constituency attracted an additional £149 per pupil on average in the 2022/23 financial year through the SSG, compared to a national average of £156. This is additional to the NFF figures set out above.

In the 2021/22 financial year, schools in the Ipswich constituency area attracted an average of £4,944 per pupil through the NFF. The national average in 2021/22 was £5,212.

In the 2020/21 financial year, schools attracted an average of £4,575 per pupil through the NFF, when the national average was £4,828 per pupil. These figures do not include the funding for the teachers’ pay grant and teachers’ pension employer contribution grant, which were allocated as separate grants in 2020/21. This funding was rolled into the NFF from 2021/22. Therefore, the 2021/22 and 2022/23 NFF figures cannot be directly compared to the 2020/21 figures.

The constituency of Ipswich sees lower levels of funding per pupil than the national average. This is primarily due to the national average including schools in more expensive areas, such as London, that attract higher funding per pupil to reflect the higher costs they face. Schools in Ipswich also have a higher than average number of pupils per school. This means that they receive less than the average, per pupil, in respect of the school-led elements of the NFF that are provided at a fixed rate, such as the lump sum that each school is allocated.

The above figures relate to the amount of funding allocated through the schools NFF. The actual amount of funding schools received may be different, as it is determined by the Suffolk local authority’s local funding formula for schools.

On top of this funding, pupil premium funding rates are increasing by 2.7% in the 2022/23 financial year, meaning that the per pupil funding rate will be the highest, in cash terms, since its introduction. For Ipswich, total pupil premium funding will increase to over £5.7 million in the 2022/23 financial year, from £5.3 million this year. This will ensure that this targeted investment continues to support the most disadvantaged children in our schools.

In the 2022/23 financial year, the department will be allocating approximately £2,000 per pupil, for all pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years (FSM6), through the NFF, the pupil premium and a 2022/23 school supplementary grant together.

The department has also committed almost £5 billion for an ambitious, multi-year education recovery plan to support young people to catch up on missed learning and invest in what we know works: teacher training, evidence-based support, including tutoring and extra education opportunities. This includes the time-limited recovery premium grant providing over £300 million of additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021/22 academic year and £1 billion across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.

Ipswich has been selected at a Priority Education Investment Area (EIA). As a result, the department will offer intensive investment, in addition to the significant support available to all EIAs, so that we can drive improvement further and faster.

In all 55 EIAs, the department will be taking steps to support underperforming schools to make the necessary improvements, build trust capacity, support improved digital connectivity in the schools that need this most and offer the levelling up premium, worth up to £3,000 tax free, to eligible teachers. Our additional support to Priority EIAs includes a share of around £40 million of funding to address local needs, such as those acting as a barrier to improvement at primary and priority access to a number of other department programmes.