Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked after children local authorities reported as being placed outside of (a) their local authority area, (b) England and (c) the UK in (i) the year January 2019 to December 2019 inclusive and (ii) each of the last five annual reporting periods for which data is available.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The latest figures on children looked after by the locality of the placement are shown in the attached table. The children looked after collection (SSDA903 return) collects information about children who are looked after by local authorities from 1 April to 31 March, and these are the time periods presented in the table.
A range of figures on children looked after by placement location in a different format to that provided in the table are published in the table ‘National – Children looked after by placement type, distance and the locality of placement’ in the annual statistical release at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2020.
The statistics on children looked after in 2020/21 will be released in November 2021 (provisional). The exact date of publication will be announced here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/looked-after-children-in-england-year-ending-31-march-2021.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support parents who have to stay at home as a result of their children being required to self-isolate and (b) limit the disruption to the education of children who are required to self-isolate as a result of covid-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 16 August, pupils under the age of 18 years old have no longer been required to self-isolate if they are a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Instead, pupils identified as a close contact will be given age appropriate testing advice. They will not need to self-isolate while they wait for the result of any tests. If the result is positive, they should self-isolate in line with the guidance. Information on financial support can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme-claiming-financial-support/claiming-financial-support-under-the-test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme.
Since June 2020, the Department has announced more than £3 billion to support education recovery for children and young people in nurseries, schools and colleges. Recovery programmes, as well as targeted help with provision of laptops and internet access, have been designed to allow head teachers the flexibility to support those pupils most in need to help them catch up after a period of disruption to their education or during periods of self-isolation.
The Department recognises that COVID-19 may cause further disruption in the 2021/22 academic year. We have issued a new temporary remote education continuity direction for academic year 2021/22, to provide clarity about what is expected and ensuring consistency with the last academic year, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/remote-education-temporary-continuity-direction-explanatory-note. Schools affected by the temporary continuity direction must provide remote education for state-funded, school-aged pupils whose attendance would be contrary to local public health advice, Government guidance or law relating to COVID-19. Schools must adhere to the expectations for remote education published here: https://get-help-with-remote-education.education.gov.uk/statutory-obligations.
Where required, schools are expected to offer pupils 3 to 5 hours of remote education per day, depending on Key Stage. This includes recorded or live direct teaching alongside time for pupils to work independently to complete assignments that have been set.
A comprehensive package of support continues to be available to schools to help them meet the remote education expectations: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education. The Department understands that this is a challenging time for parents, carers and children. We have published information for parents and carers on remote education and how they can best support their child while studying from home, where this is needed. This can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/supporting-your-childrens-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19. This includes resources and advice to help parents and carers on how to establish a routine with their child, and how best to support mental health and wellbeing during this period.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what processes his Department has in place to record the outcomes of placements of looked after children from England who are placed in (a) other nations of the UK and (b) overseas.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Where the local authorities are placing a young person out of area, there are clear statutory requirements in place to safeguard young people. These require the placing authority to inform the host authority before confirming the placement and to check whether the host authority is aware of any concerns about the setting. The statutory responsibilities for looked after children remain with the placing local authority and Directors of Children’s Services who must approve all distant placements.
Statistically, the department collects data on placement type, reason for placement change and three separate pieces of information in relation to the locality of placements. The location data includes:
Figures on placements, distance from the home placement and the location of the placement, inside or outside the council boundary, were published in the underlying data ‘National - children looked after at 31 March by placement type, distance of placement and locality of placement’ of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2019 to 2020’ at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2020.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the accessibility of the Government’s free childcare offer to (a) student nurses and (b) other students who rely on loans and grants rather than job-related income.
Answered by Vicky Ford
All three and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours free early education per week, which includes children of parents undertaking full or part time study. This entitlement provides young children with high quality early education and helps to prepare them for school.
30 hours free childcare is an entitlement for working parents of three and four-year-olds. Its aim is to help working parents with the costs of childcare so that they can take up paid work or can work additional hours if they want to.
The Childcare Bill policy statement, published in December 2015, sets out that students are not eligible for the government’s 30 hours free childcare entitlement, unless they are in work. Students who undertake paid work in addition to their studies and meet the income requirements will be eligible. To qualify, students do not have to physically work 16 hours a week, but they do need to earn the equivalent of a weekly minimum of 16 hours at national minimum wage or national living wage (currently just over £7,400 a year for parents aged over 23).
Students on a low income, or whose children have special educational needs, may also be eligible for the government’s 15 hours free childcare per week entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The full criteria for this entitlement can be found on here: https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds.
Outside of the free early education entitlements, students who are parents may be eligible for support from the Student Loans Company, including the Childcare Grant and the Parents’ Learning Allowance (PLA). More information on support available for students can be found at https://www.gov.uk/browse/education/student-finance.
The PLA is available for full time undergraduate students with one or more dependent children to help with their learning costs. For the academic year 2021/22 students could receive up to £1,821 a year depending on household income.
With regard to student nurses, the government keeps the funding arrangements for all NHS health professionals’ education under close review, to ensure that students are appropriately supported.
The government has introduced new maintenance funding for many healthcare courses. The Department of Health and Social Care offers £2,000 for parental support per academic year. This is available for eligible students attending a full time pre-registration healthcare course, including for student nurses, at English universities. More information can be found at https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund/parental-support-formerly-child-dependants-allowance.
Some students may also qualify for Universal Credit and may be eligible for the reimbursement of some of their childcare costs through Universal Credit. To qualify for the childcare costs element of Universal Credit, students need to be in paid work or about to start paid work, and the childcare costs must relate to childcare arrangements (with a registered provider) that enable them to take up or continue in this paid work.
Help with upfront childcare costs for parents starting work, or in full-time training, is also available to eligible Universal Credit claimants through Budgeting Advances and through a Flexible Support Fund award for the first payment of childcare costs. Further details on claiming Universal Credit as a student which includes a list of students who may qualify for Universal Credit can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students.
We encourage all parents to view the full range of childcare support available, which can be found at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to schools on ensuring uniform procurement is consistent with Government policy on maintaining (a) environmental and (b) labour standards.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect detailed information on individual school uniform policies. The 2015 cost of school uniform report, commissioned by the Department, found that 99% of parents involved in the survey reported that their child’s school required children to wear a school uniform. This survey did not include responses from parents whose child attended a private or independent school.
Throughout the passage of the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021, the Department has engaged with a range of different stakeholders who have all advocated the benefits of correctly implementing a school uniform. The Department strongly encourages schools to have a uniform as it can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, providing a sense of belonging and identity and setting an appropriate tone for education.
As the Act, and the required statutory guidance, is limited to the cost aspect of school uniform, it is ultimately for the governing body of a school (or the academy trust, in the case of academies) to decide how their uniform should be sourced. The guidance will make clear that schools should give high priority to cost considerations and value for money, which does not prevent them from taking into account other issues which are important to them, including sustainability and fair labour standards. Within the statutory guidance, the Department intends to outline the expectation that all schools should make second hand uniform available for all parents to acquire. Not only will this help parents to manage the cost of school uniform, but by extending the life cycle of garments, this will prove more sustainable.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the correlation between the wearing of school uniform and standards of behaviour.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect detailed information on individual school uniform policies. The 2015 cost of school uniform report, commissioned by the Department, found that 99% of parents involved in the survey reported that their child’s school required children to wear a school uniform. This survey did not include responses from parents whose child attended a private or independent school.
Throughout the passage of the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021, the Department has engaged with a range of different stakeholders who have all advocated the benefits of correctly implementing a school uniform. The Department strongly encourages schools to have a uniform as it can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, providing a sense of belonging and identity and setting an appropriate tone for education.
As the Act, and the required statutory guidance, is limited to the cost aspect of school uniform, it is ultimately for the governing body of a school (or the academy trust, in the case of academies) to decide how their uniform should be sourced. The guidance will make clear that schools should give high priority to cost considerations and value for money, which does not prevent them from taking into account other issues which are important to them, including sustainability and fair labour standards. Within the statutory guidance, the Department intends to outline the expectation that all schools should make second hand uniform available for all parents to acquire. Not only will this help parents to manage the cost of school uniform, but by extending the life cycle of garments, this will prove more sustainable.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children in (a) state and b) private schools in England are required to wear school uniforms.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect detailed information on individual school uniform policies. The 2015 cost of school uniform report, commissioned by the Department, found that 99% of parents involved in the survey reported that their child’s school required children to wear a school uniform. This survey did not include responses from parents whose child attended a private or independent school.
Throughout the passage of the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021, the Department has engaged with a range of different stakeholders who have all advocated the benefits of correctly implementing a school uniform. The Department strongly encourages schools to have a uniform as it can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, providing a sense of belonging and identity and setting an appropriate tone for education.
As the Act, and the required statutory guidance, is limited to the cost aspect of school uniform, it is ultimately for the governing body of a school (or the academy trust, in the case of academies) to decide how their uniform should be sourced. The guidance will make clear that schools should give high priority to cost considerations and value for money, which does not prevent them from taking into account other issues which are important to them, including sustainability and fair labour standards. Within the statutory guidance, the Department intends to outline the expectation that all schools should make second hand uniform available for all parents to acquire. Not only will this help parents to manage the cost of school uniform, but by extending the life cycle of garments, this will prove more sustainable.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to publish the SEND Review.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Review has been making good progress, but the COVID-19 outbreak has materially altered the context for reform.
The SEND Review continues to work with system experts to make sure we are designing a SEND system fit for the future. We are drawing on the best evidence available to review the system, before publishing proposals for public consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to introduce an alternative funding system for students who are prohibited from taking out interest-based loans.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
I refer the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn to the answer I gave on 21 July 2021 to Question 34011.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the evidence for excluding early years staff from the list of key workers exempt from covid-19 self-isolation rules ahead of the changes proposed for 16 August 2021.
Answered by Vicky Ford
A very limited number of named critical workers will be informed that they are considered to have a reasonable excuse to leave self-isolation to attend work if they are contacts. This scheme will only apply to workers who are fully vaccinated (defined as someone who is 14 days post-second dose) and is solely for the purpose of going to work. The education and childcare workforce are not included in this scheme.