Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to discourage employers in the independent schools sector from using dismissal and re-engagement to withdraw teachers from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Answered by Robin Walker
Independent schools participate in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme voluntarily and are therefore free to leave the scheme if they wish to do so. The way they manage such a move, with their teaching staff, is an employment matter rather than a pension related one. The department does not have any powers to interfere but does encourage encourage employers to consult with their staff appropriately, including over alternative pension arrangements, through the Teachers’ Pension Scheme administrator. Employers are also encouraged to take employment law advice before proceeding with moves to leave the scheme.
The department has recently implemented new regulations, following engagement with the independent education sector, to support independent schools to continue in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the support available to adoptive families and birth parents engaging in letterbox contact.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a legal duty to provide a comprehensive adoption service.
This specifically includes assistance, including mediation services, in relation to arrangements for contact between an adoptive child and a natural parent, natural sibling, former guardian or a related person of the adoptive child.
As set out in our recently published ‘Adoption Strategy: achieving excellence everywhere’ we will be working with local authorities and regional adoption agencies to improve support around contact with birth relatives, including letterbox contact. This will include working closely with birth parents and those with lived experiences. More details on how funding from the Spending Review will be used will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to involve people with lived experience in the Adoption Strategy review of contact arrangements between adopted children and birth parents.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a legal duty to provide a comprehensive adoption service.
This specifically includes assistance, including mediation services, in relation to arrangements for contact between an adoptive child and a natural parent, natural sibling, former guardian or a related person of the adoptive child.
As set out in our recently published ‘Adoption Strategy: achieving excellence everywhere’ we will be working with local authorities and regional adoption agencies to improve support around contact with birth relatives, including letterbox contact. This will include working closely with birth parents and those with lived experiences. More details on how funding from the Spending Review will be used will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the £7 million made available in the 2021 Spending Review to improve adoption support will be spent; and what proportion will be allocated to improving the letterbox contact system.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a legal duty to provide a comprehensive adoption service.
This specifically includes assistance, including mediation services, in relation to arrangements for contact between an adoptive child and a natural parent, natural sibling, former guardian or a related person of the adoptive child.
As set out in our recently published ‘Adoption Strategy: achieving excellence everywhere’ we will be working with local authorities and regional adoption agencies to improve support around contact with birth relatives, including letterbox contact. This will include working closely with birth parents and those with lived experiences. More details on how funding from the Spending Review will be used will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 student nurses who are required to work a weekly minimum of 16 hours in the NHS but do not receive a job-related income.
Answered by Will Quince
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.
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 here: https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds.
30 hours free childcare is an entitlement for working parents of three and four-year-olds, with the aim of helping working parents with childcare costs 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).
With regards 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 already introduced new maintenance funding for many healthcare courses. In September 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care introduced the new, non-repayable, training grant of at least £5,000 per academic year, for all eligible new and continuing pre-registration nursing, midwifery and most allied health profession students studying at English universities.
There is a further £2,000 available for parental support, available for eligible students attending a full-time pre-registration healthcare course. More information can be found here: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund/parental-support-formerly-child-dependants-allowance. This grant is in addition to funding provided by the Students Loans Company.
This generous support package enables healthcare students to focus on their studies and placements and contributes to alleviating any financial pressures students might be facing.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of early years practitioners working in (a) children's centres and (b) family hubs.
Answered by Will Quince
Children’s Centres are required to provide access to early education and childcare (either by providing services on site or by providing advice and assistance on gaining access to services elsewhere). The majority of children’s centres do not provide early education and childcare on site.
In January 2021, there were 2,341 staff working in Sure Start Children’s Centres that provided funded early education, as set out in the ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age, January 2021’ release, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/36b29c63-0881-4bfe-a0e9-ade8580ca511.
The department does not hold data on the total number of early years practitioners working in children’s centres and family hubs.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 August 2021 to Question 41094 on Children in Care, if he will publish the data on how many looked after children from England are placed outside of England, by the country where they are placed.
Answered by Will Quince
For looked after children placed outside England, figures held centrally can only be broken down as being placed in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or outside the UK.
I refer the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn to the answer given on 7 September 2021 to Question 41093. These are the latest available figures.
Statistics on children looked after in 2020/21 are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2021.