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Written Question
Curriculum
Tuesday 30th April 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance is given to schools in the maintained sector to ensure that they teach a broad and balanced curriculum.

Answered by Nick Gibb

All state schools (including academies and free schools) must offer a school curriculum which is balanced and broadly based and which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Maintained schools in England must follow the statutory National Curriculum and are also free to teach any other subject or topic they deem relevant for their pupils, as part of the school’s curriculum. Guidance on all requirements is set out in the National Curriculum framework for Key Stages 1 to 4:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4.

The National Curriculum was introduced in September 2014 and the guidance specifies that all state schools (including academies) should also make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).

Ofsted have consulted on their inspection arrangements. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the new framework will be published in May and introduced in September. The proposals retain a strong emphasis on schools providing a broad and balanced curriculum for all their pupils.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Visual Impairment
Monday 29th April 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the increase in funding for special needs provision meets the needs of the visually impaired.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The Children and Families Act (2014) requires local authorities to work with parents, young people, and providers to keep the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities under review, including its sufficiency.

We do not prescribe in detail how local authorities should allocate their high needs funding. In consultation with schools and other services, local authorities should consider carefully how best to meet the needs of children and young people in their area, including those with vision impairment.

To support local authorities, in December 2018 we announced an additional £250 million high needs funding up to 2020, on top of the funding increases we had already committed. This brings the total allocated for high needs in 2019-2020 to £6.3 billion and will help local authorities to manage the significant pressures on their high needs budgets.


Written Question
Arts: English Baccalaureate
Thursday 25th April 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the English Baccalaureate on the take-up of creative arts disciplines.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is clear that the EBaccalaureate (EBacc) should be studied as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. It has been designed to be limited in size in order to allow pupils to continue to study additional subjects that reflect their individual interests and strengths, including arts subjects.

The attached table shows that the proportion of young people taking at least one arts GCSE since 2010 has fluctuated across years, but has remained broadly stable. According to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport’s Taking Part Survey, in 2017/18, 96% of children aged 5-15 had engaged with the arts in the past 12 months[1].

[1] Arts covers music activities, theatre, drama, reading, writing, arts crafts and design, film/video/media/radio activities, dance activities, street arts/circus/carnival/festival activities.


Written Question
Arts: Education
Thursday 25th April 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the take-up of creative arts disciplines has been in each year since 2014-15.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is clear that the EBaccalaureate (EBacc) should be studied as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. It has been designed to be limited in size in order to allow pupils to continue to study additional subjects that reflect their individual interests and strengths, including arts subjects.

The attached table shows that the proportion of young people taking at least one arts GCSE since 2010 has fluctuated across years, but has remained broadly stable. According to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport’s Taking Part Survey, in 2017/18, 96% of children aged 5-15 had engaged with the arts in the past 12 months[1].

[1] Arts covers music activities, theatre, drama, reading, writing, arts crafts and design, film/video/media/radio activities, dance activities, street arts/circus/carnival/festival activities.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Finance
Tuesday 12th March 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he plans to have with Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that the upcoming spending review provides funding is adequately weighted towards special needs provision.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

Ministers and officials from the department hold regular discussions with colleagues at Her Majesty's Treasury and other government departments on all aspects of schools funding, including funding for special educational needs (SEN). We will of course be looking to secure the right outcome for children and young people with SEN in the forthcoming Spending Review.


Written Question
Visual Impairment: Education
Tuesday 12th March 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help ensure that visually impaired young people can access learning materials adapted to their particular reading need.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people, including:

  • to make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage;
  • not to discriminate in relation to their disability; and
  • to publish accessibility plans setting out how they plan to increase access for disabled pupils to the curriculum, the physical environment and to information. Local authorities have parallel duties to publish accessibility strategies.

Complementing this, the Children and Families Act 2014 places duties on schools to use their ‘best endeavours’ to make special education provision for those who need it, many of whom will have disabilities.

Taken together, this amounts to a range of exacting duties on schools in relation to disability.

To support schools in meeting those duties, in relation to vision impairment and more broadly, we are providing £3.4 million funding over 2018-2020, for the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools’ workforce contract, which will be delivered by the Whole School SEND consortium, led by nasen. Our aim is to embed SEND into school-led approaches to School Improvement in order to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND. As part of this programme of work, we are also reviewing the learning outcomes of specialist SEND qualifications, including the mandatory qualifications for teachers of classes with vision impairment, to ensure they reflect the changing needs of the education system.


Written Question
Department for Education: Brexit
Monday 21st January 2019

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money his Department has allocated for preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal to date; how much of that funding has been made by way of ministerial direction; and for what functions that funding has been allocated.

Answered by Anne Milton

Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:

  • £412 million of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.


Written Question
Apprentices: Finance
Thursday 19th October 2017

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the revenue raised by the Apprenticeship Levy will be allocated to fund apprenticeships with non-levy employers.

Answered by Anne Milton

Spending by levy-paying employers and non-levy paying employers on apprenticeship training and assessment depends on demand for, and cost of, apprenticeships that employers themselves choose.

In England, employers who pay the levy can use funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to pay for training and assessment. Funds enter employers’ accounts every month based on the amount of Apprenticeship Levy declared, the proportion of their pay to employees living in England and a 10% top-up applied from Government.

For non-levy paying employers, government funding is awarded to training providers under contract. We launched a procurement at the end of July which closed in early September. Through this procurement exercise, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will make available at least £440m of funding over 15 months for new apprenticeship starts from 1 January 2018.

By 2019-20 funding available for apprenticeships in England will be £2.45 billion; double what was spent in 2010-11.


Written Question
Apprentices: Finance
Thursday 19th October 2017

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the total money raised by the Apprenticeship Levy will be allocated to levy-paying companies for their own apprenticeship training schemes.

Answered by Anne Milton

Spending by levy-paying employers and non-levy paying employers on apprenticeship training and assessment depends on demand for, and cost of, apprenticeships that employers themselves choose.

In England, employers who pay the levy can use funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to pay for training and assessment. Funds enter employers’ accounts every month based on the amount of Apprenticeship Levy declared, the proportion of their pay to employees living in England and a 10% top-up applied from Government.

For non-levy paying employers, government funding is awarded to training providers under contract. We launched a procurement at the end of July which closed in early September. Through this procurement exercise, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will make available at least £440m of funding over 15 months for new apprenticeship starts from 1 January 2018.

By 2019-20 funding available for apprenticeships in England will be £2.45 billion; double what was spent in 2010-11.


Written Question
Apprentices: Finance
Thursday 19th October 2017

Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment she has made of registered training providers in receipt of (a) less, (b) the same, (c) more funding in real terms per apprenticeship start in the period (i) May to December 2017 and (ii) August 2016 to April 2017.

Answered by Anne Milton

We have not undertaken an assessment of this type. We continue to monitor closely the impact of the apprenticeship funding reforms introduced in May 2017 on employers and providers.