Children: Health

(asked on 6th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of UNICEF ranking the UK 27 out of 38 OECD and EU countries for mental wellbeing, physical health and academic and social skills.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 15th January 2021

The government has made the attainment, health and wellbeing of children and young people a priority. Many of the challenges set out require a cross-government approach.

School standards in England have improved overall since 2010. 86% of schools are now rated good or outstanding – up from 68% in 2010. Over the last 9 years, the percentage of children meeting expectations in the phonics screening check has gone up from 58% to 82%. We achieved our highest ever score in an international assessment of reading in 2016. There has been a 9-percentage point rise in key stage 2 maths results since new tests were introduced in 2016, and a significant improvement in maths scores for 15 year olds in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international test results, driven by a decrease in the number of low attainers. Results from the Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 international test results show our year 5 and year 9 pupils continue to perform strongly on the international stage - we particularly welcome the significant improvement in attainment for our year 5 pupils since 2015.

We are reforming the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and over 3,000 schools are early adopters this year. We have strengthened the high-level curriculum summaries and early learning goals, including a focus on areas we know are key predictors of later success: communication and language, literacy and mathematics.

The government plans to invest over £7 billion during 2020/21 academic year, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19-year-old who wants one (this includes spending on apprenticeships). Provision is funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which works with local authorities to ensure that provision meets the needs of young people in their area.

Under Raising the Participation Age (RPA) requirements, all young people in England are now required to continue in education or training until at least their 18th birthday. In practice most young people continue until the end of the academic year in which they turn 18. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/raising-the-participation-age.

The Department for Education (DfE) works closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. There is a joint programme overseeing the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision green paper. This includes the provision of mental health support teams linked to groups of schools and colleges and part of a wider NHS England investment in children and young people’s mental health, which is transforming how specialist services are provided and make links to other services.

DfE also works closely with DHSC and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) on physical health, contributing to the government’s childhood obesity plan. The healthy schools rating scheme celebrates the positive actions that schools are delivering in terms of healthy living, healthy eating and physical activity, and supports schools in identifying further actions that they can take in this area.

The School sport and activity action plan sets out how we are working to support the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation that all children and young people should have access to 60 minutes a day of physical activity. We have also introduced a new curriculum covering relationships, sex and health education, which became mandatory from September 2020 and means that all pupils will be taught about ways to be physically and mentally healthy and about healthy relationships with their peers.

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