Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the maximum level of Continuity of Education Allowance payments provided by his Department was for (a) primary and (b) secondary pupils in the UK in 2022-23.

In Financial Year 2022/23 FCDO allocated funding of £13,796,075 to Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for 514 children in boarding schools in the UK. In Financial Year 2022/23 FCDO allocated funding of £24,137,116 to 1188 children in education overseas.

Legacy FCO and legacy DFID have slightly different provisions in relation to education of children when staff are serving overseas and bringing these together into a single policy provision is one aspect of the alignment of Terms and Conditions of Service work currently underway in the FCDO.

In legacy FCO, it was a condition of their employment that members of the diplomatic service must be prepared to serve anywhere in the world at any time during their career, sometimes at very short notice. It is long-standing practice that the legacy FCO provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education. Many parents prefer to take their children with them when they are posted abroad and are required to ensure that their children receive a full-time education from the start of the school term beginning after the child's 5th birthday, continuing until they reach school leaving age. In countries where there is no suitable free English language based schooling available (currently all countries except Australia, New Zealand and the United States), Legacy FCO will meet the costs of schooling, where available, at an appropriate English language school in the city of posting.

However, there are a number of countries, where we do not permit staff to take their children for health or security reasons. In others, local schools of an acceptable standard are not available. Additionally frequent moves by staff and families between the UK and overseas, and between posts overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children, therefore, legacy FCO provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to support the children's education. This allows eligible staff to claim for termly tuition fees up to the agreed ceiling, school registration fees, deposits and examination costs. Where school fees exceed the ceiling, staff are required to meet the difference. The allowance is implemented within a strict governance framework and is reviewed regularly.

CEA is a long-standing policy run under successive governments since 1996, and I refer the Right Honourable Member to PQ [60896] which outlines departmental spend on private schooling for the children of its staff between 1997 and 2005. CEA enables staff who continue to meet certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an education for their children at a British boarding school in the UK while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. Without CEA, we would be restricting certain diplomatic roles for individuals without families, narrowing opportunities to have a successful career in our diplomatic service.

The ceilings for the 2022/23 school year are (per term, 3-term school year):

The breakdown of funding per school for Financial Year 2022/23 is as follows: