Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with representatives of governors and head-teachers of small primary schools in England on potential mitigation of the effect on their schools of the apprenticeship levy.

We have engaged thousands of employers and training providers throughout the development of the apprenticeship funding reforms and continue to do so. This engagement helped to shape the funding policy proposals for England from May 2017, published on 25 October. We are continuing to work with stakeholders across the education sector to support schools in getting the full benefit of our apprenticeship funding reforms.

Our ongoing engagement includes with local authorities, whose levy contributions will cover the schools they maintain, where they employ the staff. We are clear that local authorities are responsible for working closely with these schools, to agree how the cost of the levy will be fairly spread and to ensure schools contributing to the levy can access the funding for apprenticeship training. My officials continue to support them in doing this.

We have published estimates of levy payments by sector, and previous apprenticeship spending by sector:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/545145/Apprenticeships_-expected_levy_and_total_spend_-_Aug_2016.pdf.