Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of schools that recorded zero young carers in their most recent school census return; and what steps her Department is taking to improve the identification of young carers in schools.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The most recent published census data on young carers is from January 2023, and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23.

You can find the number of young carers in each school in column JF of the school level underlying data file – see ‘School level underlying data - 2022/23 (csv, 22 Mb)’ under the heading ‘Additional supporting files’. 17,093 of the total 21,642 state-funded schools recorded no young carers. Statistics from the January 2024 school census will be published in June.

As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools, except nursery schools, must send this information as part of the Spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. In 2023, 79% of schools recorded no young carers.

Young carers make an enormous contribution in caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure that they are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.

The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023, raising the visibility of young carers in the school system and, in time, providing the department with hard evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes.

The department will be incorporating young carers in the school-level annual school census for independent schools from early 2024 to ensure parity with the school census, which further builds on the department’s data on young carers across the school system.

The government has published information on how and where young carers can get help and support, encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them. As set out in ‘Keeping children safe in education’, the department require Designated Safeguarding Leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, which includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools recorded zero young carers in their most recent school census return.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The most recent published census data on young carers is from January 2023, and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23.

You can find the number of young carers in each school in column JF of the school level underlying data file – see ‘School level underlying data - 2022/23 (csv, 22 Mb)’ under the heading ‘Additional supporting files’. 17,093 of the total 21,642 state-funded schools recorded no young carers. Statistics from the January 2024 school census will be published in June.

As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools, except nursery schools, must send this information as part of the Spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. In 2023, 79% of schools recorded no young carers.

Young carers make an enormous contribution in caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure that they are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.

The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023, raising the visibility of young carers in the school system and, in time, providing the department with hard evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes.

The department will be incorporating young carers in the school-level annual school census for independent schools from early 2024 to ensure parity with the school census, which further builds on the department’s data on young carers across the school system.

The government has published information on how and where young carers can get help and support, encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them. As set out in ‘Keeping children safe in education’, the department require Designated Safeguarding Leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, which includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the projected budget deficit for maintained nursery schools in England in the financial year (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26 by local authority.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The data you requested for the 2021/22 financial year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2021-to-2022-financial-year.

The data for the 2022/23 financial year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.

This data can be found on GOV.UK in Local Authority and School Expenditure data. In summary: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09ae561f-1997-46da-4c66-08dc5d297e6b.

The latest available data is for the 2022/23 financial year and therefore the department is unable to answer the questions related to 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the projected budget deficit for maintained nursery schools in England in the financial year (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The data you requested for the 2021/22 financial year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2021-to-2022-financial-year.

The data for the 2022/23 financial year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.

This data can be found on GOV.UK in Local Authority and School Expenditure data. In summary: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09ae561f-1997-46da-4c66-08dc5d297e6b.

The latest available data is for the 2022/23 financial year and therefore the department is unable to answer the questions related to 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the budget deficit for maintained nursery schools in England in the financial year (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 by local authority.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The data you requested for the 2021/22 financial year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2021-to-2022-financial-year.

The data for the 2022/23 financial year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.

This data can be found on GOV.UK in Local Authority and School Expenditure data. In summary: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09ae561f-1997-46da-4c66-08dc5d297e6b.

The latest available data is for the 2022/23 financial year and therefore the department is unable to answer the questions related to 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the total budget deficit for maintained nursery schools in England in the financial year (a) 2021-22 and b) 2022-23.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The data you requested for the 2021/22 financial year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2021-to-2022-financial-year.

The data for the 2022/23 financial year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.

This data can be found on GOV.UK in Local Authority and School Expenditure data. In summary: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09ae561f-1997-46da-4c66-08dc5d297e6b.

The latest available data is for the 2022/23 financial year and therefore the department is unable to answer the questions related to 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following statistics published on 21 March showing that the percentage of young carers who missed at least ten per cent of school is almost twice as high as that for pupils without caring responsibilities, what steps they are taking to improve the (1) identification of, and (2) support for, young carers in schools.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Young carers make an enormous contribution by caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure young carers are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.

The department introduced The Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations in 2015. This is an assessment of needs, conducted by the local authority which must consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the child or young person to provide care for the person in question, in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. It also helps to determine whether the care which the young carer provides, or intends to provide, impacts on the young carer’s well-being, education and development.

The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023 for the first time and identified 38,983 young carers, raising their visibility in the school system and allowing schools to better identify and support their young carers. This is providing the department with strong evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes. This also provides an annual data collection to establish long-term trends.

As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools (except nursery schools) must send this information as part of the spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. 79% of schools recorded no young carers in 2023.

The department recognises that absence is often a symptom of other problems. The department has a comprehensive support-first strategy to improve attendance, which includes:

• Stronger expectations of schools, trusts and local authorities to work together to tackle absence, which is set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024.
• An attendance data tool allowing early identification and intervention of pupils at risk of persistent absence, which will become mandatory from September 2024.
• The Attendance Action Alliance of system leaders who are working to remove barriers to attendance.
• Appointing Rob Tarn as the new national attendance ambassador to work with school leaders to champion attendance as well as ten expert Attendance Advisers to support local authorities and trusts.
• Expanding the department’s attendance mentor pilot from 5 to 15 areas from September, backed by an additional £15 million and reaching 10,000 children.
• Doubling the number of lead attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32 which will see nearly 2,000 schools supported to tackle persistent absence.
• A national communications campaign aimed to highlight the benefits of attendance and target preventable odd days of absence linked to mild illness, mild anxiety and term-time holidays.

The department is also building a system of family help by reforming children’s social care. The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme is testing how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children, families and young carers receive.

Found: for the Early Years Pupil Premium, Disability Access Fund and supplementary funding for maintained nursery

Found: schools, community special schools, foundation special schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery

Found: schools, community special schools, fo undation special schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery

Found: schools, community special schools, fo undation special schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery

Found: arrangement (RPA) local authority maintained schools (LAMS) Membership rules for community schools, nursery

Found: Schools and Primary Schools) £500 (all other Members) each and every loss other than subsidence

Found: Schools and Primary Schools) £500 (all other Members) each and every loss other than subsidence

Found: Usually, pupil s transfer into primary education at age of 4, but nursery schools can have ‘reception

Found: local authorities (f or community, voluntary -controlled schools, foundation schools and maintained nursery

Found: schools, community special schools, fo undation special schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery

Found: )NotesPupils from January School Census 2023:1.Maintained nursery figures also include direct grant nursery