Found: non-compulsory Nursery education for children from age 3 and the secondary school offers sixth

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the local authorities in (a) City of Bristol, (b) Camden, (c) Haringey, (d) Kingston upon Thames, (e) Richmond upon Thames, (f) Southwark, (g) Stockport and (h) Surrey on capital funding for additional state school sixth form places above those planned before July 2024.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Local authorities have broad duties to encourage, enable and assist young people to participate in education or training. This includes a duty to secure enough suitable education and training provision to meet the reasonable needs of all young people in their area who are over compulsory school age but under 19 or aged 19 or over and for whom an education, health and care plan is maintained. As regards sixth form places, if approached by a local authority, the department will discuss options with them to support them to meet their statutory duties.

The post-16 capacity fund provides funding to schools and colleges, including in Stockport and Surrey, to ensure there is enough capital capacity in schools and colleges to accommodate the demographic increases in 16 to 19 learners. It has made available £238 million in capital funding since 2021.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of state school sixth forms are (a) at and (b) over capacity in (i) City of Bristol, (ii) Camden, (iii) Haringey, (iv) Kingston upon Thames, (v) Richmond upon Thames, (vi) Southwark, (vii) Stockport and (viii) Surrey.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Information on state-funded school places as at May 2023 is published at local authority level in the annual School Capacity statistics publication, which can be found at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. School level data for sixth form capacity and number on roll is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/ee325991-147a-4e4d-ba55-8dd5fdc8d160. This can be used to identify schools at, or over, capacity, and then the proportion of schools within a local authority can be calculated.

The number of sixth form pupils on roll is higher than the reported capacity in: (i) five of the ten school sixth forms in the City of Bristol (50%), (ii) all ten of the school sixth forms in Camden (100%), (iii) three of the six school sixth forms in Haringey (50%), (iv) four of the ten school sixth forms in Kingston upon Thames (40%), (v) five of the ten school sixth forms in Richmond upon Thames (50%), (vi) six of the 15 school sixth forms in Southwark (40%), (vii) the only school sixth form in Stockport (100%) and (viii) 11 of the 28 school sixth forms in Surrey (39%).

School sixth forms often have higher numbers on roll than reported capacity, due to the subjects offered and timetabling.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many funded enrolments there were on each of the courses for 16 to 19 year olds that will have funding withdrawn after 1 August 2024 in each financial year since 2021-22.

Answered by Luke Hall

The exact information requested is not published. Data on the number of enrolments in the 2020/21 academic year, funded through 16 to 19 study programmes on each of the qualifications that will be defunded from 1 August 2024, is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualifications-that-overlap-with-t-levels.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 24 of the report by the Edge Foundation entitled Advancing British standards? Exploring public attitudes towards a baccalaureate-style 16-18 education system, published in April 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential breadth of the Level 3 technical qualifications offer that can be taken alongside A levels.

Answered by Luke Hall

​​The Advanced British Standard (ABS) is designed to provide students with greater breadth and access to a single menu of high quality and distinct subjects, each with a clear purpose. Students will have the freedom to take a mix of technical and academic subjects, which gives them more flexibility over their future career options.

​All students taking the ABS will study English and maths to age 18, either as theoretical or applied, depending on their interests and future goals.

​The ongoing qualification reforms will pave the way for the future ABS, removing duplicate, low quality courses, that do not deliver the skills employers need. T Levels will form the core of the occupational routes within the ABS. The department is currently reforming applied general qualifications to ensure that other technical qualifications are based on employer designed, occupational standards not covered by T Levels, such as Travel Consultant, Highways electrician, and Personal trainer. This will pave the way for the inclusion of subjects within the ABS.

​​As highlighted in the Edge Foundation’s report, the ABS requires an increase to teaching hours. The department will increase the number of taught hours by an extra 15% for most 16 to 19-year-olds, against the current average funded time of 1280 hours over two years. This will mean students receive at least 1,475 hours over two years, including industry placements. This enables the department to retain the depth and rigour to support progression to further study, apprenticeships and work, while giving students the breadth they need to succeed in an ever changing economy

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of sixth form places in the London Borough of Havering.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department launched a second round of the post-16 capacity fund in September 2022. This made up to £140 million available to provide additional capacity in 16-19 providers, in areas where there is due to be a demographic increase in students in September 2024 and there is not enough existing capacity to accommodate that increase. We will announce the outcome this spring. Successful projects are expected to complete and accommodate additional students from September 2024.

Havering Sixth Form Campus is part of New City College, and supports a wide range of learning options for 16-18 year olds in the borough, as promoted by our further education skills reform agenda, more employment focused learning, technical education through T Levels, and a wide range of apprenticeships.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes to Level 3 Qualifications on the education of 16 to 18 year-olds.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has published impact assessments to reflect the potential effect of reforms to Level 3, post-16 qualifications in England on the education of 16 to 19 year olds.

The most recent impact assessment, published in March 2023, provides an overview of the potential effects on students aged 16 to 19 resulting from the proposed removal of public funding approval from those qualifications that have been assessed as overlapping with T Levels. This can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1146228/EIA_updated_final_wave_1_2_T_Level_overlap_inc_Health_and_Science.pdf.

A further impact assessment, published in July 2022, which reflects all planned reforms to qualifications at Level 3, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to sixth-forms to transition from providing BTECs to T-Levels, including with securing industry placements.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has extensive packages of support available to ensure schools with sixth forms, sixth form colleges and other providers are prepared to deliver T Levels. This includes:

• One-to-one support with implementation, planning, and access to networks of other providers offering T Levels.
• Up-front funding for the additional hours involved in teaching a T Level and funding to support delivery of industry placements.
• A full range of T Level professional development programme resources and support, including the T Level Professional Development Programme available to all teachers that will teach T Levels.
• Tailored advice and support to providers to deliver industry placements.
• Over £400 million in capital funding made available to T Level providers, to bid for new and refurbished buildings and to fund specialist equipment.

The department has invested £245 million over the past four years to help providers prepare for industry placements and build relationships with local employers. We recently announced a £12 million employer support fund to reimburse employers for the costs of offering placements. The ‘Connect with employers interested in T Levels’ service enables providers to find employers in their area.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 19 year olds withdrew from their (a) sixth form and (b) further education courses in academic years (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 to date.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has published retention data for students at the end of 16-18 study by institution type. The latest data available is for the 2020/21 academic year, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2020-21. The retention rate is the proportion of students who are retained to the end of the ‘core aim’ (or main learning aim) of their study programme at a school or college.

Retention data for 2021/22 will be published on 30 March 2023 in the next update and will be available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2022-revised--2.

Since 2010, the department has put in place a range of policies that have significantly reduced the quantity of young people designated as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). The proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds NEET in 2022 was 12.3%, which is down 3.2 percentage points since 2010. This information can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2022.

Found: Federation Trust Hammersmith Academy Trust Hampton Academies Trust Hamwic Education Trust Haringey Sixth

Found: School WiltshireHarefield Academy Trust 5051218The Harefield Academy - Uxbridge HillingdonHaringey Sixth

Found: The case you make for sixth form education is forthright – but it is backed by the evidence.