Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the High Needs National Formula for pupils with additional support needs to reduce regional disparities.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is taking time to consider the various funding formulae that both it and local authorities use to allocate funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.
Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year have not yet been set, which means that decisions on the high needs and schools national funding formulae, as well as the publication of allocations for that year, are not to the usual timescales. The department will publish information as soon as possible after the Budget announcement on 30 October.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 7 October 2024 to Question 5661 on Private Education: VAT, whether her Department has made a specific assessment of the potential impact of the policy on children with special educational needs in the independent sector.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy and will confirm the introduction of these changes at the Budget on 30 October. The Office for Budget Responsibility will also certify the government’s costings for these measures at that time.
Children with education, health and care plans that provide a necessary local authority funded place at a private school, will not be impacted by this policy. This is because local authorities can reclaim VAT on service expenditure through existing routes.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies assumes a net gain to the public finances of £1.3 to 1.5 billion per year in the medium to long run as a result of removing tax exemptions from private schools. This would allow for about a 2% increase in state school spending in England. This analysis can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Opening School Facilities funding programme beyond March 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity to enable every child to achieve and thrive, including through expanding access to sport and physical activity. This will support our cross-government missions and help to raise the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever.
Funding beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn. The outcome of the review will be communicated in due course.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the (a) availability and (b) affordability of childcare in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care to improve the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.
From September 2024, eligible working parents of children age nine months and above have been able to access 15 hours childcare a week for 38 weeks a year. From September 2025, this entitlement will be extended to 30 hours a week. The department is also growing the provision of wraparound childcare, which is before and after school provision, for primary school children.
In 2024/25, the department expects to provide over £1.7 billion to support local authorities and providers deliver the childcare expansion. This will rise to over £4.1 billion in 2027/28. By the same year, we expect to be providing over £8 billion every year overall on new and existing early years entitlements.
For Lincolnshire County Council, the hourly rate for three to four year olds for 2024/25 is £5.47, which is an increase of 5.2% on 2023/24. For 2 year olds, this rate is £7.61 per hour and for under 2s, £10.36 per hour.
In addition to the entitlements, parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare. Parents can check what childcare support they are entitled to via the Childcare Choices website, which is accessible at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England on their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, including supporting them through our childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
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Source Page: Department for Education establishes Science Advisory CouncilFound: scientific advice – helping the department’s work to break down the barriers to opportunity by protecting children