Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding allocations her Department provides for schools outside the voluntary aided and state sector.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department allocates various funding streams in respect of pupils of compulsory school age (5-16) in schools outside the voluntary aided and state sector. Some of these streams also apply to pupils aged above 16. For the purposes of this response, maintained schools, academies (including free schools), and community technical colleges are considered to be part of the state sector. Where funding is provided to schools outside the state sector, it is predominantly provided to non-maintained special schools (NMSS) and, in some cases, to independent schools in respect of pupils for whom a Local Authority pay full tuition fees.
High needs place funding is allocated to non-maintained special schools (NMSS) directly by the Department and paid at £10,000 per place. Further details on high needs place funding is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-allocated-place-numbers. The total place funding for NMSS for the 2022/23 academic year was £38 million. Local Authorities also spend a portion of their high needs block allocations on placements in NMSS and independent schools. Further detail at Local Authority level is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/section-251-materials.
The Pupil Premium grant provides additional funding for NMSS for raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to help them reach their potential, and provides support for pupils with parents in the regular armed forces. The Pupil Premium grant is also provided for eligible pupils in independent schools, where the Local Authority pays full tuition fees. Allocations are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
The Department provides funding for tutoring through the National Tutoring Programme. It is provided to NMSS, and to Local Authorities for eligible pupils in independent special schools, where the Local Authority pays full tuition fees. Allocations are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2023-to-2024-academic-year.
The PE and Sport Premium is a ring-fenced grant to primary schools, and other educational establishments with primary aged children, including NMSS. Further details are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-conditions-of-grant-2022-to-2023.
The Recovery Premium is a time limited grant which is providing over £300 million of additional funding for schools in the 2021/22 academic year and £1 billion across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. It is provided to NMSS, and to Local Authorities for eligible pupils in independent special schools, where the Local Authority pays full tuition fees. Details on allocations and conditions of the grant are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-recovery-premium-funding-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2022-to-2023.
NMSS receive Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) funding, as they have a duty to provide free school meals to eligible pupils. This includes the provision of UIFSM to pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Provisional allocations to NMSS for UIFSM amounted to £34,000 for the 2022/23 academic year.
The Department also provides capital funding for schools outside the voluntary aided and state sector. In March 2022, the Department announced £1.4 billion in High Needs Provisional Capital Allocations to support Local Authorities to deliver new places for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years and improve existing provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities or who require Alternative Provision. It is for Local Authorities to determine how to use this funding to address their local priorities, but they can use this funding for new places in any school or institution in their area, including NMSS. Further details are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-provision-capital-allocations.
The Department further allocates condition funding to NMSS to support them in keeping their buildings safe and well maintained. Details of funding allocations are available at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1155676%2FSchool_capital_funding_allocations_for_2023_to_2024.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK. In the 2023/24 financial year, NMSS were allocated £3,000,000 in school condition allocations to invest in the condition of their buildings, and £410,000 in devolved formula capital for smaller capital projects.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department made available to Solihull Council through the Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grants.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is offering a grant to all state schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead, helping settings to develop their approach to mental health and wellbeing. Senior lead training grants are paid to eligible schools and colleges once they have completed their application and provided evidence of booking a department quality-assured course.
The department publishes a list of schools and colleges that have claimed a senior mental health lead training grant, updated throughout the year. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. This data confirms that 64 grants were paid in 2021/22 to schools and colleges in Solihull local authority and 8 were paid in 2022/23, totalling £86,400 in grants to date.
The department also provided Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grants to local authorities in 2020 to 2022, to provide additional support to state-funded schools and colleges to enable education staff to promote and support the wellbeing and mental health of pupils and students during the return to schools and in the COVID-19 pandemic recovery period.
Solihull local authority received a Wellbeing for Education Return grant of £29,994 in 2020/21, and a further Wellbeing for Education Recovery grant of £26,233 in 2021/22, amounting to a total of £56,227. This data can be obtained from the tables published in the Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grant determination letter, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Solihull Council through the Wellbeing for Education Recovery Grant.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is offering a grant to all state schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead, helping settings to develop their approach to mental health and wellbeing. Senior lead training grants are paid to eligible schools and colleges once they have completed their application and provided evidence of booking a department quality-assured course.
The department publishes a list of schools and colleges that have claimed a senior mental health lead training grant, updated throughout the year. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. This data confirms that 64 grants were paid in 2021/22 to schools and colleges in Solihull local authority and 8 were paid in 2022/23, totalling £86,400 in grants to date.
The department also provided Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grants to local authorities in 2020 to 2022, to provide additional support to state-funded schools and colleges to enable education staff to promote and support the wellbeing and mental health of pupils and students during the return to schools and in the COVID-19 pandemic recovery period.
Solihull local authority received a Wellbeing for Education Return grant of £29,994 in 2020/21, and a further Wellbeing for Education Recovery grant of £26,233 in 2021/22, amounting to a total of £56,227. This data can be obtained from the tables published in the Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grant determination letter, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Solihull Council through the Summer Schools Grant.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
As part of the department’s almost £5 billion education recovery package to support children and young people of all ages in catching up on missed education and development, funding was made available for demand-led summer schools in summer 2021 so children, particularly those in transitionary years, could access some of the fundamental teaching and enrichment activities that are so vitally important to development.
The allocations made available to each eligible secondary school by local authority in England, can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-summer-schools-programme-funding.
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council was allocated a maximum of £122,802.90 for its maintained schools. This funding was demand-led and, overall, claims for actual costs was less than that allocated.
Maintained schools received their funding via the local authority, and academies received their funding directly in the October/November 2021 funding round.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in the London Borough of Brent received what funding from the National Tutoring Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has published school-level information on funding provided through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for the 2022/23 academic year. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2022-to-2023-academic-year. This information includes the Local Authority of each school that received funding.
Information for the 2021/22 academic year is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-led-tutoring-conditions-of-grant. This information includes funding provided to schools during the 2021/22 academic year and the net funding position for each school following recovery of any unspent funding. This information applies to school-led tutoring only.
School-led tutoring accounted for 84% of the NTP courses delivered in the 2021/22 academic year in the London Borough of Brent. Data on funding received by schools that employed Academic Mentors in the first year of the programme is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a requirement that schools assign an attendance code to register pupils not attending for reasons relating to the long-term effects of coronavirus.
Answered by Nick Gibb
COVID-19 had a significant effect on pupils' wellbeing, education and attendance, and the Government recognises that the health of some students continues to be affected.
The national attendance and absence codes enable schools to record and monitor attendance and absence in a consistent way and are used to collect statistics through the school census system.
It has been a longstanding practice that where a pupil is absent due to illness, schools will use code I (illness) to record the absence. Illness is not broken down to include specific types of illness, and the Government has no plans to change this for any single condition.
The Department continues to monitor the effect of COVID-19 through a range of channels, including the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey, and support the recovery of children and young people from the disruption of COVID-19 through a multi-year programme with almost £5 billion made available for education recovery.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact of levels of (a) covid-19 in the general population, (b) staff absences and (c) pupil absences on the current guidance on covid-19 to schools and parents.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Government has moved to managing COVID-19 like other respiratory infections given the high immunity in society, a greater understanding of the virus and improved access to treatments.
The Department does not hold information on the potential costs to schools of supply teaching and support staff absences in the autumn term due to COVID-19. Head teachers are best placed to determine the workforce required to meet the needs of pupils and in the case of staff absence, in the first instance schools should follow their usual process for covering absences.
The Department previously collected data on staff and pupil absences through the Educational Setting status form (EdSet), which helped to support our response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department is always mindful of balancing the need for data collections with the burdens we place on those collating it, and since the start of the 2022/23 academic year the EdSet form has been closed and schools are no longer being asked to complete it. Data on attendance in education settings during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here: Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Week 30 2022 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly reports on the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in private residential households, which can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK Statistical bulletins - Office for National Statistics.
The Department have also been working to establish a better, more timely flow of pupil level attendance data across schools, trusts, local authorities, without placing any additional administrative burdens on schools. Most state-funded schools across the country have now signed up. This will allow data to be collected directly from all schools’ electronic registers and will help the department, schools, local authorities and trusts to identify pupils who need most support to attend.
Attendance reports will help schools and local authorities make better use of attendance data to identify those in need of support earlier, as outlined in the new attendance guidance. They will also help the Department respond to national and regional issues. A report on how the data is used can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/share-your-daily-school-attendance-data.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the ratio of (a) staff and (b) pupil absences compared to levels of covid-19 in the general population over the period of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Government has moved to managing COVID-19 like other respiratory infections given the high immunity in society, a greater understanding of the virus and improved access to treatments.
The Department does not hold information on the potential costs to schools of supply teaching and support staff absences in the autumn term due to COVID-19. Head teachers are best placed to determine the workforce required to meet the needs of pupils and in the case of staff absence, in the first instance schools should follow their usual process for covering absences.
The Department previously collected data on staff and pupil absences through the Educational Setting status form (EdSet), which helped to support our response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department is always mindful of balancing the need for data collections with the burdens we place on those collating it, and since the start of the 2022/23 academic year the EdSet form has been closed and schools are no longer being asked to complete it. Data on attendance in education settings during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here: Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Week 30 2022 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly reports on the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in private residential households, which can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK Statistical bulletins - Office for National Statistics.
The Department have also been working to establish a better, more timely flow of pupil level attendance data across schools, trusts, local authorities, without placing any additional administrative burdens on schools. Most state-funded schools across the country have now signed up. This will allow data to be collected directly from all schools’ electronic registers and will help the department, schools, local authorities and trusts to identify pupils who need most support to attend.
Attendance reports will help schools and local authorities make better use of attendance data to identify those in need of support earlier, as outlined in the new attendance guidance. They will also help the Department respond to national and regional issues. A report on how the data is used can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/share-your-daily-school-attendance-data.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the potential costs to schools of supply teaching and support staff absences in the autumn term due to Covid.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Government has moved to managing COVID-19 like other respiratory infections given the high immunity in society, a greater understanding of the virus and improved access to treatments.
The Department does not hold information on the potential costs to schools of supply teaching and support staff absences in the autumn term due to COVID-19. Head teachers are best placed to determine the workforce required to meet the needs of pupils and in the case of staff absence, in the first instance schools should follow their usual process for covering absences.
The Department previously collected data on staff and pupil absences through the Educational Setting status form (EdSet), which helped to support our response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department is always mindful of balancing the need for data collections with the burdens we place on those collating it, and since the start of the 2022/23 academic year the EdSet form has been closed and schools are no longer being asked to complete it. Data on attendance in education settings during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found here: Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Week 30 2022 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly reports on the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in private residential households, which can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK Statistical bulletins - Office for National Statistics.
The Department have also been working to establish a better, more timely flow of pupil level attendance data across schools, trusts, local authorities, without placing any additional administrative burdens on schools. Most state-funded schools across the country have now signed up. This will allow data to be collected directly from all schools’ electronic registers and will help the department, schools, local authorities and trusts to identify pupils who need most support to attend.
Attendance reports will help schools and local authorities make better use of attendance data to identify those in need of support earlier, as outlined in the new attendance guidance. They will also help the Department respond to national and regional issues. A report on how the data is used can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/share-your-daily-school-attendance-data.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Government provides to schools to help them protect extremely clinically vulnerable (a) students and (b) staff from covid-19.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Most people identified as clinically extremely vulnerable are now well protected after receiving their primary and booster vaccination doses. An additional booster is now also being offered to all those aged five or above who are either at higher clinical risk from COVID-19 or who live with individuals at higher clinical risk, as part of the current autumn booster programme.
This guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-safely-with-respiratory-infections-including-covid-19.
There remains a smaller number of people who, despite vaccination, are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. This is due to a weakened immune system or other medical conditions that require enhanced protections such as those offered by antibody and antiviral treatments, additional vaccinations, and potentially other non-clinical interventions.
Children and young people with weakened immune systems should follow the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)’s advice for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk from COVID-19.
The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk.
Where staff, children, pupils or children have received advice from a specialist or clinician, they should follow this advice. This may be set out in an education, health and care plan.
In schools, given the low risk to children and young people, high levels of vaccination among the UK population, and a dominant variant that continues to be milder than in the past, public health advice is that there is no longer a need for specific COVID-19 guidance. Instead, UKSHA advise that COVID-19 can be managed like other respiratory infections. Schools should therefore be following the public health guidance set out by UKHSA.
This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-in-schools-and-other-childcare-facilities.
Over the last year, backed by £25 million in government funding, the Department has provided 386,699 CO2 monitors to state-funded education providers, including early years, schools and further education providers. CO2 monitors can support schools to identify poor areas of ventilation which will provide further reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, especially over the winter months. As well as helping to identify areas that are poorly ventilated, CO2 monitors can be useful to help education providers balance good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm.
Where an area of poor ventilation has been identified that cannot be resolved through simple measures such as opening doors and windows, it may be appropriate for education providers to consider the use of an air cleaning unit while the underlying ventilation issue is addressed. In January, the Government committed to fulfil all eligible applications for air cleaning units to state-funded education settings for poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation were not possible. All eligible applications received have been fulfilled, with 8,026 air cleaning units distributed by 24 June 2022. All units delivered use high efficiency particulate air.
The Department will continue to review any emerging evidence, public health guidance, and advice to help ensure that schools remain as safe as possible.