Asked by: Baroness Blower (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many safeguarding concerns have been recorded regarding unregistered alternative providers in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold information about the mean and median amounts spent by a school or local authority on an unregistered alternative provider place in England for (a) pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan, (b) pupils classified as a Child In Need, (c) Pupil Premium Pupils, and (d) pupils excluded from school. Commissioning arrangements are managed directly by schools and local authorities who require the provision, and they do not report their expenditure at the level of detail requested.
The department also does not routinely collect data on the number of safeguarding concerns that have taken place in unregistered APs. Commissioners are responsible for the AP they use and ensuring that it is safe.
The Alternative Provision (AP) statutory guidance is clear that AP, including unregistered AP, should be good quality, registered where appropriate, and delivered by high quality staff with suitable training, experience and safeguarding checks. The guidance can be found in the attached document. Responsibility for the AP used rests with the commissioner. The nature of the intervention, its objectives and the timeline to achieve these objectives should be agreed and clearly defined.
Some local authorities or partnerships of schools have developed a local directory of ‘approved’ provision, which meets clearly defined standards, including registration where necessary, safeguarding, health and safety, quality of accommodation, quality of education etc. These lists, where they exist, can provide a helpful starting point. However, prior to placement, commissioners should still assess whether the provision offers high quality education and is suitable for the pupil’s individual needs.
‘Keeping children safe in education’ is statutory guidance to which all schools and colleges must have regard when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and can be found in the attached document. The guidance states that where a school places a pupil in AP, the school continues to be responsible for the safeguarding of that pupil and should be satisfied that the provider meets the needs of the pupil. Schools should obtain written confirmation from the AP that appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on individuals working at the establishment, for example, those checks that the school would otherwise perform in respect of its own staff.
Ofsted does not inspect individual unregistered AP settings unless they are part of a criminal investigation where there are concerns that the provider may be operating illegally as an independent school. Any provider of AP must be registered as an independent school if it caters full time for five or more pupils of compulsory school age, or one pupil who is looked after or has an education, health and care plan. Under Section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the Unregistered Schools Team does not inspect the quality of the provision or the safeguarding arrangements.
The School Inspection Handbook states that during school inspections, inspectors will evaluate how well a school continues to take responsibility for its pupils who attend AP, including in unregistered AP. The Handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook-for-september-2023. Inspectors will normally visit a sample of any part-time unregistered AP during the inspection. This is to assess the adequacy of the school’s quality assurance process. A school is likely to be judged inadequate for leadership and management if it is making ineffective or inappropriate use of AP, failing to ensure the suitability of a provision, being unaware of the number of their pupils attending AP or not taking responsibility for their pupils who attend AP.
From January 2023, Ofsted is inspecting the local authority commissioning of AP as part of Area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) inspections. The Area SEND inspection Handbook states that in doing so inspectors will consider whether the local authority’s use of unregistered and online provision is lawful and appropriate to children and young people’s needs. The Handbook can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/area-send-framework-and-handbook/area-send-inspections-framework-and-handbook.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on art and design learning.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all pupils receive a high quality education in art and design as part of a broad and ambitious curriculum. This starts during the early years and continues in school, with art and design forming part of the National Curriculum from age 5 to 14. Between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 academic years, around three in ten pupils in state funded schools have taken art and design GCSE and this has remained broadly stable.
All schools have the freedom to choose how to spend their core funding according to their own circumstances and priorities, providing that all expenditure ultimately benefits their students. The Department does not provide additional in year funding for art and design. It is for schools to decide the allocation of resources at an individual school level, including funding in art and design and other arts subjects.
Overall, core schools funding increased by £4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year which is a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from the 2021/22 financial year. This included an increase in mainstream school funding for 5 to 16 year olds of £2.5 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase, or an average of £300 per pupil, with each Local Authority forecast to see at least a 4.8% increase per pupil.
Over and above core schools funding, the Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through arts, music and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts subjects.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupils’ cultural development.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupil’s cultural development.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to art and design education at (a) primary and (b) secondary level in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all pupils receive a high quality education in art and design as part of a broad and ambitious curriculum. This starts during the early years and continues in school, with art and design forming part of the National Curriculum from age 5 to 14. Between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 academic years, around three in ten pupils in state funded schools have taken art and design GCSE and this has remained broadly stable.
All schools have the freedom to choose how to spend their core funding according to their own circumstances and priorities, providing that all expenditure ultimately benefits their students. The Department does not provide additional in year funding for art and design. It is for schools to decide the allocation of resources at an individual school level, including funding in art and design and other arts subjects.
Overall, core schools funding increased by £4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year which is a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from the 2021/22 financial year. This included an increase in mainstream school funding for 5 to 16 year olds of £2.5 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase, or an average of £300 per pupil, with each Local Authority forecast to see at least a 4.8% increase per pupil.
Over and above core schools funding, the Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through arts, music and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts subjects.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupils’ cultural development.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. Economic disadvantage has an effect on outcomes and disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. The Department therefore continues to provide support with pupils’ education across all subjects, including art and design, in promoting pupil’s cultural development.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was (a) planned and (b) spent in each of the ten highest areas programme expenditure under the exclusive control of her Department in each month of each financial year of this spending review period.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s programme budget, as restated in the Spring Budget 2023, is £76.5 billion in 2022/23, £81.1 billion in 2023/24 and £84.4 billion in 2024/25.
The Department’s annual report and accounts 2022/23 provides detail of programme expenditure in 2022/23 and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023.
The Department’s Main Estimate sets out the budget for the financial year and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/main-supply-estimates-2023-to-24.
The ten highest areas of planned programme expenditure in 2023/24 included in the Estimate are displayed in the below table:
Area of programme expenditure | £ billion |
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | 44.35 |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | 9.95 |
16-19 education and T-Levels | 6.83 |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | 3.89 |
Pupil premium | 2.87 |
Apprenticeships | 2.59 |
Strategic Priorities Grant | 1.46 |
Adult education budget | 1.46 |
Education recovery programmes | 1.01 |
Private Finance Initiative revenue grant | 0.75 |
These numbers will be revised as required at the Supplementary Estimate for the funding to be provided to schools in 2023/24 following the announcement of the teachers’ pay award, and to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, the Department are unable to confirm figures for 2024/25. Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the Department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult numeracy and to create a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services. Further information on cross-Government funding can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
The Department does not hold month by month budget or expenditure information in the format requested. The Department does publish a payment schedule for the dedicated schools grant, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024/dsg-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was (a) planned and (b) spent in each of the ten highest areas of cross-departmental programme expenditure in each month of each financial year of this spending review period.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s programme budget, as restated in the Spring Budget 2023, is £76.5 billion in 2022/23, £81.1 billion in 2023/24 and £84.4 billion in 2024/25.
The Department’s annual report and accounts 2022/23 provides detail of programme expenditure in 2022/23 and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023.
The Department’s Main Estimate sets out the budget for the financial year and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/main-supply-estimates-2023-to-24.
The ten highest areas of planned programme expenditure in 2023/24 included in the Estimate are displayed in the below table:
Area of programme expenditure | £ billion |
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | 44.35 |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | 9.95 |
16-19 education and T-Levels | 6.83 |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | 3.89 |
Pupil premium | 2.87 |
Apprenticeships | 2.59 |
Strategic Priorities Grant | 1.46 |
Adult education budget | 1.46 |
Education recovery programmes | 1.01 |
Private Finance Initiative revenue grant | 0.75 |
These numbers will be revised as required at the Supplementary Estimate for the funding to be provided to schools in 2023/24 following the announcement of the teachers’ pay award, and to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, the Department are unable to confirm figures for 2024/25. Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the Department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult numeracy and to create a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services. Further information on cross-Government funding can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
The Department does not hold month by month budget or expenditure information in the format requested. The Department does publish a payment schedule for the dedicated schools grant, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024/dsg-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2022 to Question 17076, if she will publish the (a) highest 10 areas of programme expenditure under the exclusive control of her Department during the spending review period 2022-23 to 2024-25 and (b) amount of programme expenditure allocated to each area during that period.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s programme budget, as restated in the Spring Budget 2023, is £76.5 billion in 2022/23, £81.1 billion in 2023/24 and £84.4 billion in 2024/25.
The Department’s annual report and accounts 2022/23 provides detail of programme expenditure in 2022/23 and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023.
The Department’s Main Estimate sets out the budget for the financial year and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/main-supply-estimates-2023-to-24.
The ten highest areas of planned programme expenditure in 2023/24 included in the Estimate are displayed in the below table:
Area of programme expenditure | £ billion |
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | 44.35 |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | 9.95 |
16-19 education and T-Levels | 6.83 |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | 3.89 |
Pupil premium | 2.87 |
Apprenticeships | 2.59 |
Strategic Priorities Grant | 1.46 |
Adult education budget | 1.46 |
Education recovery programmes | 1.01 |
Private Finance Initiative revenue grant | 0.75 |
These numbers will be revised as required at the Supplementary Estimate for the funding to be provided to schools in 2023/24 following the announcement of the teachers’ pay award, and to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, the Department are unable to confirm figures for 2024/25. Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the Department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult numeracy and to create a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services. Further information on cross-Government funding can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
The Department does not hold month by month budget or expenditure information in the format requested. The Department does publish a payment schedule for the dedicated schools grant, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024/dsg-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2022 to Question 17077 on Department for Education: Public Expenditure, if she will publish the (a) highest 10 areas of cross-departmental programme expenditure to which her Department plans to contribute over the spending review period 2022-23 to 2024-25 and (b) amount of programme expenditure allocated to each area over that period.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s programme budget, as restated in the Spring Budget 2023, is £76.5 billion in 2022/23, £81.1 billion in 2023/24 and £84.4 billion in 2024/25.
The Department’s annual report and accounts 2022/23 provides detail of programme expenditure in 2022/23 and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023.
The Department’s Main Estimate sets out the budget for the financial year and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/main-supply-estimates-2023-to-24.
The ten highest areas of planned programme expenditure in 2023/24 included in the Estimate are displayed in the below table:
Area of programme expenditure | £ billion |
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | 44.35 |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | 9.95 |
16-19 education and T-Levels | 6.83 |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | 3.89 |
Pupil premium | 2.87 |
Apprenticeships | 2.59 |
Strategic Priorities Grant | 1.46 |
Adult education budget | 1.46 |
Education recovery programmes | 1.01 |
Private Finance Initiative revenue grant | 0.75 |
These numbers will be revised as required at the Supplementary Estimate for the funding to be provided to schools in 2023/24 following the announcement of the teachers’ pay award, and to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, the Department are unable to confirm figures for 2024/25. Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the Department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult numeracy and to create a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services. Further information on cross-Government funding can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
The Department does not hold month by month budget or expenditure information in the format requested. The Department does publish a payment schedule for the dedicated schools grant, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024/dsg-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the average spend on energy per year by schools in the maintained sector in England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on Local Authority maintained school expenditure is collected in Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) returns and relates to expenditure in the financial year. This information is subsequently published on the schools financial benchmarking website, which can be accessed here: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/. This information is also published in the annual Local Authority and school expenditure official statistic, which is accessible here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure. Spending on energy is identified in the line ‘E16: energy’ in the CFR return. National figures for school expenditure on energy for recent years can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a8a474ba-c470-45a3-bb48-08db839e0283.
In considering the affordability of the recent teachers’ pay award, the Department has assumed schools’ energy costs for the 2023/24 financial year to be approximately £750 million higher than in the 2021/22 financial year, which represents a 125% increase.
In July this year, the Department announced an additional £525 million of funding to support schools with the teachers’ pay award in 2023/24, and £900 million in 2024/25. This is on top of the additional £2 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25 already announced at the Autumn Statement last year. This additional funding means that school funding will be over £59.6 billion next year, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil, as measured by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This additional funding will enable head teachers to continue to invest in the areas that the Department knows positively impact educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most. It will also help schools to manage higher costs, including higher energy bills.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of commissioning unregistered alternative provision places through all referral routes.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department does not hold any information about the annual cost of commissioning unregistered alternative provision places. These commissioning arrangements are managed directly by schools and local authorities who require the provision, and they do not report their expenditure at that level of detail.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish details of spending of early years entitlement funding by each local authority.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Early years entitlement funding is one of the funding blocks of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). The latest information regarding early years funding is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2023-to-2024.
As part of the annual Section 251 budget return, local authorities return data on their planned early years spending for the next financial year, which is then published by the department. The latest published planned expenditure data is for the 2022/23 financial year and is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure.
The data collection process for planned expenditure data for the 2023/24 financial year is ongoing and will be published in the autumn of 2023. Local authorities also submit less detailed outturn data regarding spend which is published by the department. The latest available outturn data is for the 2021/22 financial year and can be found in the file named ‘LA expenditure on schools, other education and community’ at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/la-and-school-expenditure/2021-22.