Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in child minders during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in nurseries during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the additional expenditure that would be incurred if free school meals were to be provided to all registered pupils at maintained nursery schools in England as well as to children in receipt of relevant funded early years education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Over 2 million pupils are currently eligible for benefits-related free school meals (FSM). This includes pupils attending a local authority maintained, academy or free school nursery, as long as they are either in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch and meet the benefits-related FSM eligibility criteria.
Additionally, close to 1.3 million infants receive free and nutritious meals under the universal infant FSM policy (UIFSM).
The department does not currently have plans to change the existing eligibility conditions for FSM or UIFSM. As such, the department has not made an estimate of the associated costs of providing FSM to all registered pupils at maintained nursery schools in England as well as to children in receipt of relevant funded early years education. The department continues to keep eligibility of FSM under review.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of nurseries in each region in England that require building works to remove reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Answered by David Johnston
An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 19 October, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information. This contains a summary of the number of settings with confirmed RAAC and the status of education in place at these settings at the specified date. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out.
Maintained nursery schools, which fall under the Department’s remit, were asked to complete a questionnaire. All settings that inform the Department via their questionnaire response that they have suspected RAAC are being fast tracked for surveying. All education settings that are currently suspected as containing RAAC are surveyed in a matter of weeks. As of 16 October 2023, the Department has not found RAAC in any maintained nursery schools.
The departmental guidance covers educations settings including schools, colleges and maintained nursery schools. If RAAC is confirmed or suspected in other settings, leaders and relevant responsible bodies may want to consider the principles and approaches set out in the guidance in relation to managing their buildings and the mitigating actions necessary to ensure continuity of provision.
The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which risks associated with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in schools did not become apparent before August 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff, and it has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken. The Department knows how important it is for young people to be in classrooms with their friends and teachers, but their safety must come first.
The Department has been talking to schools about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 when it first published a warning note with the Local Government Association. The Office of Government Property wrote to all Government Property Leaders in 2019, and again in September 2022, highlighting safety alerts on RAAC and signposting guidance on identification and remediation. The Government also created a cross-Government working group on RAAC this year to collectively address the issue. Since then, Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue or monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.
The Department discovered details of three new cases over the summer, where RAAC that would have been graded as non-critical had failed. The first of these was in a commercial setting. The second was in a school in a different educational jurisdiction. It was right to carefully consider the cases and scrutinise the technical details from these. Departmental technical officials were able to investigate the situation in one case where the plank that had failed was fully intact as it was resting on a steel beam after it failed. They concluded that it would previously been rated non-critical. Ministers were carefully considering the first two cases and advice from officials when a third failure of a panel occurred, at a school in late August. The Department’s technical officials also visited this school to investigate the failure.
In light of all three cases, it was right to make the difficult decision to change our guidance for education settings and take a more cautious approach within the education estate in England.
Following careful analysis of these recent cases, a precautionary and proactive step has been taken to change the approach to RAAC in education settings ahead of the start of the academic year, as outlined in our guidance.
Maintained nursery schools are treated the same as schools and FE colleges. In 2022, the Department’s questionnaire to all responsible bodies, including those who run maintained nursery schools, asked them to provide information on RAAC.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a detailed timeline of decisions made relating to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in schools over the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff, and it has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken. The Department knows how important it is for young people to be in classrooms with their friends and teachers, but their safety must come first.
The Department has been talking to schools about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 when it first published a warning note with the Local Government Association. The Office of Government Property wrote to all Government Property Leaders in 2019, and again in September 2022, highlighting safety alerts on RAAC and signposting guidance on identification and remediation. The Government also created a cross-Government working group on RAAC this year to collectively address the issue. Since then, Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue or monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.
The Department discovered details of three new cases over the summer, where RAAC that would have been graded as non-critical had failed. The first of these was in a commercial setting. The second was in a school in a different educational jurisdiction. It was right to carefully consider the cases and scrutinise the technical details from these. Departmental technical officials were able to investigate the situation in one case where the plank that had failed was fully intact as it was resting on a steel beam after it failed. They concluded that it would previously been rated non-critical. Ministers were carefully considering the first two cases and advice from officials when a third failure of a panel occurred, at a school in late August. The Department’s technical officials also visited this school to investigate the failure.
In light of all three cases, it was right to make the difficult decision to change our guidance for education settings and take a more cautious approach within the education estate in England.
Following careful analysis of these recent cases, a precautionary and proactive step has been taken to change the approach to RAAC in education settings ahead of the start of the academic year, as outlined in our guidance.
Maintained nursery schools are treated the same as schools and FE colleges. In 2022, the Department’s questionnaire to all responsible bodies, including those who run maintained nursery schools, asked them to provide information on RAAC.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the allocation of gross dedicated schools grant funding for (a) each local authority and (b) York.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is intended to meet the educational costs of early years pupils, pupils in primary and secondary education, as well as the educational costs of special educational provision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs in post-16 provision, including those aged 19 to 25 who have an Education, Health and Care plan. The DSG is made up of four blocks; the schools block, the high needs block, the early years block and the Central Schools Services Block (CSSB).
Funding for the schools, high needs block and the CSSB all comes from the core school budget. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil, as measured by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. This means that, including the additional funding for teachers’ pay, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24.
The early years block consists of funding for the 15 and 30 hours per week early years entitlements for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds, as well as supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools, the early years pupil premium, and the disability access fund. The Department is providing £204 million of additional funding in 2023/24 and £288 million in 2024/25 for the existing entitlements. This funding is on top of the £4.1 billion that we expect to provide by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of the new entitlements announced in the Spring Budget. In 2023/24, we expect to spend a total of £3.9 billion through the DSG, with an additional £204 million through the early years supplementary grant, nationally, on the early years entitlements and other early years funding streams.
Each of the blocks of the DSG is distributed according to objective national funding formulae. In 2023/24, York’s December DSG allocation included £119.6 million in schools block funding, £27.7 million in high needs block funding, £11.4 million in early years block funding and £2.1 million in CSSB block funding. York’s total DSG allocation in 2023/24 was over £160.7 million.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to assess maintained nurseries for risks associated with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff, and it has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken. The Department knows how important it is for young people to be in classrooms with their friends and teachers, but their safety must come first.
The Department has been talking to schools about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 when it first published a warning note with the Local Government Association. The Office of Government Property wrote to all Government Property Leaders in 2019, and again in September 2022, highlighting safety alerts on RAAC and signposting guidance on identification and remediation. The Government also created a cross-Government working group on RAAC this year to collectively address the issue. Since then, Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue or monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.
The Department discovered details of three new cases over the summer, where RAAC that would have been graded as non-critical had failed. The first of these was in a commercial setting. The second was in a school in a different educational jurisdiction. It was right to carefully consider the cases and scrutinise the technical details from these. Departmental technical officials were able to investigate the situation in one case where the plank that had failed was fully intact as it was resting on a steel beam after it failed. They concluded that it would previously been rated non-critical. Ministers were carefully considering the first two cases and advice from officials when a third failure of a panel occurred, at a school in late August. The Department’s technical officials also visited this school to investigate the failure.
In light of all three cases, it was right to make the difficult decision to change our guidance for education settings and take a more cautious approach within the education estate in England.
Following careful analysis of these recent cases, a precautionary and proactive step has been taken to change the approach to RAAC in education settings ahead of the start of the academic year, as outlined in our guidance.
Maintained nursery schools are treated the same as schools and FE colleges. In 2022, the Department’s questionnaire to all responsible bodies, including those who run maintained nursery schools, asked them to provide information on RAAC.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing free meals for children in the private, voluntary and independent early years sector.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to the children of families who are out of work or on low income is important to the Government. The Department wants to target this support at the most disadvantaged families.
The legal requirement for the provision of meals, including free meals, applies to state funded schools, including Maintained Nursery Schools and nursery provision in primary schools. The requirements do not apply to independent early years providers.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state-funded nursery schools in England did not have a male teacher in each of the last five years for which school workforce data are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the school workforce, including the number of teachers by gender in each school, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.