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Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Thursday 18th January 2024

Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Eastbourne constituency have applied for a grant for senior mental health lead training.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department began offering schools and colleges a grant to train senior mental health leads in October 2021. A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is published and updated throughout the year. This list can be found at the following link, alongside details of other payments to institutions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions.

​In the 2021/22 financial year, seven schools and colleges within the Eastbourne constituency applied for the senior mental health training grant. In the 2022/23 financial year, a further five schools and colleges applied for the grant, which totals twelve grant applications to date. In the 2023/24 financial year, there were no grant applications in this constituency for Q1 and Q2.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of installing high-efficiency particulate absorbing filters in schools to tackle the risk of covid-19 infection.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department has considered the merits of high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filter use in schools, as well as recognising how good ventilation helps to create a healthy indoor environment for staff and students.

There is strong evidence from laboratory studies of the efficacy of HEPA filtration technology at removing airborne viruses and particulate matter from the air.

Departmental officials sit on the working group for a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting primary schools with air cleaning technology: the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial. This was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The trial has concluded, and the academic leads intend to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.

Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that contains virus particles which reduces the risk of respiratory illness, as well as improves pupils’ alertness and concentration. Between September 2021 and April 2023, the department delivered over 700,000 CO2 monitors to over 45,000 state-funded settings, including schools. This means that all eligible settings now have an assigned CO2 monitor for every teaching and childcare space to help them manage their ventilation.

For settings that identified spaces with sustained high CO2 readings (1500ppm or more) through their monitors, an application process was made available for department-funded air cleaning units (ACUs) that utilise HEPA technology. This policy was informed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ Environmental Modelling Group which advises that ACUs have limited benefit in spaces that are already adequately ventilated and should only be considered where the ventilation is inadequate and cannot be easily improved. The department has subsequently delivered over 9,000 ACUs to over 1,300 settings between January 2022 and April 2023.


Written Question
Grants: Wokingham
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what grants were provided by her Department to (a) Wokingham Borough Council and (b) state-aided schools in Wokingham in the (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24 financial year; and how much was awarded in each grant.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Revenue funding covers ongoing or operational expenses associated with schools. The majority of this is provided on a per pupil basis to support learning and attainment, but it also includes other aspects such as school running costs and salaries.

The following revenue grants were allocated to Wokingham Borough Council and/or schools within the council in both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years: the Dedicated Schools Grant, Pupil Premium, PE and Sports Premium, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Recovery Premium, National Tutoring Programme, Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant and Universal Infant Free School Meals.

Other grants were allocated in specific financial years, to support schools with growing costs and the 2023 teachers’ pay award. These include: the Schools Supplementary Grant (2022/23), Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (2023/24), Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant (2023/24).

Wokingham Borough Council’s revenue grant allocations can be found in the separate table provided. The total school revenue funding grants, broken down by individual schools within the local authority, are published annually, in full. For 2022/23, these can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics. The 2023/24 financial year school revenue funding statistics are scheduled to be published in the same format in January 2024.

Additional revenue funding is provided for post-16 provisions, such as sixth forms and colleges.

The department also allocates capital funding each year to support local authorities to provide sufficient childcare, mainstream and high needs school places, as well as keeping the school buildings that they are responsible for safe and operational. The following capital grants were allocated to Wokingham Borough Council in both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years: the Basic Need Capital Allocations Grant, High Needs Provision Capital Allocations Grant, Childcare Expansion Capital Grant and School Condition Allocations (SCA).

Larger multi-academy trusts and voluntary-aided bodies in Wokingham will also have been allocated SCA funding for the schools for which they are responsible, although allocations typically cut across local authority boundaries. Smaller academy-trusts and voluntary aided bodies will have been invited to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), to apply for funding for specific projects. Outcomes for CIF for 2022/23 and 2023/24 can be found on GOV.UK.

State-funded schools in Wokingham will also have been allocated funding to spend on their capital priorities or contribute to larger projects through an annual Devolved Formula Capital allocation.

In 2022/23, eligible schools and sixth-form colleges also received an allocation from an additional £447 million of capital funding to improve energy efficiency.

More information on school condition funding, including allocations for 2022/23 and 2023/24, can be found on GOV.UK.

Wokingham Borough Council’s grant allocations for Basic Need, High Needs, Childcare and (for its maintained schools) total SCA for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years can be found in the separate table provided.


Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Senior mental health lead training, which schools in North Devon constituency have applied for the senior mental health training grant.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department began offering schools and colleges a grant to train senior mental health leads in October 2021. A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is published and updated throughout the year. This list is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. In the 2021/22 financial year, 15 schools and colleges within the North Devon constituency applied for the senior mental health training grant. 8 schools and colleges applied for the grant in the 2022/23 financial year, totalling 23 grant applications to date. There were no grant applications in this constituency for Q1 and Q2 of this financial year (2023/24).


Written Question
Coronavirus: Schools
Monday 23rd October 2023

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 30 June 2022 to Question 22411 on Coronavirus: Schools, whether she has provided guidance to schools on the findings of the Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study; if she will place a copy of the findings of that study in the Library; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study, which has been renamed the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial, is a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.

This trial was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Officials from the Department for Education sat on the working group of the trial. The trial has concluded and the academic leads intend to make the results available by publishing in a peer reviewed journal in due course. As the results have not yet been published, no guidance has been provided.

The Department recognises that good ventilation can reduce the spread of respiratory infections and has provided CO2 monitors to all eligible state funded settings in England. These monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working. This helps balance the need for good ventilation and keeping classrooms warm. The Department has also provided over 9,000 air cleaning units (ACUs) to over 1,300 settings that had sustained high CO2 readings of above 1500ppm. These ACUs work through high efficiency particulate air filter technology.


Written Question
Summer Schools: Enfield
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Enfield Council through the Summer Schools Grant in each of the last ten years in real terms.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department has made available almost £5 billion for education recovery packages 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 that children, particularly in transition years between primary and secondary, 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 found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-summer-schools-programme-funding.

Enfield London Borough Council was allocated a maximum of £232,830 for its maintained schools. This funding was demand-led and, overall, claims for actual costs were 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.


Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department made available to Enfield Council through the Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grants in each of the last ten years in real terms.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department has been offering a grant to all state schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead since October 2021, helping settings to develop their holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing. Senior mental health 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, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. This data confirms that 33 grants were paid in 2021/22 to schools and colleges in the London Borough of Enfield, and 19 were paid in 2022/23, totalling £62,400 in grants to date.

The department also provided Wellbeing for Education Return/Recovery grants to local authorities in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years, 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 pandemic recovery period.

The London Borough of Enfield received a Wellbeing for Education Return grant of £37,356 in 2020/21 and a further Wellbeing for Education Recovery grant of £32,825 in 2021/22, amounting to a total of £70,181. This data can be obtained from the tables published in the Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grant determination letters which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.


Written Question
Schools: Enfield
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Enfield Council through the Wellbeing for Education Recovery Grant in each of the last ten years in real terms.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department has been offering a grant to all state schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead since October 2021, helping settings to develop their holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing. Senior mental health 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, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. This data confirms that 33 grants were paid in 2021/22 to schools and colleges in the London Borough of Enfield, and 19 were paid in 2022/23, totalling £62,400 in grants to date.

The department also provided Wellbeing for Education Return/Recovery grants to local authorities in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years, 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 pandemic recovery period.

The London Borough of Enfield received a Wellbeing for Education Return grant of £37,356 in 2020/21 and a further Wellbeing for Education Recovery grant of £32,825 in 2021/22, amounting to a total of £70,181. This data can be obtained from the tables published in the Wellbeing for Education Return and Recovery grant determination letters which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Recovery premium funding.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Recovery Premium, worth over £300 million, was introduced in the 2021/22 academic year as a direct grant for schools to deliver evidence based approaches to support educational recovery of disadvantaged pupils. As part of the 2021 Spending Review, the Government announced an extension to the Recovery Premium worth £1 billion across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. This funding is in addition the Pupil Premium funding for state funded schools in England to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

To help schools focus on the most effective approaches to raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, they must use their Recovery Premium and Pupil Premium funding in line with evidence based approaches, drawing on the evidence of what works provided by the Education Endowment Fund. Schools are required to publish an annual strategy statement for the academic year by 31 December, setting out how they plan to spend the Pupil Premium and the Recovery Premium, and demonstrating that their approach is informed by evidence. The Department will undertake monitoring checks on a sample of schools’ published reports.

The Department contracted with Ipsos MORI, in consortium with Sheffield Hallam University and the Centre for Education and Youth, to undertake a mixed methods study design to understand how recovery strategies have been implemented, and how best to support schools in future. The year 2 findings of this study were published in January 2023, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1131182/School_recovery_strategies_year_2_findings.pdf.

The Department continues to monitor levels of attainment to understand the effect the COVID-19 pandemic and education policies.


Written Question
Coronavirus Catch-up Premium
Tuesday 13th June 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Catch-up premium: coronavirus (COVID-19) funding.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The universal Catch Up Premium, worth a total of £650 million, was introduced as a direct grant to schools in the 2020/21 academic year to support with making up for lost teaching time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The universal Catch Up Premium funding was paid to all state funded mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision, as all pupils were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools’ allocations were calculated on a per pupil basis. To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation published a support guide for schools with evidence based approaches to catch up for all pupils.

The Department did not routinely collect information on how schools used the catch-up premium, given the additional administrative burdens this would place on schools at a time of significant pressure. The Department contracted with Ipsos MORI, in consortium with Sheffield Hallam University and the Centre for Education and Youth, to undertake a mixed methods study design to understand how recovery strategies have been implemented, and how best to support schools in future. The year 2 findings of this study were published in January 2023, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1131182/School_recovery_strategies_year_2_findings.pdf

The Department continues to monitor levels of attainment to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and education policies.