Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve social mobility in post-16 education for people in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
True social mobility is when we put students, their needs and career ambitions first, be that through Higher Education (HE), Further Education (FE) or Apprenticeships. Our policies supporting mobility in post-16 education will benefit people across the country, including Coventry and the West Midlands.
All young people in England are required to continue in education or training until the age of 18. This was implemented because the small group of young people that were not participating included some of the most vulnerable and we want to give all young people the opportunity to develop the skills they need for adult life and to achieve their full potential.
To support students with a disadvantage to participate in post-16 education, we provide funding for disadvantaged students, aged between 16-19, via allocations to institutions. These allocations include funding to account for students’ economic deprivation (Disadvantage Block 1), and low prior attainment and/or special educational needs, using English and maths attainment as a proxy (Disadvantage Block 2).
The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund targets support at young people who most need help with the costs of staying on in post-16 education and training. It provides funding to young people, aged between 16 and 19, who need financial support with costs to stay in FE.
We also apply a disadvantage uplift through our adult funding system. This results in a funding increase for learners living in the most deprived areas of the country, as we base the uplift on the learner’s postcode. We apply this consistently across the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s ‘formula-funded’ Adult Education Budget (AEB) provision.
The AEB also provides funds to colleges and providers, to help adult learners overcome barriers that prevent them from taking part in learning. This includes Learner Support, to support learners with a specific financial hardship and Learning Support, to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Apprenticeships offer high quality training opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds and can be a true driver of social mobility combining a job with high quality training. To help employers offer new apprenticeships, they are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25 before 31 January 2021. This is in recognition of the particular impact that the COVID-19 outbreak has had on the employment prospects of this group. In addition, our Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge programme supports schools across England to provide disadvantaged students with information on apprenticeships.
It is more crucial than ever before that we tap into the brilliant talent that our country has to offer, and make sure that HE is available to all who are qualified by ability and attainment to pursue it, and who wish to do so, no matter where they grow up.
Latest UCAS data from 2020 admissions shows that record rates of 18 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds are going to university. However, there is clearly more to do to make sure everyone who has the talent and potential can thrive in HE. It is not enough to just get them through the door; attention needs to be paid to retention rates and graduate outcomes. Our reforms are continuing to open routes of progression, including HE, to enable students to make informed choices.
Through Access and Participation Plans, agreed with the Office for Students (OfS), HE providers are expected to reduce the gaps in access, success and progression for under-represented groups amongst their students.
The OfS-funded Uni Connect programme delivers collaborative outreach activity to schools and colleges in areas where participation in HE is lower than expected, based on attainment levels. Uni Connect partnerships work with schools to deliver bespoke programmes to reach out to underrepresented groups in HE, and have been successful in addressing cold spots so that no young person is left behind.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much of the Hardship Fund allocated to local authorities was spent between March and October 2020; and what proportion of that fund was spent over that time period.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The £500 million Hardship Fund has been made available to councils in England to provide support to economically vulnerable people and households, including through reductions in council tax to recipients of working age local council tax support. The management of those allocations is a matter for local councils.
Asked by: Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much of the £500 million allocated from the Hardship Fund was spent in England and Wales between March and October 2020.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The £500 million Hardship Fund has been made available to councils in England to provide support to economically vulnerable people and households, including through reductions in council tax to recipients of working age local council tax support. The management of those allocations is a matter for local councils.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the grant his Department provided to the Football Association to distribute to National League clubs was intended to replace gate receipts lost as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of a promotional deal with the Football Association, the National Lottery provided £10m in funding for the 66 clubs in the National League. This initiative is in addition to the ongoing support the National Lottery provides to good causes through the National Lottery Distribution Fund. Funding has been allocated to clubs by the National League using an approach based broadly on past attendance. The National League will keep allocations under review and may amend them if any club suffers acute financial hardship.
The department does not hold records on the average attendance or gate receipts of National League clubs.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing additional (a) resources and (b) funding to universities in (i) tier 3 and (ii) tier 2 areas to mitigate (A) covid-19 transmission levels and (B) related public health risks.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The safety and wellbeing of staff and students in higher education (HE) and the wider community is always our priority. The government is doing all it can to minimise the risks of transmission in this unprecedented situation.
We are working across the government, and closely with the HE sector, to provide both practical and financial support through the COVID-19 outbreak. On 4 May, we announced the HE stabilisation package which reprofiled public funding and introduced measures to stabilise admissions with a view to mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on HE providers’ finances. This package, along with the government-backed business support schemes, provided substantial support to the HE sector. On 27 June, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced further support to preserve research capacity and capability in the Research Stabilisation Package. On 16 July, we also announced further information about the Higher Education Restructuring Regime, which will review providers’ circumstances and assess the need for restructuring, financial support and come with strict conditions to align with wider government objectives.
Further to this, we have also published reopening guidance to universities informed by advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. We are lifting caps on domestic medicine and dentistry courses for the 2020/21 academic year and providing both additional capital and teaching grant funding. Importantly, we are supporting providers to protect students’ mental health and wellbeing, having clarified that providers can use funding worth £256 million for the academic year 2020/21, starting from August, towards student hardship funds and mental health support. Additionally, the Office for Students has provided up to £3 million to fund the Student Space platform to bridge gaps in mental health support for students.
We will continue to draw upon the expertise of the Higher Education Taskforce to identify COVID-19 related challenges faced by HE providers and students. We will keep policies under review as the situation evolves, based on the latest advice from Public Health England and evidence of the effectiveness of interventions and support for students and providers.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on trends in the level of food insecurity among children since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is committed to supporting the most vulnerable in society. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions engages regularly with her counterparts, including the Secretary of State for Education.
Secretaries of State will continue to talk across government to ensure all the levers available are used to tackle poverty, including for the most disadvantaged children and families. The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs also established a cross-government Task Force on Food and Other Essential Supplies for Vulnerable People.
We have taken unprecedented action to support and protect jobs, with over 9.5 million people having been supported through the furlough scheme. The Department for Work and Pensions quickly introduced a package of support, including welfare changes worth £9.3bn this year to help people with the financial consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Government established a £500m local authority hardship fund to protect people, by banning evictions, securing mortgage holidays and helping with energy bills. It has provided a further £63m to local authorities in England for their Welfare Assistance schemes to help those families struggling to afford food and other essentials.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) student support services and (b) mental health support.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Protecting the mental health of students continues to be a priority for this government and I have convened representatives from the higher education and health sectors to specifically address the current and pressing issues that students are facing during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department of Health and Social Care has overall policy responsibility for young people’s mental health. We continue to work closely with them to take steps to develop mental health and wellbeing support.
The government is committed, through the NHS Long Term Plan, to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year into mental health services by 2023-24. This will see an additional 345,000 children and young people, and adults, able to access support through NHS-funded services.
We have invested £8 million in the Wellbeing for Education Return programme, providing schools and colleges with the knowledge and practical skills to help improve how to respond to the emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Further information is available here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.
In further education, £5.4 million of competitive grant funding has been provided through the College Collaboration Fund, with five of the projects funded to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing through online programmes and remote support.
It is for higher education providers as autonomous bodies to identify and address the needs of their student body, and many providers have boosted their existing welfare and counselling services to ensure students are able to access the support they need. Student Space, funded with up to £3 million from the Office for Students, provides dedicated support services (by phone and by text) for students and a collaborative online platform to help students access vital mental health and wellbeing resources. The platform bridges gaps in support for students arising from the COVID-19 outbreak and is designed to work alongside existing services.
We have asked that providers prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of students, enabling them to use funding, worth up to £23 million per month from April to July this year, and £256 million for the 2020-21 academic year starting from August, to go towards student hardship funds and mental health support.
Over £9 million has been provided by the government to leading mental health charities to help them expand and reach those most in need. Students struggling with their mental health can also access support via online resources from the NHS and Public Health England, and the mental health charity Mind.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
What assessment he has made on the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on universities.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We have worked across government and with the higher education (HE) sector to understand the impact of COVID-19.
In response, between April to September we have announced a suite of measures to mitigate the impact of the virus upon the HE sector and HE students and staff. This includes the HE stabilisation package, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's research stabilisation package, access to business support schemes, the capital fund and the HE restructuring regime.
We have prioritised the mental health and well-being of students, emphasising our strong support for the University Mental Health Charter and continued to work closely with Universities UK on embedding the Step Change: Mentally Healthy Universities framework. We confirmed universities and HE providers were able to use Office for Students (OfS) Student Premium funding towards student hardship funds and announced the OfS funded, Student Minds Led, Student Space which has been designed to work alongside existing mental health services.
Importantly, to support universities to reopen this autumn, to enable them to provide high quality education to students in a COVID-secure environment, we have provided advice and guidance on reopening and have worked to ensure universities have robust outbreak plans in place. We will shortly also be providing additional guidance on winter planning and end of term preparation.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2020 to Question 70379 on Schools and Nurseries: Coronavirus, if he will make it his policy to provide further additional funding for state (a) schools, (b) nurseries and (c) other education institutions to fund (i) monies spent and (ii) planned spending on additional (A) cleaning required by covid-19 risk assessments and (B) classroom based staff to facilitate flexible deployment for clinically vulnerable staff and (C) other demonstrable costs incurred as a result of following covid-19 guidance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March to July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.
Schools have been eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements. The Department has published detailed guidance on the fund at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools.
The first claims window for the fund closed on 21 July. All claims for funding within the specified cost categories and maximum limit have already been paid. The Department is assessing all other claims, which will be paid later in the autumn if approved.
There will also be a further opportunity in autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs they faced between March to July. This second claims window will be available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories.
As set out in the Department’s reopening guidance, schools should use their existing resources when planning to welcome all children back for the autumn. The guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures#funding.
Schools will continue to receive their budgets for the coming year, as usual, regardless of partial or complete closure. That will ensure that they are able to continue to pay their staff and meet their other regular financial commitments.
All nurseries and childminders (including maintained nursery schools) have benefitted from the continuation of early years entitlement funding during the COVID-19 outbreak, and as they typically rely on private income for a significant proportion of their income, they have also been able to access support to furlough their staff via the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme.
Nurseries and childminders cannot claim for specific costs incurred due to increased premises costs needed to keep schools open during school holidays, or over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements as a result of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. The Department continues to look at the costs associated with COVID-19 to secure the best and most appropriate support for nurseries and childminders.
The Department also expects colleges and universities to prioritise the health and safety of their staff and students and put in place measures that apply to their individual circumstances. The Department has provided £256 million of additional funding for academic year 2020-21 starting from August for student hardship funds and mental health support. In addition, further education providers have been able to use their 16-19 Bursary Fund to purchase devices for students to support remote education.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward a tenant loan scheme similar to the Tenancy Saver Loans and Tenant Hardship Loan Fund introduced by the Welsh and Scottish Government respectively.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support to protect renters whose income has been affected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notably, to help prevent people getting into financial hardship, we have increased the local housing allowance rate to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area. This will remain in place throughout the Winter period until at least the end of March 2021. The increase will mean nearly £1 billion of additional support for private renters claiming Universal Credit or Housing Benefit in 2020/21 and benefits over 1 million households, including those in work. Claimants will gain on average an additional £600 this year in increased housing support.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has offered support for business to pay staff salaries, and the Chancellors recent announcement of the Government’s Winter Economy Plan now sets out further measures to support jobs and businesses. Finally, for those renters who require additional support, there is an existing £180 million of Government funding for Discretionary Housing Payments made available this year, an increase of £40 million from last year, which is for councils to distribute to support renters with housing costs.
These measures enable renters to continue paying their rent and we will closely monitor the ongoing impact of the pandemic on renters.