Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools to offer high quality music provision for all children (a) in the curriculum and (b) through (i) local authority-run and (ii) independent Music Education Hubs.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs are partnerships co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) and made up of schools and academy trusts, local authorities, music and wider arts and education organisations and charities, community or youth organisations and more. Having 43 HLOs working across a wider set of music education partnerships from September 2024 should bring significant benefits to children, young people and schools, as HLOs will be able to be more strategic, building stronger partnerships with those they work with, resulting in high-quality support in every local area and to ensure there are no local ‘cold spots’ where access to provision is limited.
This should also support a more consistent high-quality approach to music education for all children regardless of where they live or go to school, by offering:
Schools alone cannot provide the range of services needed for a good quality music education and Music Hubs provide many services that contribute to schools delivering high-quality music provision. Furthermore, Music Hubs will play a critical role in supporting schools who opt to implement the Model Music Curriculum published in 2021 and for schools implementing their Music Development Plans from September 2024. In time, Music Hubs will also support schools opting to use music curriculum resources from Oak National Academy, who will publish their full suite of key stage 3 and 4 resources in the summer and who recently announced a partner to produce a suite of key stages 1 and 2 resources.
The government has a long-standing commitment to high-quality music education and this is reflected in the government’s National Plan for Music Education published in June 2022. This sets out the vision to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally by 2030. The department believes that Music Hubs play a vital role in ensuring children and young people across the country can access high-quality music education and this government values the many achievements that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012.
The department has invested around £380 million of funding into Music Hubs between 2016 and 2021. As part of the National Plan for Music Education 2022, the department also announced £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hub programme, up to and including the 2024/25 academic year, to provide assurance and stability in music education. The department is also providing £25 million capital funding for musical instruments as part of the programme. The department will consider future funding for the next spending review in due course.
On average, the grant funding has consistently provided around 40% of a hub’s total income and hubs have historically used this to leverage other income streams over the lifespan of the programme. This co-funding approach will continue when the new programme is in place from September 2024. As set out in the investment programme, the department also expects organisations to have evidenced, as part of their applications to become one of the new HLOs, how at least 50% of a hub’s total income will come from other sources other than the revenue grant provided by the department by the end of the funding period.
There is no expectation on Music Hubs to provide free music tuition to all children. As part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, bidders were required to submit plans detailing their strategic approach to ensure music education is inclusive of all children and young people with a range of needs, including how the Music Hub would ensure inclusion and widening opportunity will be embedded across all activity, plans and policies. This includes specific support and resources, including access to musical instruments, that will be made available for children and young people who are eligible for pupil premium, including looked-after children and/or those who are care experienced and those who have an identified special educational need or disability.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the Government’s Music Hub Investment Programme will support independent Music Education Hubs to provide free music education to all children.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs are partnerships co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) and made up of schools and academy trusts, local authorities, music and wider arts and education organisations and charities, community or youth organisations and more. Having 43 HLOs working across a wider set of music education partnerships from September 2024 should bring significant benefits to children, young people and schools, as HLOs will be able to be more strategic, building stronger partnerships with those they work with, resulting in high-quality support in every local area and to ensure there are no local ‘cold spots’ where access to provision is limited.
This should also support a more consistent high-quality approach to music education for all children regardless of where they live or go to school, by offering:
Schools alone cannot provide the range of services needed for a good quality music education and Music Hubs provide many services that contribute to schools delivering high-quality music provision. Furthermore, Music Hubs will play a critical role in supporting schools who opt to implement the Model Music Curriculum published in 2021 and for schools implementing their Music Development Plans from September 2024. In time, Music Hubs will also support schools opting to use music curriculum resources from Oak National Academy, who will publish their full suite of key stage 3 and 4 resources in the summer and who recently announced a partner to produce a suite of key stages 1 and 2 resources.
The government has a long-standing commitment to high-quality music education and this is reflected in the government’s National Plan for Music Education published in June 2022. This sets out the vision to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally by 2030. The department believes that Music Hubs play a vital role in ensuring children and young people across the country can access high-quality music education and this government values the many achievements that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012.
The department has invested around £380 million of funding into Music Hubs between 2016 and 2021. As part of the National Plan for Music Education 2022, the department also announced £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hub programme, up to and including the 2024/25 academic year, to provide assurance and stability in music education. The department is also providing £25 million capital funding for musical instruments as part of the programme. The department will consider future funding for the next spending review in due course.
On average, the grant funding has consistently provided around 40% of a hub’s total income and hubs have historically used this to leverage other income streams over the lifespan of the programme. This co-funding approach will continue when the new programme is in place from September 2024. As set out in the investment programme, the department also expects organisations to have evidenced, as part of their applications to become one of the new HLOs, how at least 50% of a hub’s total income will come from other sources other than the revenue grant provided by the department by the end of the funding period.
There is no expectation on Music Hubs to provide free music tuition to all children. As part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, bidders were required to submit plans detailing their strategic approach to ensure music education is inclusive of all children and young people with a range of needs, including how the Music Hub would ensure inclusion and widening opportunity will be embedded across all activity, plans and policies. This includes specific support and resources, including access to musical instruments, that will be made available for children and young people who are eligible for pupil premium, including looked-after children and/or those who are care experienced and those who have an identified special educational need or disability.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the reasons for which some disabled children cannot (a) eat and (b) access free school meals; and whether she plans to make reasonable adjustments to free school meals to help disabled children to access them.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people, and they must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. This means that a school cannot treat a pupil unfairly as a consequence of their disability.
As it relates to school food, the duty to make reasonable adjustments requires schools to tailor their provision to ensure that it is accessible to disabled pupils. Furthermore, this duty is anticipatory, and so schools need to actively consider whether any reasonable adjustments are needed in order to avoid any disadvantage that may otherwise occur.
The department has updated its existing guidance on free school meals to clarify schools’ duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children, and to support productive conversations between schools and parents about suitable food provision. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fdad5965ca2f00117da947/Free_school_meals.pdf.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to enable adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism living in in-patient units to live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are taking action to support timely discharges of people with a learning disability and autistic people from mental health inpatient services, and to support them in leading ordinary lives in their communities. In January 2024, we published guidance which sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services.
To improve community support, in 2023/24 we invested an additional £121 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in July 2022, sets out cross-Government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
As set out in NHS England statutory guidance published on 9 May 2023, we expect integrated care boards to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to a suitable board member. The named lead will support the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) early years learning and (b) primary education for children with Down's Syndrome.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to improving the life outcomes and opportunities for children with Down syndrome, including through follow-up to the Down Syndrome Act 2022. From 2025, the department will begin collecting data on the numbers of children and young people with Down syndrome in schools and colleges. This will help inform the planning locally of long term services.
The special educational needs and disability (SEND) system in education settings provides support for all children with SEND. The system focuses on removing barriers to education and putting the right support in place to meet need, regardless of the specific condition a child may have. The department set out its mission for more children and young people with SEND to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings in the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan in March 2023. The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan.
In the Improvement Plan, the department confirmed that frontline professionals, such as teachers and early years practitioners, would be equipped with the skills and expertise to make best use of provision and to identify needs early, accurately and consistently. The department is developing a suite of practitioner standards to help early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, prioritising areas such as speech and language development. The department is funding up to 7,000 early years staff to gain an accredited Level 3 early years special educational needs co-ordinator qualification.
Additionally, the department is investing £2.6 billion in new specialist places to increase the number of places for those children who need specialist support in mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. These developments will help children with Down syndrome in early years settings and primary schools reach their full potential.
Specifically on early years learning, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow, including learning and development requirements. The EYFS includes specific requirements for supporting children with SEND, including those with Down syndrome. All early years providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard to the SEND Code of Practice.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of taking steps to create a vape-free generation.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one cause of ill-health, disability, and death, responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, causing around one in four cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. There is no more dangerous product that is legally sold in our shops than tobacco, a product that will kill two thirds of its users.
The health advice on vaping is clear, vaping can play a role in helping adult smokers to quit, but if you don’t smoke, don’t vape. Vaping should never be used by, or targeted at, children, especially given the highly addictive nature of nicotine.
This is why we have announced strong measures to reduce the appeal, availability, and affordability of vapes to children, whilst ensuring that vapes remain an available quit aid for adult smokers. We will also ban the sale and supply of disposable vapes, which are clearly linked to the recent rise in vaping in children.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing carers of children and young people with cancer to apply for Carer’s Allowance prior to the child or young person being cared for receiving the associated disability benefit.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on the number of delayed applications is not collected and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
It is a long standing principle that Carer’s Allowance can only be awarded once a decision has been made to award the “trigger” disability benefit to the person being cared for, but the award of Carer’s Allowance can be backdated to the date that the disability benefit is payable from.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of financial support available for carers of children and young people with cancer for (a) travel costs, (b) energy bills, (c) accommodation and (d) dietary requirements.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises and appreciates the vital role unpaid carers play in caring for, and supporting, members of their own family.
Providing they meet the entitlement conditions, unpaid carers of children and young people with cancer may be able to receive Carer’s Allowance and/or an extra amount in means tested benefits, including Universal Credit. Carer’s Allowance provides a measure of financial support and recognition for people who are not able to work full time because of their caring responsibilities. The extra amounts in means tested benefits at least partly recognise the additional costs associated with providing unpaid care.
Disability benefits, such as Disability Living Allowance for children and Personal Independence Payment, are available as a contribution towards the extra costs of being disabled and recipients are free to choose how they spend them.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of workforce requirements for (a) babies and (b) children with neurodevelopmental conditions.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No recent assessments have been made. We are working closely with the Department for Education to ensure that children and young people with Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND) receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.
We are taking forward work to better understand the health needs of children and young people with SEND so that these needs can be better met as we plan what workforce we need. A research commission from the National Institute for Health and Care Research to understand the demand for therapists for children with SEND was issued January 2024.
In June 2023, we published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. The LTWP applies to all workforce groups, including those working with babies and children with neurodevelopmental conditions.
The modelling NHS England has used in the plan is founded on data, evidence and analysis and provides a set of broad ranges to measure the potential impact of actions over its 15-year timeframe. We have committed to refreshing the modelling that underpins the plan every two years or in line with fiscal events.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve early diagnosis and intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise timely identification of autism can play an important role in enabling children and young people to get appropriate support, which is crucial in preventing escalation of needs. We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population in line with these NICE guidelines, including in relation to autism assessment. While we want every area to meet NICE guidance, we recognise that this is not happening everywhere.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services in an online-only format. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service. This includes guidance to local areas on how to manage referrals and the support that should be available whilst people are waiting for an assessment and after.
In 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available across England to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services. We are also working in partnership with the Department for Education and NHS England on ‘Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in School’ (PINS), with £13 million of funding to test ideas that will improve access to specialist support for neurodiverse children in mainstream primary schools.
Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the Board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autistic people, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.