Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 Centre for Financial Capability’s finding that one-fifth of primary school children have access to financial education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants all young people to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The Department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and HM Treasury to consider the wide range of evidence for financial education, and to explore the opportunities to improve the availability to high quality financial education for all pupils. This evidence includes reports from the Centre for Financial Capability.
MaPS has a statutory duty to develop and coordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities. Their ten year strategy, published in 2020, set out their national goal that two million more children and young people will receive a meaningful financial education by 2030. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK. This can be found here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.
The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum which provides young people with the knowledge and financial capabilities to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content regarding financial education, such as calculations with money. Primary schools can also choose to teach financial education content within their citizenship curriculum, using the non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/citizenship-programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-1-and-2.
MaPS published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England, to support schools to enhance the financial education currently being taught. This guidance can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
The Department and MaPS will deliver a series of joint financial education webinars this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education for all pupils, improving teacher confidence and knowledge.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the current funding levels for each What Works Centre within the What Works Network.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The What Works Network helps deliver more effective and efficient public sector services by creating and sharing high-quality evidence to inform decisions by practitioners and policymakers.
The 13 What Works Centres that comprise the network receive funding from a variety of sources, and departments and public bodies are major funders for many.
The Education Endowment Foundation received a £125 million endowment in 2011 from the DfE, to be spent over 15 years. It received a subsequent £137 million endowment from DfE in 2022. It receives additional funding from the DfE and other parties as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending March 2022, it reported £30.4 million in grants from DfE.
The Youth Endowment Fund received a £200 million endowment in the Home Office in 2019, to be spent over 10 years. It receives additional funding from the Home Office (via a Centre of Excellence grant) and other parties as outlined in its annual report and financial statements.
The Youth Futures Foundation received £90 million via the Dormant Assets Scheme in 2019, and a further £20 million via the scheme in 2022. It receives a small amount of other grant income as outlined in its annual report and financial statements – in 2021 this other grant income was approximately £21,000.
The Centre for Homelessness Impact is primarily funded by an anonymous private donor. In the financial year ending June 2022, this total was £1.65 million. It receives additional funding from other parties – including DLUHC, MoJ, the Cabinet Office and the National Institute for Health Research – as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending June 2022, this additional funding amounted to approximately £462,000.
The Centre for Ageing Better received a £49.6 million endowment from the National Lottery Community Fund in 2014, to be spent over 15 years. It receives additional funding from other parties – including UKRI in the fiscal year ending March 2022 – as outlined in its Report of the Trustees and financial statements.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy was awarded £9 million in 2022, to be spent over five years. Its core funders are the Economic and Social Research Council, the Welsh Government and Cardiff University.
The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and three government departments: BEIS, DLUHC, and DfT. It has received approximately £1.4 million per year under its current grant.
Two centres – the Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children’s Social Care – have recently merged into one centre, which is operating as What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care. DfE has been the primary funder of both organisations historically, and plans to be the primary funder of this merged organisation in the future. The funding figures provided relate to the centres in their previous forms.
What Works Children’s Social Care was primarily funded by the DfE. In the financial year ending March 2022, the grants it received from DfE totalled approximately £17.4 million.
The Early Intervention Foundation received funding from multiple government departments and other funders, as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £2.4 million in restricted and unrestricted funding from its core cross-government grant, and approximately £184,000 from the Home Office.
What Works Centre for Wellbeing receives funding from a wide range of sources. Its largest funder is the National Lottery Community Fund – in the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £357,000 from them. It does not receive significant public funding – in the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £81,000 from DCMS.
The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education is primarily funded by the Office for Students, who’ve supported the centre with £4.5 million over 4 years since 2019.
Finally, there are three What Works Centres which sit within professional, arms-length or non-departmental public bodies. These are:
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
The What Works Centre for Crime Reduction (part of the College of Policing)
The Money and Pensions Service
Smaller What Works Centre functions sit within each of these larger organisations. The Cabinet Office does not have information regarding the precise funding levels available for the What Works sub-teams within these larger organisations, but the aggregate funding levels for these organisations should be accessible in the public domain.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve mental health provision for (a) all and (b) secondary school aged children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by 2023/24 so that an additional two million people, including 345,000 children and young people, can get the National Health Service funded mental health support that they need.
We also provided an additional £500 million to further expand mental health services in the 2021/22 financial year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This included £79 million, which allowed around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more to access eating disorder services and accelerated the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges.
There are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 primary and secondary schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. Over 500 mental health support teams are planned to be up and running by 2024.
We also launched a campaign through the NHS Every Mind Matters website to raise awareness of the guidance and tools available to support children and young people’s mental wellbeing.
Through the new mandatory health education curriculum, pupils are taught how to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns, including common types of mental ill health, where and how to seek support and whom they should speak to in school if they’re worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that all children in secondary schools receive financial education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Financial education forms part of the citizenship National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, which is a statutory subject for Local Authority maintained schools, but can be taught by academies. Through citizenship, secondary school pupils are taught about income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent.
The mathematics curriculum includes a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that primary pupils should be taught. A strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. The secondary mathematics curriculum develops pupils’ understanding in relation to more complex personal finance issues such as calculating loan repayments, interest rates and compound interest.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has set out a new mission to ensure all pupils study some form of mathematics to age 18. Studying mathematics to 18 will equip young people with the quantitative and statistical skills that they will need for the jobs of today and the future. This includes having the right skills to feel confident with finances in later life, including finding the best mortgage deal or savings rate.
The Government is not planning to make an assessment of access to financial education in each region. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has a statutory objective to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK and further details can be found here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.
As part of this, MaPS has published guidance to support head teachers to enhance their financial education provision, which is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
The Department and MaPS are planning a series of joint financial education webinars during this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education, improving pupils’ knowledge and teachers’ confidence.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the level of regional disparities in access to financial education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Financial education forms part of the citizenship National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, which is a statutory subject for Local Authority maintained schools, but can be taught by academies. Through citizenship, secondary school pupils are taught about income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent.
The mathematics curriculum includes a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that primary pupils should be taught. A strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. The secondary mathematics curriculum develops pupils’ understanding in relation to more complex personal finance issues such as calculating loan repayments, interest rates and compound interest.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has set out a new mission to ensure all pupils study some form of mathematics to age 18. Studying mathematics to 18 will equip young people with the quantitative and statistical skills that they will need for the jobs of today and the future. This includes having the right skills to feel confident with finances in later life, including finding the best mortgage deal or savings rate.
The Government is not planning to make an assessment of access to financial education in each region. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has a statutory objective to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK and further details can be found here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.
As part of this, MaPS has published guidance to support head teachers to enhance their financial education provision, which is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
The Department and MaPS are planning a series of joint financial education webinars during this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education, improving pupils’ knowledge and teachers’ confidence.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the financial literacy of school children in Coventry North West constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that pupils are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
Financial education forms part of the citizenship curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, but can be taught at all Key Stages. More information on the National Curriculum can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum. The subject covers the functions and uses of money, the importance of personal budgeting, money management and managing financial risk. At secondary school, pupils are taught content on income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings, pensions, financial products and services and how public money is raised and spent.
The mathematics curriculum includes an emphasis on the essential arithmetic that primary pupils should be taught. A strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money. The secondary mathematics curriculum develops pupils’ understanding in relation to more complex personal finance issues such as calculating loan repayments, interest rates and compound interest.
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has published guidance to support head teachers to enhance their financial education provision. This is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
The Department and MaPS are planning a series of joint financial education webinars during this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education, improving pupils’ knowledge and teachers’ confidence.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the implications for her policies of the finding in the Centre for Financial Capacity’s report entitled 1 Year On July 2021 – July 2022, published in July 2022, that one-fifth of children have access to financial education at primary school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants all young people to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The Department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and HM Treasury to consider the wide range of evidence for financial education, including reports from the Centre for Financial Capability, and to explore the opportunities to improve access for all pupils to high quality financial education.
MaPS has a statutory duty to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities and their ten-year strategy, published in 2020, set out their national goal that two million more children and young people will receive a meaningful financial education by 2030. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK, which are available here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.
The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum which provides young people with the arithmetic that pupils should be taught to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This is vital, as a strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content on financial education, such as calculations with money. Primary schools can also choose to teach financial education content within their citizenship curriculum, using the non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/citizenship-programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-1-and-2.
MaPS published guidance for primary and secondary schools in England, to support headteachers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools. The guidance can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
The Department and MaPS will deliver a series of joint financial education webinars this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education for all pupils and improving teacher confidence and knowledge, as well as providing a launchpad for further engagement with training and resources to support continuous improvement.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help improve financial inclusion for people under 18.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government wants to ensure that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable financial products and services and is committed to ensuring that people build financial capability. This means they are able to use, and maximise their use of, products and services made available by the financial services industry.
To promote financial inclusion and capability, the Government works closely together with regulators and stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors. For people under the age of 18, economic and financial education are important parts of a broad and balanced curriculum that provide the essential knowledge to ensure that young people are prepared to manage money well and make sound financial decisions.
Financial education is a statutory part of the national citizenship curriculum for 11- to 16-year-olds in England and primary schools can choose to teach citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study.
To further support schools to deliver high quality financial education, the Money and Pensions Service published financial education guidance for schools in England in 2021. This guidance supports school leaders and education decision makers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to improve financial inclusion of under-18s.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government wants to ensure that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable financial products and services and is committed to ensuring that people build financial capability. This means they are able to use, and maximise their use of, products and services made available by the financial services industry.
To promote financial inclusion and capability, the Government works closely together with regulators and stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors. For people under the age of 18, economic and financial education are important parts of a broad and balanced curriculum that provide the essential knowledge to ensure that young people are prepared to manage money well and make sound financial decisions.
Financial education is a statutory part of the national citizenship curriculum for 11- to 16-year-olds in England and primary schools can choose to teach citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study.
To further support schools to deliver high quality financial education, the Money and Pensions Service published financial education guidance for schools in England in 2021. This guidance supports school leaders and education decision makers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including financial education for primary school children in the allocation of the dormant assets identified by the Dormant Assets Act 2022.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)