Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who are absent from school who have (a) mental health challenges, (b) care experience, (c) experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences, (d) learning differences and (e) SEND.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information on absence by the specific categories of mental health challenges, care experience or learning differences, but does hold absence data by special educational need (SEN) primary need and SEN provision. This is published in the ’Pupil Absence in Schools in England’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. The following links give absence rates by SEN primary need and SEN provision in England in 2021/22: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/4f2e3e6f-bd4d-475a-f345-08dc3835f618, and: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/e227eadc-6f55-4c88-525a-08dc3ae70a0c.
Information on the number of children looked after who have been absent from school is published annually in the ’Outcomes for Children in Need, Including Children Looked After in England’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/outcomes-for-children-in-need-including-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities-in-england. The following link gives information on absence rates for children looked after on 31 March 2022: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/62dd649a-c5bd-4bc7-f354-08dc3835f618.
The department does not hold data on ‘off-rolling’. The government is clear that off-rolling (the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion, when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than the best interests of the pupil) is unacceptable in any form and continues to work with Ofsted to tackle it.
The department does not hold information on suspensions by the specific categories of mental health challenges, care experienced or learning differences, but does hold suspensions data by SEN primary need and SEN provision. This is published in the ’Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions in England’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england. The following links give suspension rates by SEN primary need and SEN provision in England in 2021/22: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d4cda29e-4001-4c50-525d-08dc3ae70a0c, and: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a5b1881-c48c-46fd-525e-08dc3ae70a0c.
Information on the number of children looked after with a suspension is published annually in the ‘Outcomes for Children in Need, Including Children Looked After in England’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/outcomes-for-children-in-need-including-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities-in-england. The following link gives information on suspension rates for children looked after on 31 March 2021: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/43a05b59-1957-41b0-5268-08dc3ae70a0c.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help close skills gaps in the (a) public and (b) private sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality and fit for the future. The department’s reforms are strengthening higher and further education to help more people get good jobs and upskill and retrain throughout their lives, as well as to improve national productivity and economic growth. These reforms are backed with an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen higher and further education. The department’s reforms will help equip people with the education, training and skills that employers demand both in the public and private sector.
The department has established the Unit for Future Skills (UFS), which provides decision makers in skills system with information they need to invest in the right skills to meet national and local employer needs and support economic growth. The work of the UFS aims to improve data and evidence to support a better understanding of current skill mismatches and future demand throughout the country.
Apprenticeships are crucial in driving growth and social mobility as they boost skills across the economy and improve people's earnings and career opportunities nationwide. To support growth, the department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, which will encourage more employers across the country to recruit new apprentices.
The department has introduced employer-designed T levels which are equipping thousands of young people with the skills, knowledge, and experience to access employment or further study in some of the most in-demand skills areas. 18 T levels are now available, being delivered through over 250 providers across all regions of the country.
The department has invested £300 million to establish 21 Institutes of Technology (IoT) across England to significantly increase the number of learners with higher level technical skills and offering an alternative route to high paid jobs. IoTs bring education and industry together to deliver world class technical education and training in key STEM subjects aligned to the skills needs of the local economy they serve.
The department is delivering reforms to increase the profile, prestige, and uptake of higher technical education. Central to these reforms is the introduction of Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), which are Level 4/5 qualifications approved against employer-developed standard and quality marked by the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education. This means students and employers can have the confidence that HTQs provide skills employers need. To date, 172 qualifications have been approved as HTQs across seven occupational routes and over 140 providers are approved to deliver HTQs.
The department has introduced the Free Courses for Jobs scheme which enables eligible adults to gain a high value qualification for free. In addition, the department has also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer.
The department has established Local Skills Improvement Plans across the country, which are employer-led, locally owned plans. They have galvanised and brought together businesses, providers, local leaders and stakeholders to help better align provision of post-16 technical education and training with local labour market needs.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a violence reduction unit in Bournemouth to tackle knife crime.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) can play a key role in the implementation of a whole-system, or public-health, approach to tackling violence. The value of such approaches is recognised in the Government’s 2018 Serious Violence Strategy.
Since 2019, the Government has provided over £160m to support the implementation of VRUs, with a further £55m invested in 23/24. Violence is strongly linked to specific geographies and to ensure maximum impact, this funding is targeted at 20 force areas that collectively experience the highest volumes of violent offences (around 80% of relevant offences). In light of the number of violent offences taking place in the Dorset Force area, Dorset does not currently meet the threshold for VRU funding specifically.
We recognise, however, that a public health approach can still have value in areas with comparatively lower levels of violence, and that is why in 2023, we introduced the Serious Violence Duty, which requires specified authorities across England and Wales to work together to plan to prevent and reduce serious violence in their local areas. Local areas may choose to implement VRU-style partnerships as part of their work to fulfil obligations arising under the Duty. Useful information for those wishing to do so can be found here: Violence Reduction Units 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Government remains committed to providing the resources needed to tackle violent crime. We have provided funding to support implementation of the Duty, which for Dorset, amounts to £292k in 23/24, and we have also recently confirmed Dorset’s police funding settlement of £179.8 million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £11.1 million when compared to 2023/24. In addition, in recognition of recent exceptional policing demand arising in Bournemouth, we are pleased to have recently approved, on an exceptional basis, an additional £600k in 23/24 to enable Dorset Police to respond to this pressure.
Asked by: Baroness Sherlock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Ofsted Annual Report 2022/23: education, children’s services and skills, published on 23 November 2023, what plans they have to implement the recommendation contained in that report to ensure curriculum publishers identify clearly what pupils will learn and when, in relation to religious education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Religious Education (RE) is an important part of a school’s curriculum and can contribute to a young person’s personal, social and academic development. When taught well, the subject develops children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, helps them to better understand those of other countries, and refines pupils’ ability to construct well-informed, balanced, and structured arguments. This is why it remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools in England for each pupil up to the age of 18.
Whilst the department read Ofsted’s recommendations with interest, the department believes that RE curricula should continue to be designed at a local level, whether that is through locally agreed syllabuses or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula. It will remain for individual schools to plan, organise, and deliver their curriculum, so that local demographics can be appropriately accounted for.
In maintained schools without a religious designation, Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACRE) should monitor the provision and quality of RE taught according to its agreed syllabus, together with the overall effectiveness of the syllabus.
Academies are accountable for the quality of their curricular provision, including for RE. They can choose to adopt a locally agreed syllabus or develop its own, as long as it meets the requirements of a locally agreed syllabus.
The department does, however, welcome the work that the Religious Education Council (REC) has done to assist curriculum developers by publishing its National Content Standard for RE in England. This is not in itself a curriculum but, without specifying precisely the content that schools should teach, provides a non-statutory benchmark against which syllabus providers and others could choose to inform and evaluate their work.
To support teachers, and to ensure high standards and consistency in RE teaching, resources will be procured by Oak National Academy during the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high-quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils, should schools opt to use them. Oak RE resources will be available for teaching from autumn 2024, with full packages expected to be available by autumn 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Sherlock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Ofsted Annual Report 2022/23: education, children’s services and skills, published on 23 November 2023, what plans they have to implement the recommendation contained in that report to clarify expectations about the level of religious education provision in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Religious Education (RE) is an important part of a school’s curriculum and can contribute to a young person’s personal, social and academic development. When taught well, the subject develops children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, helps them to better understand those of other countries, and refines pupils’ ability to construct well-informed, balanced, and structured arguments. This is why it remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools in England for each pupil up to the age of 18.
Whilst the department read Ofsted’s recommendations with interest, the department believes that RE curricula should continue to be designed at a local level, whether that is through locally agreed syllabuses or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula. It will remain for individual schools to plan, organise, and deliver their curriculum, so that local demographics can be appropriately accounted for.
In maintained schools without a religious designation, Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACRE) should monitor the provision and quality of RE taught according to its agreed syllabus, together with the overall effectiveness of the syllabus.
Academies are accountable for the quality of their curricular provision, including for RE. They can choose to adopt a locally agreed syllabus or develop its own, as long as it meets the requirements of a locally agreed syllabus.
The department does, however, welcome the work that the Religious Education Council (REC) has done to assist curriculum developers by publishing its National Content Standard for RE in England. This is not in itself a curriculum but, without specifying precisely the content that schools should teach, provides a non-statutory benchmark against which syllabus providers and others could choose to inform and evaluate their work.
To support teachers, and to ensure high standards and consistency in RE teaching, resources will be procured by Oak National Academy during the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high-quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils, should schools opt to use them. Oak RE resources will be available for teaching from autumn 2024, with full packages expected to be available by autumn 2025.
Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sector-based work academies have taken place in total and in each (a) country and (b) region of the UK since the programme began.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Sector-based work academies were launched in August 2011 in England and January 2012 in Scotland. Regular statistical releases on sector-based work academies, covering participation by those on legacy unemployment benefits, began in 2011 and ended in 2017. These statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/employment-schemes-work-experience-sector-based-work-academy-and-skills-conditionality-starts-to-november-2017
The scheme was relaunched as Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) in July 2020 as part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs. Due to data limitations, we are unable to provide a geographical breakdown for SWAPs that took place before the start of the 2021/22 financial year.
Data for the financial years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 to date shows that, as of 28 January 2024, there were a total of 266,330 starts to a Sector-based Work Academy Programme. The breakdowns of these starts are provided in the attached tables. Final start figures for 2023/24 will be available early next financial year.
Notes on the data:
Attached are tables listing the number of SWAP starts to date by Country, Region, Local Authority, Sector and Age band. The figures used are correct as of 28 January 2024 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
These figures reflect the number of starts by claimants in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Income Support (IS).
It is important to note that the information provided shows the current home location of the person who has started a SWAP. For starts by those in receipt of JSA, ESA or IS, due to data limitations a location cannot be assigned to these starts and as such they are categorised as unknown within the figures. SWAPs are run in England and Scotland, where a person’s current home location is outside of this they have also been categorised as unknown.
Although care is taken when processing and recording SWAP starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any clerical recording system, but is provided in the interests of transparency.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report by Together for Short Lives entitled The deep disparity in NHS funding for children who need hospice care, published on 13 December 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that access to high-quality, palliative and end of life care can make all the difference to individuals and their loved ones. The commissioning of children and young people’s palliative and end of life care services is the statutory duty of integrated care boards (ICBs). ICBs must commission palliative and end of life care services in response to the needs of their population, provided by a range of local organisations with the experience and skills to meet those needs.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their families. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the ICB footprint. Charitable hospices are autonomous organisations that provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide. Consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.
Due to the way the hospice movement organically grew, hospice locations were largely not planned with geographic or demographic purposes as a driving force. Therefore, there are inequalities with access to hospice services, especially for those living in rural or socio-economically deprived areas. It is therefore vital that hospices and statutory services work together to provide ensure their populations have access to palliative and end of life care when they need it.
At a national level, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan commitment, NHS England (NHSE) has provided circa £12 million match-funding to participating ICBs (and formerly clinical commissioning groups) between 2020/21 and 2023/24 which committed to invest in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including children and young people’s hospices, giving a total investment of £24 million. In addition, NHSE supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. NHSE has confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need.
NHSE’s palliative and end of life care team has recently engaged with 24 ICBs to understand how to better support commissioners and has also reviewed all 42 ICB Joint Forward Plans for their inclusion of palliative and end of life care, with 69% of those plans making a specific mention. Further analysis is ongoing, but the intention is to use this information to help shape and focus support to ICBs.
Palliative and end of life care has been added to the agenda for Regional Quality and Performance meetings. Additionally, NHSE has commissioned the development of a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of those their local population, including the ability to filter the available information, such as by deprivation or ethnicity, thereby, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was spent by the probation service on drug treatment programs in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Drug treatment in the community in England is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), via local authorities, not by the Ministry of Justice. As part of our ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, DHSC has invested an additional £532m over three years in increasing substance misuse treatment in England. This includes recruiting dedicated criminal justice focused staff who work across police, custody, courts and probation.
Commissioning of treatment for offenders is different in Wales, and is a partnership between Police and Crime Commissioners, local Area Planning Boards and HM Prison and Probation Service. HMPPS has contributed £9.7m to this joint commissioning over the past three years, supporting the recruitment of criminal justice focused staff and dedicated staff with lived experience.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to supporting offenders to engage with treatment to tackle the addictions that drive their crime. To do this, we have recruited Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators nationwide to build stronger links between probation and treatment providers, increased our capability to drug test offenders with a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement as part of a community sentence, and procured 650 additional laptops to enable prison leavers to attend initial appointments with community treatment pre-release.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to increase (a) charge rates and (b) support for victims of crime in (i) Newport West and (ii) Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
(a) We are working with partners across the CJS to increase the number of cases being charged and prosecuted, and reduce the time taken to reach this point. We are freeing up the police from unnecessary burdens, such as through the Right Care Right Person model for mental health, so they can focus on keeping the public safe, and are investing in technology to speed up police’s work on case files, such as automating redaction. We also welcome the recent commitment from police forces across England and Wales to pursue all leads where there is a reasonable chance it could result in catching a perpetrator and solving a crime (Police pledge to pursue any reasonable lead to solve more crime - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
(b) We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. There are over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak before the Police Uplift Programme, in March 2010. At 30 September 2023, Gwent police had 1,527 officers and all forces in Wales had a total of 8,108 officers.
(c) Protecting victims and improving their experience and the support they receive is a key priority for the Government. We recognise the importance of victims having access to the support they may need to cope and recover from the impact of crime. The Government is quadrupling funding for victim services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) provides all Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales with grant funding to commission victim support services for victims of all crime types. PCCs are best placed to understand their local communities and providers, and to commission appropriate support to meet that need. The total allocation for Gwent PCC for 22/23 was £1,306,258.40.
We have also recommissioned the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF), which is providing £26 million between August 2023 and March 2025 to more than 60 specialist sexual violence victim support services across England and Wales. Further details on the breakdown of funding, including which services are funded in Wales can be found in the data on organisations awarded funding from the RASASF
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will meet with the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate and Barnardo’s to discuss how local authorities can work with partners to prevent the over-criminalisation of Black children in the care system.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We recognise that children in care are more likely than their peers in the general population to have contact with the criminal justice system. That is why we published a joint national protocol with the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in 2018 on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked after children and care leavers: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-protocol-on-reducing-criminalisation-of-looked-after-children. The protocol was produced with the input of local authority representatives, and other partners. Since the publication of the protocol, the proportion of children in care aged 10-17 who are charged with an offence or receive a caution has reduced from 3% in 2019 to 2% in 2023. Latest data for year ending March 2023 also show that 3% of care leavers age 19-21 were in custody. This figure has remained the same for the last 5 years.
We are also taking action on risk factors that can lead to criminal behaviour including through our work to improve school attendance.
Through the care leaver Ministerial Board, we are working closely with MoJ to improve support and outcomes of care-experienced people in the criminal justice system.
The MoJ is currently updating its strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure that their time in the criminal justice system is used to support them to lead crime-free lives. The strategy will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience, and will link to wider departmental efforts to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system. The MoJ are aiming to publish this strategy in 2024.