Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average time is for her Department to approve mergers between pre-schools and primary schools; what steps her Department is taking to (a) reduce that time and (b) help ensure (i) safeguarding during transition and (ii) continuity of funding for childcare; and how many mergers between pre-schools and primary schools her Department has approved in the last 12 months.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are responsible for making decisions on statutory proposals to alter the age range of maintained schools, including by the addition of a nursery.
Academies wishing to alter their age range must submit an application for a significant change to the department. In the last 12 months, the department received over 100 significant change applications to change the age range at an academy. The current data collection does not break this down further to enable the department to provide information on the number of schools that have requested to change their age range to add provision for nursery age children. The department does not collect data on the average length of time taken to reach a decision as applications can differ in their complexity.
The department has published revised guidance which will come into effect from the end of April 2024. The guidance sets out an updated application process that will allow low risk changes to progress to a decision more quickly following the necessary checks, which will streamline the application process. When implemented, the department will also be introducing a new data collection system to track application information in more detail.
With regards to safeguarding, schools must continue to have regard to the statutory guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64f0a68ea78c5f000dc6f3b2/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2023.pdf. All early years settings must follow the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework throughout any transition period.
Local authorities remain responsible for the continuation of funding, as they are required to ensure sufficiency of childcare places in their areas. Early years entitlements funding for children in nursery classes up to reception age would continue until those children moved into reception.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate the Government has made of the average hourly wage for staff in the childcare sector.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
According to survey estimates, the mean hourly pay (calculated as gross weekly earnings divided by contracted weekly work hours) for people working in the early years sector in 2021 was as follows, by provider type:
Early years provider type | Mean hourly pay (2021) |
All providers | £12.50 |
All providers except childminders | £12.94 |
Private providers | £11.94 |
Voluntary providers | £11.58 |
Nursery classes | £18.78 |
Maintained nursery schools | £19.38 |
Childminders | £8.23 |
Source: Table 12, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providers-finances-survey-of-childcare-and-ey-providers-2021.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the number of nursery school places that were available in (a) North Swindon, (b) South Swindon, (c) Bournemouth East, (d) Bournemouth West, (e) Bristol East, (f) Bristol North West, (g) Bristol South, (h) Bristol West, (i) Exeter, (j) Filton and Bradley Stoke, (k) Kingswood and (l) Stroud constituency in (i) May 1997, (ii) May 2010, (iii) December 2019 and (iv) June 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. However, it does not hold figures on the number of places available in nursery classes in schools.
According to findings from the 2021 Childcare and early years providers survey, 7 in 10 group-based providers reported having spare places in their full day provision and almost half of childminders (49%) reported having spare capacity on average across the week. The survey is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2021.
The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children, and Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015. The department also discusses sufficiency of provision in regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any substantial sufficiency issues and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure a childcare place.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, when admitted to mainstream schools, pupils receive a Unique Pupil Number; and if so, how this number is used to track the educational journey of a child.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Unique pupil numbers (UPNs) are allocated to pupils at the point of first entry into the state funded school sector. This is usually when a pupil joins a nursery or primary school, including joining nursery classes in a primary school. It can also be when a pupil enters the state funded school sector later in their school career.
UPNs are primarily used to facilitate the transfer of school-based education and attainment data through the state funded school system in England. The system enables accurate and timely data sharing between schools or academies, local authorities and central government and enable the operational and analytical longitudinal linking of education data throughout a pupil’s school career.
For example, UPNs allow us to link data provided by schools and local authorities via statutory data collections, such as the school census, to attainment data from awarding bodies. This provides the department, education providers, Parliament and the wider public with a clear picture of how the education and children’s services sectors are working. This helps these sectors to better target and evaluate policy interventions to help ensure all children are kept safe from harm and receive the best possible education.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to add British Sign Language to mainstream curriculum classes for (1) nursery, (2) primary school, and (3) secondary school.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has recognised British Sign Language (BSL) as a language since 2003. Teaching BSL is not a compulsory part of the national curriculum nor the early years foundation stage learning and development requirements. However, schools and nurseries are free to offer BSL and accredited BSL qualifications as part of their wider curriculum, or as a varied programme of extra-curricular activities, to meet the needs of their pupils and children if they wish. There are currently no plans to add BSL to mainstream curriculum classes for nursery, primary school or secondary school.
The department is aiming to introduce a GCSE in BSL as soon as possible, provided it meets the rigorous requirements that apply to all GCSEs. The department is working closely with subject experts and Ofqual to develop draft subject content and will aim to consult publicly later this year. The department is also engaging with Ofqual to ensure the subject content can be assessed appropriately and will be working with relevant parties to ensure that a wide range of views are reflected.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure that only the children of (a) key workers and (b) people who cannot work from home will be accepted at nurseries during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government continues to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of our young children. Early years provision should remain open and continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetable hours. This includes early years registered nurseries and childminders, maintained nursery schools, as well as nursery classes in schools and other pre-reception provision on school sites.
Early years childcare providers were one of the first sectors to have restrictions lifted last summer, in recognition of the key role they play in society. Childminders and nursery staff across the country have worked hard to keep settings open through the COVID-19 outbreak so that young children can be educated, and families supported.
The earliest years are the most crucial point of child development and attending early education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports children’s social and emotional development.
We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open in full because of the clear benefits to children’s education and wellbeing. Caring for the youngest age group is not something that can be done remotely.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of childcare arrangements for key workers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced on 4 January 2021 that early years settings remain open for all children during the national lockdown. Details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home. For school-aged children, schools, childminders and wraparound care remain open for vulnerable children and children of key workers.
Early years provision should continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetabled hours. This includes early years registered nurseries and childminders, maintained nursery schools, as well as nursery classes in schools and other pre-reception provision on school sites. Only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should attend on-site reception classes. Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to 5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission.
We do stay in regular contact with the early years sector, and we are closely monitoring both parental take-up of places and the capacity and responses of providers. An estimated 49,000 early years settings were open on 7 January 2021. This represents 72% of all settings, with 13% closed and 15% unknown. The percentage closed may include some providers which are open, due to differences in the ways local authorities collect data and report non-responses.
The Department for Education does not hold a central register of all wraparound provision and so does not routinely collect data on the number of providers in operation. However, ensuring sufficiency of childcare provision for critical worker parents and carers remains a government priority. This is why we have ensured that wraparound childcare providers, and other providers of out-of-school activities, can continue to remain open during the current national lockdown for the children of critical workers to support their parents or carers to work, seek work, undertake training or education, or to attend a medical appointment or address a medical need, as well as for all vulnerable children. We have also published updated guidance on ‘Protective measures for holiday and after-school clubs, and other out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ to support providers to continue to operate as safely as possible during the national lockdown. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
In addition, we are encouraging all schools to continue offering their before and after school provision to ensure parents and carers who are critical workers can continue to work, as well as to ensure vulnerable children continue to have access to this valuable provision. Schools can also continue to open up or hire out their premises for use by external wraparound providers, such as after-school or holiday clubs, to support them to do so.
Our Regional Education and Children Team, comprising education and social care staff from both the Department for Education and Ofsted, are also continuing to work closely with local authorities, and will act as a valuable source of intelligence on the sufficiency of wraparound and early years childcare places for the children of critical workers, and for vulnerable children and young people during the current national lockdown.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide funding to enable private early years nurseries to close to all but vulnerable children and those of key workers during the national lockdown.
Answered by Vicky Ford
On 4 January 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced all early years settings will remain open to all children despite the national lockdown and will continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetable hours. This includes early years registered nurseries and childminders, maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in schools and other pre-reception provision on school sites. Only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should attend on-site reception classes.
Early years settings have been open to all children since 1 June 2020 and current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to 5 years of age) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission.
Early years settings were one of the first sectors to have restrictions lifted last summer, in recognition of the key role they play in society. Childminders and nursery staff across the country have worked hard to keep settings open through the COVID-19 outbreak so that young children can be educated, and parents can work. The earliest years are the most crucial point of child development and attending early education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports children’s social and emotional development. We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open in full because of the clear benefits to children’s education and wellbeing and to support working parents. Caring for the youngest age group is not something that can be done remotely.
The national lockdown announced by the Prime Minister on 4 January 2021 means the number of children attending childcare will be lower even though early years settings may welcome all children.
Under these arrangements local authorities should ensure that providers are not penalised for short-term absences of children (for example sickness, arriving late or leaving early, or a family emergency) through withdrawing funding but use their discretion where absence is recurring or for extended periods, taking into account the reason for the absence and the impact on the provider.
We stay in regular contact with the early years sector and have heard from them already on this subject. We publish regular official statistics on attendance in early years settings here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. This will next be updated on 19 January 2021. We will be closely monitoring both parental take-up of places and the capacity and responses of providers and will keep the need for further action under constant review.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether additional funding will be made available to schools to acquire additional space in which to teach appropriately distanced classes during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
From 1 June, primary schools have been able to welcome back children in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside children of critical workers and vulnerable children. Each school’s circumstances will be slightly different. Any school that cannot achieve the small group sizes set out in the protective measures guidance for the current phase of wider opening should discuss options with their local authority or academy trust. If necessary, schools have the flexibility to focus first on continuing to provide places for priority groups and then, to support children’s early learning, schools should prioritise groups of children as follows:
We know that in some schools, there will be capacity to welcome more children back, in group sizes of no more than 15, before the summer holidays. Primary schools have the flexibility to do this, but should only welcome back additional children where provision for eligible groups has already been made, and where they do not require additional funding, staff or classrooms to do so.
We have published guidance on the additional funding we are providing to schools to cover unavoidable costs incurred due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources. The fund is targeted towards the costs we have identified as the biggest barrier to schools operating as they need to at this challenging time.
The cost categories covered by the fund are clearly set out in the guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020. These are: the increased premises-related costs of opening over school 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 relating to cases or suspected cases of coronavirus, above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to support teachers in providing face-to-face and online support to students in different year groups and classes during the proposed phased re-opening of schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has asked primary schools to welcome back children in nursery, Reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside priority groups (vulnerable children and children of key workers), from 1 June. From 15 June, secondary schools can invite year 10 and 12 pupils (years 10 and 11 for alternative provision schools) back into school for some face-to-face support with their teachers, to supplement their remote education, which will remain the predominant mode of education for these pupils this term. Priority groups can continue to attend full-time.
The Department has published guidance to help schools prepare for wider opening which includes sections on curriculum as well as staff workload and wellbeing. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-educational-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020/actions-for-education-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020.
The Department has also published a planning guide for primary schools which includes a section on what to teach and how. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-primary-schools.
Guidance for secondary school provision is also available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools.
Teachers will continue to be able to access support to deliver remote teaching to year groups not eligible to be in school at this time. Schools are encouraged to consider how Oak National Academy or other remote education platforms can provide additional support, as well as how education delivered in school, if manageable, could be made available to pupils learning remotely. The Department has provided a range of information, guidance and support for teachers on educating children during the COVID-19 outbreak which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.