Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including teaching on suicide and self-harm prevention in the national curriculum; and what steps he is taking to help ensure students starting examinations have access to mental health and other support services.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.
Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that where teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.
Schools and other education providers should be preparing all children and young people for examinations and should have strong pastoral support in place to help pupils deal with any worries they might have throughout the year.
Ofqual has a series of dedicated resources on exam anxiety and stress. This includes a practical guide for students on coping with exam pressure, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students. The NHS have also produced advice and guidance aimed at parents and carers on supporting their child through examinations, accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/advice-for-parents/help-your-child-beat-exam-stress/.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is planning to take in the proposed 10-year suicide prevention strategy that will help tackle suicides among school and university students.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent suicides. We continue to work with experts and to review our plans to ensure they are fit for the future. The mental health and wellbeing of students in schools and universities, including suicide prevention, is a government priority. The department has been working closely with higher education (HE) providers, schools and health colleagues to ensure students are supported.
As part of a coordinated, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, the department is committed to ensuring schools provide safe, calm, and supportive environments, with access to early, targeted support. This is vital in preventing the onset, progression, and escalation of ill mental health. We are enabling schools to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing by committing to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This is backed by £10 million in 2022/23. Over 8,000 schools and colleges, including half of state-funded secondary schools in England, have signed up so far.
The department is also expanding access to early, targeted mental health support by increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools and colleges to 400 by 2023, covering around 35% of pupils in England, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
Alongside these initiatives, we are promoting good mental health amongst children and young people through the school curriculum. Health education is compulsory in all schools and has a strong focus on mental wellbeing. Pupils are taught where and how to seek support for themselves as well as others. At secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss issues such as self-harm, addiction, and suicide when teaching these topics.
In addition to this, the department is funding a large-scale randomised control trial of approaches to improve pupil mental health and wellbeing in schools. The ‘Aware’ arm of the trial is testing approaches to mental health awareness teaching, including Youth Aware of Mental Health, which has good international evidence of reducing suicidal ideation. Moreover, colleges funded through the £5.4 million college collaboration fund have developed new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, with resources available to all further education providers online.
We also expect all universities to engage actively with suicide prevention, intervene to support students at risk, and act sensitively when a tragedy occurs.
The department supports the Suicide-Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK (UUK) and Papyrus. This framework supports university leaders to prevent student suicides, and support students and families after the death of a student. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter, led by Student Minds, which aims to raise standards in mental health provision across the sector.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to support mental health and wellbeing education in secondary and primary schools on (a) self-harm, (b) suicide, (c) addiction and (d) eating disorders.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
Relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) is now a compulsory part of the curriculum. The statutory guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The RSHE curriculum has a strong focus on mental wellbeing. The aim is to give pupils the information they need to make good decisions about their health and wellbeing, and to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns, including common types of mental ill health.
Pupils are taught where and how to seek support and whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing.
These subjects have been designed to support the development of pupils’ self-control and their ability to self-regulate. Body image and mental wellbeing are explicitly covered in the RSHE curriculum. At secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss issues such as self-harm, addiction and suicide when teaching these topics.
To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department has produced teacher training modules which are free to download. The mental wellbeing module contains key information to help inform teachers what they must teach. The module can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent guidance has been given to protect primary school children and staff from the Omicron variant of covid-19.
Answered by Robin Walker
COVID-19 continues to be a virus that we learn to live with and the imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education remains. The government continues to manage the risk of serious illness from the spread of COVID-19.
While it has been announced that face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors in classrooms, and from 27 January, face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors in communal areas, a range of protective measures remain in place in primary schools. Additionally, local directors of public health may temporarily advise the use of face coverings in communal areas where this is proportionate due to specific local public health concerns.
Testing remains important in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 within schools. Staff should continue to test twice weekly at home, with lateral flow device (LFD) test kits. Schools are encouraged to ask all visitors to take an LFD test before entering the school.
Young people aged 5 to 18 and fully vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19 can take an NHS LFD test every day for 7 days and continue to attend their school or college as normal, unless they have a positive test result. People with COVID-19 in England can now end their self-isolation after 5 full days if they test negative on day 5 and day 6.
Children aged 5 to 11 years in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed are now able to get 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine 8 weeks apart.
We have provided carbon dioxide monitors backed by £25 million in government funding. Over 99% of eligible maintained schools, further education colleges, and the majority of early years education providers have now received a carbon dioxide monitor with over 350,000 now delivered. The government is also making available a number of funded air cleaning units for poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.
Schools should regularly review their risk assessments as well as continuing to comply with health and safety law implementing proportionate control measures in line with our guidance, such as ensuring good hygiene for everyone and maintaining appropriate cleaning regimes. All education and childcare providers should already have their own contingency plans in place in cases of outbreaks within schools, as set out in the contingency framework here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-restrictions-in-education-and-childcare-settings, to help break the chains of transmissions.
The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health. This harm disproportionately affects children and young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Therefore, the government has made it a national priority that education and childcare providers should continue to operate as normally as possible during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she made of the impact on (a) children aged five to 11 who are clinically extremely vulnerable or who have a close relative who is immunosuppressed and (b) the staff working with those children who are either clinically extremely vulnerable or have a close relative who is immunosuppressed, of allowing children aged five to 11 in families where there is a confirmed covid-19 case to continue attending school; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department will always prioritise the health and welfare of staff, pupils and students.
At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, shielding was introduced as one of the few ways to support those who, at the time, were considered clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV).
The situation is now very different to when shielding was first introduced. We know a lot more about COVID-19 and what makes someone more or less vulnerable to the virus. The vaccine continues to be successfully rolled out, and other treatments and interventions are becoming available.
We are committed to protecting education, which is why the safety measures are based on the latest scientific advice and strike a balance between managing transmission risk with measures such as regular testing, enhanced ventilation and hygiene, and reducing disruption to face-to-face learning.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have not advised people to shield since 1 April 2021, and people previously identified as CEV were advised to follow the same guidance as the general population. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do.
All children and young people previously considered CEV were advised to return to childcare and education provision when shielding paused on 1 April. The decision to include children as part of the CEV group was based on the information that we had at the time. Now that we have more evidence, the clinical review panel has been able to recommend that all children and young people are no longer considered to be CEV and have been removed from the Shielded Patient List. However, if a child or young person has been advised to isolate or reduce their social contact by their specialist, due to the nature of their medical condition or treatment, they should continue to follow the advice of their specialist.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised that children aged 5 to 11 in a clinical risk group, and household contacts of individuals who are immunosuppressed, should be offered 2 10mcg doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with an interval of 8 weeks between the first and second doses. The NHS is working through updated guidance and will set out how this is going to be operationalised in due course.
Vaccines remain an effective measure against COVID-19. We recommend all school staff take up the offer of a vaccine.
Education providers should continue to ensure good hygiene for everyone, maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, keep spaces well ventilated and follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19. They should continue to conduct risk assessments for their particular circumstances and take appropriate action in line with our guidance, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.
It is important that we reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education, particularly given that the direct clinical risks to children are extremely low. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health, which is why children should continue to attend their education provision, unless they are symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19. All students and pupils aged 5 and above are strongly advised to take seven daily lateral flow device tests if they are identified by Test and Trace as a close contact of a confirmed positive case.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing targeted financial assistance to schools in response to the omicron covid-19 variant to support the (a) implementation of additional covid-19 safety measures on their premises and (b) purchase of air filtration devices where natural ventilation is limited due to design and capacity of buildings.
Answered by Robin Walker
The measures in place day-to-day in schools, colleges and nurseries to tackle COVID-19 are based on the latest scientific advice and strike a balance between managing transmission risk and reducing disruption to children and young people’s education.
The priority is for schools, colleges and nurseries to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all children, pupils and students. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, and mental and physical health. To manage COVID-19 transmission, education providers continue to ensure good hygiene for everyone, maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, keep occupied spaces well ventilated and follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation, face coverings and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.
To support schools with these measures, the department provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including nurseries, schools and further education colleges, backed by £25 million in government funding. We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the autumn term. Feedback following this roll out shows that in most schools, colleges and nurseries existing ventilation measures are sufficient.
For the very few cases where maintaining good ventilation is not possible, the department is supplying up to 7,000 air purifiers cleaning units. This is on top of the 1,000 funded units for special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision providers that we announced in November. We have also made over £100 million of funding available to secondary schools, colleges, and specialist providers to support them with the workforce costs associated with delivering on-site testing, and continue to do so, in line with departmental testing policy.
This should also be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. Overall, core schools funding will increase by £4 billion in financial year 2022/23 compared to 2021/22, a 5% real terms per pupil boost. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new school supplementary grant for financial year 2022/23. This funding boost will rapidly give schools the resources they need to rise to the challenges of COVID-19 response and recovery, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment and educational outcomes for all children and young people.
The vast majority of schools are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The latest published figures show that the percentage of both academy trusts and local authority maintained schools in surplus or breaking even increased compared to the previous reporting year. At the end of financial year 2020/21, 92% of local authority maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. At the end of the 2019/20 academic year, 96% of academy trusts were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 94% the previous year.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether additional guidance will be issued to supplement the existing guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education to help schools ensure pupils are kept safe online.
Answered by Robin Walker
This government is committed to keeping children safe both online and offline. All schools and colleges must have regard to the department's statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
This guidance provides schools and colleges with information on what they should be doing to protect pupils and students online.
The guidance is very clear on the actions a school or college should take if there are any concerns about a child’s wellbeing and/or safety. KCSIE, amongst other things, sets out that:
In addition, the department has published guidance on teaching online safety in schools and, through relationships, sex, and health education (RSHE), children will be taught about rules and principles for keeping safe online.
The statutory RSHE curriculum was introduced in September 2020. In these subjects, pupils are taught about online relationships, implications of sharing private or personal data online (including images), harmful content and contact, cyberbullying, an over-reliance on social media, how to be a discerning consumer of information and where to get help and support for issues that occur online.
Where it is required, schools are also expected to offer remote education to pupils who test positive for COVID-19 or present with COVID-19 symptoms where they are well enough to learn from home. There is a wide range of resources available to support schools and colleges to meet these expectations. The ‘Get Help with Remote Education’ page on gov.uk provides a one-stop-shop for teachers and leaders, signposting to support available. This includes a self-assessment framework to help schools and colleges understand where they are with their remote education provision, help to access technology that supports remote education, peer-to-peer training and guidance on how to use technology effectively and resources, and school-led webinars to support effective delivery of the curriculum.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department is providing to schools to ensure pupils are protected and kept safe in online spaces; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
This government is committed to keeping children safe both online and offline. All schools and colleges must have regard to the department's statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
This guidance provides schools and colleges with information on what they should be doing to protect pupils and students online.
The guidance is very clear on the actions a school or college should take if there are any concerns about a child’s wellbeing and/or safety. KCSIE, amongst other things, sets out that:
In addition, the department has published guidance on teaching online safety in schools and, through relationships, sex, and health education (RSHE), children will be taught about rules and principles for keeping safe online.
The statutory RSHE curriculum was introduced in September 2020. In these subjects, pupils are taught about online relationships, implications of sharing private or personal data online (including images), harmful content and contact, cyberbullying, an over-reliance on social media, how to be a discerning consumer of information and where to get help and support for issues that occur online.
Where it is required, schools are also expected to offer remote education to pupils who test positive for COVID-19 or present with COVID-19 symptoms where they are well enough to learn from home. There is a wide range of resources available to support schools and colleges to meet these expectations. The ‘Get Help with Remote Education’ page on gov.uk provides a one-stop-shop for teachers and leaders, signposting to support available. This includes a self-assessment framework to help schools and colleges understand where they are with their remote education provision, help to access technology that supports remote education, peer-to-peer training and guidance on how to use technology effectively and resources, and school-led webinars to support effective delivery of the curriculum.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has provided additional funding to schools to help implement covid-19-safe environments.
Answered by Robin Walker
The measures in place in education settings to tackle COVID-19 are based on the latest scientific advice and strike a balance between managing transmission risk and reducing disruption to children and young people’s education.
The priority is for education and childcare settings to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all pupils and students. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, and mental and physical health. To manage COVID-19 transmission, nurseries, schools and colleges should continue to ensure good hygiene for everyone, maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, keep occupied spaces well ventilated and follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation, face coverings and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.
In order to support schools with these measures, CO2 monitors have been provided to all state-funded schools starting from September, so staff can quickly identify where ventilation needs to be improved. The department has also made over £100 million of funding available to secondary schools, colleges and specialist settings to support them with the workforce costs associated with delivering on-site testing, and continue to do so, in line with departmental testing policy.
More generally, throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has ensured that all schools continued to receive their core funding as normal, regardless of any periods of reduced attendance. This year, mainstream school funding is increasing by 3.5% overall, and all schools are receiving at least a 2% increase to pupil-led per pupil funding.
As a result of the recent Spending Review, the department will be investing a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in 2022-23.
This investment includes a further £1.6 billion in financial year 2022-23, on top of year on year increases already announced. This additional funding will help the school sector respond to the pressures we know they are facing. The department will make announcements on the distribution of this additional funding shortly.
School leaders have the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to prioritise their spending to invest in a range of resources that will best support their staff and pupils.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact of pupil absences from school as a result of covid-19 on their education.
Answered by Robin Walker
Children and young people’s education has been significantly disrupted as a result of COVID-19. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health.
Ofsted has found that, despite remote education being offered, learning is still being lost when pupils and students have to self-isolate, particularly when this happens repeatedly. This has been reinforced by the World Health Organisation (WHO), whose updated recommendations are clear that measures should be implemented that protect in-person schooling in this academic year. More information is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1000025/Evidence_Summary_-_July_2021.pdf.
Our priority is for schools to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all pupils. As COVID-19 becomes a virus that we learn to live with, there is now an imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education. School attendance is mandatory for all pupils. Data published on 19 October shows that on 14 October nearly all state-funded schools were open and attendance in all state-funded schools was 90%, up from 89.5% on 30 September.
We have a comprehensive attendance strategy that has been implemented since the beginning of this academic year to ensure that any absence as a result of COVID-19 is minimised, and we are continuing to closely monitor absence levels and trends to ensure a focus on attendance remains throughout the rest of this academic year.
We know the COVID-19 outbreak has caused particular challenges for some children who may already have been disengaged from education. That is why we have been working closely with local authorities and schools to help them re-engage pupils, including providing best practice advice.
Helping children and young people to catch up on learning missed due to COVID-19 remains a top priority of this government, which is why, in addition to an ambitious wider settlement for schools and 16 to 19 settings announced in the recent Spending Review, we are investing nearly £5 billion in education recovery. This includes £1.5 billion for a national tutoring revolution, a £1 billion multi-year ‘Recovery Premium’ building on the £950 million already invested so schools can deliver evidence-based interventions based on pupil needs, summer schools, extra time in 16 to 19 education, and 500,000 training opportunities for school teachers and early years practitioners.