Asked by: Adam Holloway (Conservative - Gravesham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown academic tutors are permitted to teach their pupils in the pupil's home on a one to one basis, where the (a) age, (b) special educational needs of the child or (c) other factors mean that online lessons are not possible.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on New National Restrictions from 5 November 2020, out-of-school activities such as private tuition may continue to operate during the period of national restrictions. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss. Providers of these activities, regardless of the age of the children they are caring for, should ensure they are only being accessed for face-to-face provision by parents if their primary purpose is registered childcare, or where they are providing other activities for children, where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work or search for work, or to undertake training or education.
Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education (which could include, for example, academic tutors) may also continue to operate face-to-face for the duration of the national restrictions.
Where a child has special educational needs or disabilities or there are other factors which mean that online lessons are not reasonably possible, providers are permitted to offer face-to-face provision in pupils’ homes, where it is necessary for them to continue to work.
Tutors that continue to operate face-to-face during this period should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in the guidance regarding protective measures for holiday clubs and after-school clubs, and other out-of-school clubs for children during the COVID-19 outbreak. The guidance is available 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. Providers operating out of other people’s homes should also implement the guidance on working safely in other people’s homes, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.
All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes and that can offer remote education, should close for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions. This will minimise the amount of mixing between different groups of people and therefore reduce the risk of infection and transmission of COVID-19.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of organisations with the level of expertise required to specify assistive technologies for pupils who require such assistance.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not hold data in relation to the number of pupils needing assistive technology to access online material, or on the adequacy of the number of organisations with the level of expertise required to specify it for pupils who require such assistance.
The department trusts schools and local authorities to decide and provide the necessary equipment and assistive technology to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The department has ordered over 200,000 devices and allocated these to local authorities and academy trusts based on estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device through other means, such as a private device or through school. The scheme is an injection of support, alongside many excellent local initiatives, and local authorities and schools are best placed to identify eligible children who do not already have access to a device.
Beyond the device and connectivity support, 40 teachers have come together to develop the brand-new Oak National Academy, launched at the start of the summer term. Oak Academy provides 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from reception through to year 10. Education resources are also available offline. Children are able to draw on support from the BBC which is broadcasting lessons on television, and may choose to access the many hard copy resources offers which have been produced by publishers across the country.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of pupils who require assistive technologies to access online material.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not hold data in relation to the number of pupils needing assistive technology to access online material, or on the adequacy of the number of organisations with the level of expertise required to specify it for pupils who require such assistance.
The department trusts schools and local authorities to decide and provide the necessary equipment and assistive technology to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The department has ordered over 200,000 devices and allocated these to local authorities and academy trusts based on estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device through other means, such as a private device or through school. The scheme is an injection of support, alongside many excellent local initiatives, and local authorities and schools are best placed to identify eligible children who do not already have access to a device.
Beyond the device and connectivity support, 40 teachers have come together to develop the brand-new Oak National Academy, launched at the start of the summer term. Oak Academy provides 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from reception through to year 10. Education resources are also available offline. Children are able to draw on support from the BBC which is broadcasting lessons on television, and may choose to access the many hard copy resources offers which have been produced by publishers across the country.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to allocate emergency covid-19 funding to providers of school transport that have reduced commercial viability as a result of social distancing regulations in (a) England, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) Oxford, and (d) Abingdon.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
On 8 August, the Department for Transport announced a further funding package for bus operators with rolling funding at up to £27.3 million per week until a time when the funding is no longer needed. Also on 8 August the Department for Education announced a new £40 million funding package for local authorities to support home to school transport. This funding can be used for a variety of transport types/providers as appropriate, including coaches, bus vehicles, community transport vehicles, taxis and private hire vehicles, and SEND (Special Educational Needs Disability) transport.
In addition, the Department for Transport has provided support and grants totalling £7.25 million to local authorities to develop a Travel Demand Management Plan to understand school and work travel patterns and ensure there is safe and sufficient transport for schools.
While the Government will do what we can to support local authorities, solutions must be locally led, with local authorities working closely with transport operators and schools/colleges to identify local area needs and decide the best way to increase capacity, while ensuring value for money of this new funding.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of section 63 of the Children and Families Act 2014 in ensuring that parents of children with special educational needs or a disability are able to choose an independent school if that is their wish.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Section 63 of the Children and Families Act (2014) sets out the local authority’s duty to pay fees for special educational provision where an institution, including an independent institution, is named in a final education, health and care (EHC) plan.
The process by which parents’ wishes are considered is, instead, set out within the ‘Special Educational Needs & Disabilities 0-25 Code of Practice’, attached, and under section 39 of the Children and Families Act (2014).
Chapter 9 in the ‘Special Educational Needs & Disabilities 0-25 Code of Practice’ sets out the duties of local authorities and the rights of parents regarding the naming of schools in EHC plans. When a local authority is finalising an EHC plan, parents can ask for a particular school to be named in the plan. This can be any maintained nursery school; maintained school; any form of academy or free school (mainstream or special); non-maintained special school; independent special school or independent specialist college, where they have been approved for this purpose by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, under section 41 of the Children and Families Act (2014). These schools are published in the section 41 list, which is available to all parents and young people.
The local authority must name the parent’s or young person’s choice of school in the EHC plan unless the school would be unsuitable for the child or young person’s age, ability, aptitude or special educational need or unless the child or young person’s attendance would be incompatible with the efficient education of others or the efficient use of resources.
The child’s parent or the young person may also make representations for places at independent schools, independent colleges or other post-16 providers that are not on the section 41 list. However, these schools are not obliged to admit children with EHC plans and local authorities are not under the same conditional duty to name these schools in EHC plans.
As at January 2019, there were 17,362 children and young people with EHC plans in independent schools. This figure represents 4.9% of all children and young people with an EHC plan.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many independent special schools there are in each (a) local authority and (b) parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The department publishes figures on the number of independent schools and pupils attending them in the annual ‘Schools, Pupils and Characteristics’ release, by national totals and by local authority in tables 1a, 1b, and 1c, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2019.
The underlying data file includes figures for individual schools including school name, school type, parliamentary constituency and location. Full addresses can be found at the Get Information About Schools website, available here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
The Oxford Analytics October 2018 report, 'The Impact of Independent Schools on the UK Economy' estimated that independent schools provide an annualised taxpayer cost saving of £3.5 billion, compared to the cost of educating all pupils in the state sector.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 22 November (HL Deb, cols 325–8), whether they will ensure that all local councils respect the right of parents of children with special needs to nominate a local independent school on an education health and care plan.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government does not have any plans to conduct such an inquiry.
The government has made fundamental changes to the way the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support system works for families. The system is now more person-centred with significant direction given to local authorities, and other bodies, to engage effectively with families.
Local authorities should respond appropriately to any SEND Tribunal appeal. In doing so, they will inevitably incur costs. When families make appeals, the local authority will need to judge how to respond to them and in doing so, must put the interests of the child or young person first.
The government are investing £20 million until March 2020 to improve the quality of local information, advice and support services available to families, and to provide guidance and training to local authorities to help improve the quality of education, health and care (EHC) plans.
Parents have the right to ask that an independent school, approved under Section 41 of the Children and Families Act (2014) and published in a list available to all parents and young people, be named on their EHC plan.
The local authority must, after consultation with the school, name the requested school unless specific criteria apply. These conditions are that the school would be unsuitable for the young person’s needs, incompatible with the efficient education of others or an inefficient use of the local authority’s resources.
Parents may also make representations for a place at an independent school that is not on the Section 41 list and the local authority must consider their request. While not under the same conditional duty to name the provider, the local authority must have regard to the general principle that children should be educated in accordance with their parents’ wishes if this is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction and does not cause unreasonable public expenditure.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support (a) private, (b) voluntary and (c) independent nurseries with the recruitment and retention of high-quality practitioners.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We published the Early Years Workforce Strategy in March last year, setting out how we want to work with the sector, including private voluntary and independent nurseries, to bring in new people and make sure there are clear progression and development opportunities to support retention: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy.
We are working very closely with the sector on a wide range of activity to deliver the workforce strategy commitments to support recruitment and retention, including:
o Improving information available to careers advisors so they can better understand career opportunities in the sector and can promote these.
o Consulting on new, strengthened, level two qualification criteria, which will provide a stronger foundation for progression to level three and beyond.
o Funding a new Continuous Professional Development and training hub for early years and the development of new training materials and courses for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities practice.
A new £20 million fund, announced in the social mobility action plan, will also ensure early years practitioners in disadvantaged areas have access to high quality professional development support.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which regulations his Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department introduced The Education (School Teachers’ Qualifications and Induction Arrangements and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators) (Amendment) Regulations 2016, which came into force on 17 November 2016.
These regulations give effect to the requirement to allow partial access to the teaching profession (partial Qualified Teacher Status) by reference to the relevant provisions in the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/2059).
The department anticipate negligible costs associated with these changes.
The department introduced the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1094) which came into force in December 2016.
The purpose of this legislation was to ensure the requirements of the revised Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (MRPQ) Directive 2005/36/EC (PQD) were met. This Statutory Instrument added three early years professions to the main MRPQ implementing regulations, allowing for the mutual recognition of these qualifications within the European Union.
There are currently no direct costs to the private sector or public purse as a result of these regulations.
Should any subsequent changes be required to the MRPQ regulations, the department will accordingly amend its regulations to reflect the necessary changes
.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that there are employment opportunities for people with Down's Syndrome.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government is strongly committed to increasing opportunities for disabled people, including those with a learning disabilty, such as Down’s Syndrome. Taking a life course approach, we are working across Government and with local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers in the public and private sectors to achieve this.
On Thursday 30 November 2017 we published ‘Improving Lives the Future of Work,
Health and Disability’, which sets out details of our life course approach to improving employment opportunities for disabled people and people with a health condition. Whilst the initiatives are not all aimed exclusively at people with a learning disability, we expect that many will benefit from them. Our plans include: