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Written Question
Postgraduate Education: Coronavirus
Wednesday 28th April 2021

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2021 to Question 140273, on Postgraduate Education: Coronavirus, whether the Minister of State for Universities plans to make a financial support package of similar value available to PhD students who are not funded through UK Research and Innovation; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Providers have flexibility in how they distribute hardship funding to students, in a way that best prioritises those in greatest need. Support can include help for students facing additional costs arising from having to maintain accommodation in more than one location, assistance to help students access teaching remotely or help for students that have already applied for hardship funding previously but need additional support. The funding can be distributed to a wide population of students, including postgraduates (whether taught or research-based) and international students. In addition, we have provided £11 million of quality-related funding provided for universities to support their PhD community, including those not funded via UK Research and Innovation.

English students are also eligible for the doctoral degree loan and can access one loan up to the maximum amount that was available when they started their course.

There are no plans to create a financial support package specifically for PhD students who are not funded through UK Research and Innovation, other than the available funding mentioned above.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Monday 26th April 2021

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the clinical evidential basis is for his Department’s decision to delay the return of university students to face-to-face teaching.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

We are committed to taking a cautious approach to easing restrictions, guided by data instead of dates. Much of the data that has been used to inform decision making has already been published.

It is important that we continue to take a cautious – but irreversible – approach to re-opening. Moving too fast, too soon, risks a resurgence in infections, hospitalisations and deaths. Whilst we are aware that there is limited evidence of transmission in in-person teaching environments, we must not lose sight of the risks the virus poses and must stay vigilant throughout to ensure this roadmap provides a one-way passage to returning to a more normal life.

We have worked extremely closely with scientists and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to understand and model various scenarios to inform our plan that seeks to enable us to re-open the country without putting unsustainable pressure on the NHS. We have also examined economic and social data to get a balanced understanding of the impacts of carefully easing restrictions. The government has also carefully considered data on the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on ethnic minority communities, the vulnerable, the young, and low-income groups.

The government has taken into account all the scientific advice and models that suggest that allowing additional indoor mixing at an earlier stage when prevalence is higher and fewer people have been vaccinated would result in significantly higher numbers of infections and that is why restrictions outdoors have been eased first and restrictions on most indoor activity will remain in place. As the number of people vaccinated increases, we anticipate being able to take steps to ease further as more people are protected.

A wealth of data, papers and evidence is being published at the same time as the Roadmap, to ensure transparency on the information the government has had available to it in reaching its decisions. This includes information from Public Health England:

  • Information on vaccine effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccination
  • A surveillance report with a more detailed summary of the findings so far from the SARS-CoV-2 Immunity & REinfection EvaluatioN (SIREN) study and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Watch
  • A technical paper on the SIREN analysis being published (as a pre-print) by the Lancet

The papers from SAGE include:

  • Minutes from the last 4 SAGE meetings
  • Children’s Task and Finish Group paper: ‘COVID-19 in higher education settings, 10 February 2021’
  • 3 papers from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), with a summary of modelling on scenarios for easing restrictions, together with the supporting papers from modellers at Warwick and Imperial universities
  • A collection of papers from SPI-M on “relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and the re-opening of schools”, Independent Pandemic Scientific Insights Group on Behaviours (the behavioural experts’ sub-group of SAGE) on return to campus for the spring term and the risk of increased transmission from student migration

Written Question
Students: Housing
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether student accommodation providers have been eligible for covid-19 business support and assistance during the outbreak.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Government recognises that businesses up and down the UK are feeling the impact of this crisis. That is why the Government has put in place an economic package of support measures which are carefully designed to complement each other to ensure we provide businesses with certainty, even as measures to prevent further spread of the virus change.

UK businesses – including student accommodation providers where eligible – have benefitted from a range of these measures, including the generous Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and billions in government-backed loans.

In response to the current restrictions, and the Prime Minister’s roadmap to easing public health measures, the Chancellor announced further support at the recent Budget to businesses on top of our previous economic responses. This includes the extension of the CJRS until the end of September 2021, which provides a substantial grant for employers to cover 80% of the wages of their employees, and the new Recovery Loan Scheme (80% Government-guaranteed loans between £25,000 and £10 million), which opened on 6 April and will run until the end of the year.

We recognise that universities also rent accommodation to their students and are feeling the impact of this crisis. We have established the Higher Education (HE) Restructuring Regime, which may be deployed as a last resort, if a decision has been made to support a HE provider in England facing severe financial difficulties related to COVID-19. This is for when other steps to preserve its viability and mitigate the risks of financial failure have not proved sufficient. HE providers can also access the CJRS if they meet the published criteria.

As measures to control the virus change, it is right that Government support should also evolve. Because of this, we will continue to take a flexible but cautious approach as we review restrictions, ensuring support reflects the easing of restrictions to enable the private sector to bounce back as quickly as possible.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for Education:

To the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on graduate teaching assistants of reductions in university funding as a result of the covid-19 outbreak in the academic year 2020-21.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

This continues to be an incredibly difficult time, and our entire higher education (HE) sector has a key role to play during these unprecedented times. I wrote to HE providers on 26 March 2020, asking that they pay particular attention to the additional financial hardships that are being faced by hourly paid and student staff who have been reliant on income from campus-based jobs at this time.

In the letter, I was clear that I expected that in most circumstances universities would continue paying staff as usual but, where this is not the case, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) had been developed as part of a package of support from Her Majesty's Treasury to help pay staff wages and keep people in employment.

However, HE providers are independent, autonomous bodies and are responsible for decisions about who they employ and the terms and conditions of employment they offer. HE providers should make decisions according to their own operational needs and the needs of their wider staff and student community. This includes decisions about whether to access the range of government support on offer, including the CJRS. We expect universities to comply with their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the way their employment practices affect different sections of their communities and staff at different stages of their careers.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for Education:

To the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the provision of course modules at universities being delivered as advertised.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

I have been clear throughout the COVID-19 outbreak that consumer law continues to apply, and statements by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirm this. Providers need to ensure they have regard to guidance about their consumer protection obligations.

This has been a very difficult time for students, and the government is working with the sector to make sure that all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. The sector has put in significant resources and worked hard to provide and prepare learning materials for this academic year and there have been some fantastic and innovative approaches to delivering high-quality learning.

I welcome the huge amount of resource universities and higher education (HE) providers have given to ensuring blended teaching is of the high-quality expected by the government and the Office for Students (OfS). The government’s clear and stated expectation is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students regardless of their background have the resources to study remotely.

I wrote to the OfS on 13 January, outlining the government’s expectations of the HE sector following the new national lockdown. Following this, the OfS wrote to providers’ Accountable Officers, setting out the actions that they are taking in connection with providers’ compliance with existing regulatory requirements. We expect providers to ensure that continuing and prospective students receive the clear, accurate and timely information needed to make informed decisions. This letter is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/928ddbfc-7d48-4a7b-853e-411c34d6202f/ao-letter-regulation-during-the-current-phase-of-pandemic-14-jan-2021.pdf.

Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund of fees will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student. If students have concerns, there is a process in place. They should first raise their concerns with their university. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education to consider their complaint. Due to the individualised nature of student contracts and student circumstances, the process which is in place ensures that institutions have the opportunity to consider student complaints effectively and offers them an opportunity for early resolution of complaints with students. This is particularly important in situations where remedies other than refunds would be more helpful or beneficial to a student.

If there are concerns, the OfS has the powers to act. It is an OfS registration condition that providers must deliver well-designed courses that provide a high-quality academic experience for all students and enable a student’s achievement to be reliably assessed.

The OfS does not get involved in individual student complaints, that is for the relevant HE provider and potentially the OIA. Students can, however, notify the OfS of issues that may be of regulatory interest to it. These are called ‘notifications’. The OfS uses this information as part of its regulatory monitoring activity and keeps HE providers under review to ensure that they comply with the ongoing conditions of registration. The OfS has produced a guide for students to support them in this process. This is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/ofs-and-students/notifications/. The OIA website is available via the following link: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.

The CMA has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. This is available via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/consumer-protection-review-of-higher-education. This includes publishing a restatement on 30 November 2020 on their views on Consumer Protection Law. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fc4bab98fa8f5474e63ab0b/HE_restatement_.pdf.

The OfS has also published guidance on student consumer protection during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/coronavirus/provider-guide-to-coronavirus/student-and-consumer-protection/.


Written Question
Children: Disability
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Disabled Children’s Partnership's Report entitled The Loneliest Lockdown, what plans his Department has to tackle social isolation among disabled children.

Answered by Vicky Ford

Supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families is a priority for this government, and their educational, physical and mental wellbeing remains central to our cross-government response to the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why education settings have remained open for children and young people with an education, health and care plan throughout periods of national lockdown.

The return to school for all pupils was prioritised due to the significant and proven impact caused by being out of school, including on wellbeing. The support schools provide to their pupils as they return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing recovery. The expectations for schools in this regard are set out clearly in the main Department for Education guidance to schools, which also signposts further support, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

We have worked with our partners, including the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Education England, Public Health England and other key voluntary sector organisations to deliver the Wellbeing for Education Return programme, which has provided training and resources to help school staff respond to the wellbeing and mental health needs of pupils. This £8 million government backed programme provided schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and access to resources they need to support children and young people, teachers and parents.

The return to school on 8 March 2021 has been supported with a new £700 million package, which includes a Recovery Premium for state primary, secondary and special schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students. This will help schools to provide academic and pastoral support for disadvantaged pupils that has been proven most effective in helping them recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

£200 million will be available to all secondary schools, including specialist settings, to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs. The size and shape of the summer schools will be decided by school leaders who know best what the most effective summer school will look like for their pupils, allowing them to tailor support for pupils, including those with SEND.

Additionally, we have expanded the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018. From 2021, the programme will cover the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holidays at a cost of up to £220 million. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes and we are working to ensure that the programme is fully inclusive and accessible for children with SEND.

Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as the Education Recovery Commissioner and is considering how schools and the system can more effectively target resources and support at pupils in greatest need. Additionally, Dr Alex George was appointed on 4 February as Youth Mental Health Ambassador to advise government and raise the profile of mental health education and wellbeing in schools, colleges and universities. He will use his clinical expertise and personal experience to champion government’s work on children’s and young people’s mental health and shape policy on improving support for young people in schools, colleges and universities.

In the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with DHSC and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams for all schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.

The department will continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and its subsequent COVID-19 recovery plans on all pupils, including those with SEND, to ensure it targets support across the system most effectively.


Written Question
Children: Disability
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Ian Mearns (Labour - Gateshead)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to tackle social isolation in disabled children and their families.

Answered by Vicky Ford

Supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families is a priority for this government, and their educational, physical and mental wellbeing remains central to our cross-government response to the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why education settings have remained open for children and young people with an education, health and care plan throughout periods of national lockdown.

The return to school for all pupils was prioritised due to the significant and proven impact caused by being out of school, including on wellbeing. The support schools provide to their pupils as they return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing recovery. The expectations for schools in this regard are set out clearly in the main Department for Education guidance to schools, which also signposts further support, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

We have worked with our partners, including the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Education England, Public Health England and other key voluntary sector organisations to deliver the Wellbeing for Education Return programme, which has provided training and resources to help school staff respond to the wellbeing and mental health needs of pupils. This £8 million government backed programme provided schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and access to resources they need to support children and young people, teachers and parents.

The return to school on 8 March 2021 has been supported with a new £700 million package, which includes a Recovery Premium for state primary, secondary and special schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students. This will help schools to provide academic and pastoral support for disadvantaged pupils that has been proven most effective in helping them recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

£200 million will be available to all secondary schools, including specialist settings, to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs. The size and shape of the summer schools will be decided by school leaders who know best what the most effective summer school will look like for their pupils, allowing them to tailor support for pupils, including those with SEND.

Additionally, we have expanded the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018. From 2021, the programme will cover the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holidays at a cost of up to £220 million. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes and we are working to ensure that the programme is fully inclusive and accessible for children with SEND.

Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as the Education Recovery Commissioner and is considering how schools and the system can more effectively target resources and support at pupils in greatest need. Additionally, Dr Alex George was appointed on 4 February as Youth Mental Health Ambassador to advise government and raise the profile of mental health education and wellbeing in schools, colleges and universities. He will use his clinical expertise and personal experience to champion government’s work on children’s and young people’s mental health and shape policy on improving support for young people in schools, colleges and universities.

In the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with DHSC and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams for all schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.

The department will continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and its subsequent COVID-19 recovery plans on all pupils, including those with SEND, to ensure it targets support across the system most effectively.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Government plans to publish guidance to universities on the return of the remaining students who do not satisfy the eligibility criteria for face-to-face teaching during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

On 13 April, the government announced that remaining students should return to in-person teaching alongside Step 3 of the roadmap, which is not earlier than 17 May.

Students and providers will be given at least a week’s notice of any further return in accordance with the timing of Step 3 of the roadmap. We have also updated our guidance on the return of students during the spring and summer terms: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue guidance to those universities that have not permitted their students to return to campus as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased to now encourage those universities to permit their students to return to campus.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

On 13 April, the government announced that remaining students should return to in-person teaching alongside Step 3 of the roadmap, which is not earlier than 17 May.

Students and providers will be given at least a week’s notice of any further return in accordance with the timing of Step 3 of the roadmap. We have also updated our guidance on the return of students during the spring and summer terms: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses.


Written Question
Universities: Coronavirus
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Higher Education Update statement made on 13 April 2021, if he will publish the scientific advice for the decision to postpone in-person teaching for university students in England until at least 17 May 2021.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

We are committed to taking a cautious approach to easing restrictions, guided by data instead of dates. Much of the data that has been used to inform decision making has already been published.

It is important that we continue to take a cautious – but irreversible – approach to re-opening. Moving too fast, too soon, risks a resurgence in infections, hospitalisations and deaths. Whilst we are aware that there is limited evidence of transmission in in-person teaching environments, we must not lose sight of the risks the virus poses and must stay vigilant throughout to ensure this roadmap provides a one-way passage to returning to a more normal life.

We have worked extremely closely with scientists and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to understand and model various scenarios to inform our plan that seeks to enable us to re-open the country without putting unsustainable pressure on the NHS. We have also examined economic and social data to get a balanced understanding of the impacts of carefully easing restrictions. The government has also carefully considered data on the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on ethnic minority communities, the vulnerable, the young and low-income groups.

The government has taken into account all the scientific advice and models that suggest that allowing additional indoor mixing at an earlier stage when prevalence is higher, and fewer people have been vaccinated, would result in significantly higher numbers of infections. This is why restrictions outdoors have been eased first and restrictions on most indoor activity will remain in place. As the number of people vaccinated increases, we anticipate being able to take steps to ease further as more people are protected.

A wealth of data, papers and evidence is being published at the same time as the roadmap, to ensure transparency on the information that the government has had available to it in reaching its decisions. This includes information from Public Health England:

  • Information on vaccine effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccination.
  • A surveillance report with a more detailed summary of the findings so far from the SARS-CoV-2 Immunity & REinfection EvaluatioN (SIREN) study and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Watch.
  • A technical paper on the SIREN analysis being published (as a pre-print) by the Lancet.

The papers from SAGE include:

  • Minutes from the last 4 SAGE meetings.
  • Children’s Task and Finish Group paper: ‘COVID-19 in higher education settings, 10 February 2021’
  • 3 papers from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), with a summary of modelling on scenarios for easing restrictions, together with the supporting papers from modellers at Warwick and Imperial universities.
  • A collection of papers from SPI-M on “relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and the re-opening of schools”, Independent Pandemic Scientific Insights Group on Behaviours (the behavioural experts’ sub-group of SAGE) on return to campus for the spring term and the risk of increased transmission from student migration.