Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Government is providing to local authorities to encourage the development of family hubs.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State launched our £8.5 million local authority Early Years Social Mobility Peer Review programme in April. This programme will help local authorities develop strategies to improve outcomes in the early years, including through the effective use of children’s centres. We will be looking to ensure that innovations such as family hubs are recognised and shared, and successful approaches can spread.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of illegal or unregistered schools identified by his Department and Ofsted have a religious basis.
Answered by Anne Milton
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to my hon. Friend and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2017 to Question HL3576, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen families.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Education is pursuing a range of policies aimed at supporting and strengthening families.
On 14 December the Secretary of State published, Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential: A plan for improving social mobility through education: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-boost-social-mobility-through-education
The government is funding a £5 million trial of evidence-based home learning environment support programmes in the north of England, to improve the support available to parents to enable them to ensure their children are ready to thrive when they start school.
The cost of childcare is a big issue for many families. The government offers 15 hours of free childcare to disadvantaged two year olds and all three and four year olds, up to 30 hours’ free childcare for working parents of three and four year olds, tax-free childcare and the childcare element of Universal Credit. The Evaluation of Early Implementation and the Evaluation of Rollout of 30 hours Free Childcare showed evidence of positive benefits. From the evaluation survey of parents taking up 30 hours in early implementer areas, some 78 percent reported that the extended hours had given them greater flexibility in their work choices. The case studies showed that increased work flexibility helped parents to obtain more secure employment, enhanced career opportunities and improved their work-life balance and 84 percent reported that they had slightly or much more money to spend:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-free-childcare-early-implementation-evaluation
We want to ensure that all pupils are taught about healthy and respectful relationships and have the knowledge required to prepare for adult life, which includes family life. The Children and Social Work Act has required Relationships Education to be made compulsory in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools through regulations. The subject content will cover the core, age-appropriate knowledge that all children need to form safe, positive relationships based on respect.
We are also taking steps to ensure that all children can develop into confident adults. On 4 December, in our Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-proposals-on-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health the Department of Education and the Department of Health set out new proposals on children’s mental health. These include commissioning further research into interventions that support parents and carers to build and/or improve the quality of attachment relationships with their babies.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, to which legislation her Department has applied the Family Test, published in August 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Guidance to departments on the application of the Family Test to domestic policy was published on 31 October 2014. The criteria for assessing policies, including those which require primary legislation, are set out in the guidance. Policy is to be assessed against the Family Test questions if it has a demonstrable impact on family relationships and functions, and if the impact is not small, indirect or temporary.
We have therefore published assessments of the impact on families on a number of occasions when legislation was introduced to Parliament.
For the Childcare Act 2016 the assessment can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-bill-impact-assessment.
For the Education and Adoption Act 2016 the assessment can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-and-adoption-bill-impact-assessment.
For the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 the assessment can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/528005/bis-16-295-he-research-bill-detailed-impact-assessment.pdf.
For the Children and Social Work Act 2017 the assessment can be found at
https://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA16-008.pdf.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that staff in her Department receive religious literacy training.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We currently have no plans to carry out religious literacy training in the Department.
Civil Service Learning, the main training portal for Civil Servants, has a broad range of diversity and inclusion courses, which are available to all civil servants. There is also a two day course covering both Abrahamic and Dharmic religions for officials who need a more in depth understanding to carry out their role.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many responses her Department has received (a) through its online response form and (b) by email to its Out-of-school education settings: registration and inspection consultation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants children to be educated in a safe environment without exposure to hateful and extremist views that undermine British values. The call for evidence on out-of-school education settings was launched on 26 November 2015 and ran for six and a half weeks closing on 11 January 2016.
Around 3,000 people completed the published response form, either online or manually. The Department for Education received a significant number of further representations to the consultation by email and post. All responses and representations are being logged, analysed and verified.
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, we will be publishing a response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to include within its proposals for registration and inspection of out-of-school education settings (a) annual holiday clubs and (b) communal religious groups.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants children to be educated in a safe environment where they are not exposed to hateful and extremist views that undermine British values.
The call for evidence on out-of-school settings described:
(a) Supplementary schools as settings which offer support or education in addition to mainstream or core learning, and which operate after school hours and on the weekends; and
(b) Tuition centres as settings which could often be used in place of mainstream education and support home education, and which can operate at any time of day.
The proposals are about making sure that where there are concerns raised by parents and others about issues of extremism, child cruelty or inappropriate teaching in unregulated settings, the Government can take action to protect children and empower parents.
The call for evidence defined intensive education as anything which entails an individual child attending a setting for more than betweensix toeight hours a week. Such settings would be required to register with their local authority and be eligible for inspection where concerns were reported.
Settings providing ad hoc classes or regular classes below a specified time threshold would not be captured by the proposal. One-week holiday clubs and Sunday schools would not, therefore, be covered. The proposal is intended to capture settings where children receive intensive education, regardless of faith or whether provided by a community group.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's consultation, Out-of-school education settings: call for evidence, published on 26 November 2015, what definition her Department uses for (a) supplementary schools, (b) tuition centres, (c) intensive education and (d) the eight hours threshold for inspection.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants children to be educated in a safe environment where they are not exposed to hateful and extremist views that undermine British values.
The call for evidence on out-of-school settings described:
(a) Supplementary schools as settings which offer support or education in addition to mainstream or core learning, and which operate after school hours and on the weekends; and
(b) Tuition centres as settings which could often be used in place of mainstream education and support home education, and which can operate at any time of day.
The proposals are about making sure that where there are concerns raised by parents and others about issues of extremism, child cruelty or inappropriate teaching in unregulated settings, the Government can take action to protect children and empower parents.
The call for evidence defined intensive education as anything which entails an individual child attending a setting for more than betweensix toeight hours a week. Such settings would be required to register with their local authority and be eligible for inspection where concerns were reported.
Settings providing ad hoc classes or regular classes below a specified time threshold would not be captured by the proposal. One-week holiday clubs and Sunday schools would not, therefore, be covered. The proposal is intended to capture settings where children receive intensive education, regardless of faith or whether provided by a community group.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate children at schools about the health implications of excessive alcohol consumption.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Effective drug and alcohol education is essential in tackling the problem of drug and alcohol misuse.In the science curriculum, pupils should be taught to recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function at Key Stage 2. At Key Stage 3 pupils should be taught about the effects of recreational drugs (including substance misuse) on behaviour, health and life processes.
In addition, schools have the autonomy to tailor their local Personal Social Health and Economic (PSHE) education programme to reflect the needs of their pupils, including teaching about alcohol consumption. Schools can draw on the resources and evidence provided by experts and use tools such as ADEPIS (Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service). In March 2013 the department launched a new drug and alcohol information and advice service for practitioners. This provides practitioners and commissioners with accurate, up-to-date information and resources on what works and can be found at: http://mentor-adepis.org/
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of schemes that seek to put couples who have been unsuccessful in fertility treatment in touch with local adoption services; and whether the Government supports such schemes.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education does not currently fund schemes that seek to put couples who have been unsuccessful in fertility treatment in touch with local adoption services. However, the department funds the First4Adoption service which is the national information service for adoption in England. Last year the department and First4Adoption worked closely together to develop promotional resources to reach out to anyone interested in adoption. These resources are available, free of charge, to be used by all local agencies and regional consortia in their work to promote adoption. The department also works with the British Association for Adoption and Fostering on National Adoption Week, taking place on 19-26 October 2015.