Allergy Guidance for Schools

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting this important debate.

For too long, allergies have been seen as a personal issue to be managed by the individual affected. That needs to change. Allergies in school-age children are rising quickly, and around 45,000 people born each year will develop an allergy. School should be a safe space for our children to grow and develop, yet for those with allergies and their families the joy of education is too often compromised by safety and medical risk. There are 680,000 pupils in England with an allergy, so every classroom has at least one or two living with an allergy. Tragically, anaphylaxis occurs in educational settings more than in any other public space, and that shows in and of itself that we need to take action. We need to address this today—it has already gone on for too long—to give parents and children the confidence of knowing that our schools are allergy safe. If we do not, the consequences are truly heartbreaking.

Benedict Blythe from Stamford was a gifted child. He was able to complete a 24-piece puzzle by himself aged just one. He could match number cards by 18 months and create pie charts by the time he was school age. His mother Helen recalls purchasing him a book of the complete human nervous system in an attempt to quench his thirst for knowledge. By aged four, Benedict was a member of Mensa and practising maths at the level of a 10-year-old. He was a truly talented child, but it was his compassion and care for his family, and his infectious energy that made him just so loved.

Despite all his strengths, his life was marked by challenges stemming from his asthma and his allergies. As he began to try a wider range of foods, as all children do, Benedict suffered allergic reactions, first to baby rice, then to baby porridge and then to whey powder. What should have been a normal part of growing up saw him hospitalised. His family, through careful planning and care, worked out what he could eat safely. But while they could guarantee his safety at home, they had to trust others with Benedict when he went on play dates, mixed with other children and, eventually of course, went to nursey and school.

He was aware of his allergies. Like my nephew and so many others, he learnt to ask what was in a product before he ate. He was so cautious about he could and could not eat, but he also had to rely on those around him to keep him safe. Aged two, a nursery worker poured cows’ milk over his cereal, causing a severe reaction. The worker claimed he had been given oat milk and only admitted the mistake once young Benedict’s lips and tongue had begun to swell, and he suddenly stopped being able to breathe. The delay in admitting the mistake and beginning treatment for the reaction could have been fatal. However, tragically, that repeated itself when, aged just five, Benedict ate something at school that caused him to collapse, and he died the same day.

I know that the whole House will join me in honouring Benedict and recognising his unique character and intelligence. He dreamt of becoming a doctor, and I am sure he would have achieved that ambition and so much more. His story is every mother and father’s nightmare: the loss of their child, the pain so profound as to be unimaginable; their child going to school and just never coming home. Yet despite that nightmare, Benedict’s mother has endeavoured to ensure that other children can go to school safely, and I salute her for her fortitude and her strength.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Alicia Kearns]

I will happily give way to the hon. Gentleman, who has himself held debates on this important issue.

[Jim Shannon]

I commend the hon. Lady for raising the issue. She has told the story of young Benedict so well. She has honoured him and honoured his family, and we thank her for that. My second son is now a young man, but as a wee boy he had a number of allergies, so I understand the issue all too well: I understand the importance of controlling a boy’s diet and, indeed, the very life that he leads. Does the hon. Lady agree—in fact, I think she may be coming to this point—that given the increase in the incidence of allergic reactions, each school must have a trained member of staff on the premises at all times to know the signs and how to deal with them? Does she also agree—and here I look to the Minister—that the necessary funding uplift must be allocated in addition to existing school budgets?

[Alicia Kearns]

The hon. Gentleman is entirely right. The problem is that because the guidance is currently not mandatory, schools have completely different responses. At my nephew’s school, for example, there is a picture of every child with a severe allergy on the teachers’ board, so that every day when the teachers go in they know which children to be more alert to, and in an emergency they know exactly what to do because there is a commentary under each picture. That is the kind of response that we need, but yes, we will need more. We saw the Government act strongly and quickly in response to the need to install atrial defibrillators in schools, and I ask them to take the same approach in this regard. The number of children who have died of allergies in our schools is far higher than the number who have died of any sort of heart incident, so I really think that it is time for action.

Endometriosis Education in Schools

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2024 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Sir Alec Shelbrooke) for highlighting the issue in this debate. He has done that in Westminster Hall numerous times, and more times again in the main Chamber. I have heard him on many occasions and I admire his determination to discuss this subject matter and to make people aware of it—I congratulate him on that. The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy) made two significant interventions. Although she did not say so, I suspect they came from a place of personal knowledge.

As Members may be aware, while I am a father to three sons—my wife always wanted a wee girl, but it was just not going to happen—I work in an office with six female staff members and one male. I am certainly a lot more educated than I had been, and let us be honest, that understanding should not have taken that long. Gone should be the days of boys and girls being separated out to discuss those issues. The right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell mentioned that in both his introduction and summing-up. Those issues affect entire households and there should be a frank, honest and non-shameful understanding, which, frankly, does not take place at the moment.

The right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell referred to a story from one of his constituents which is like mine. When I married my wife, which will be 37 years ago on 6 June, the doctor told Sandra, “If you have a child, this will all go away.” Well, no it did not. Indeed, three boys later and it still had not gone away. My wife suffered with the condition over all those years, and only in the last three or four years, because of life-changing things, has it been slightly different.

I will refer to one of my staff members who suffers from endometriosis. I told the right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell beforehand that I was going to tell her story. I am not going to mention her name, because that would be the wrong thing to do, but I want to tell her story. It is a terrible story that she has been through. She was diagnosed in 2019 at the age of 24, after having been referred to gynae in 2012, seven years earlier. It took seven years to get the diagnosis. She has not yet been able to see an endometriosis consultant and she is now 29 years of age. That is 12 years, and she is still on the waiting list.

She has been red-flagged on three separate occasions. Her GP, who is very good—I am not saying all GPs are not good, just to be clear—is one of the few to hold a gynae clinic at GP level and has instigated medical menopause, given oestrogen and implanted a coil all on the basis of her ultrasound. Her doctor has been incredibly helpful to her, but she has been through all sorts of problems. She has worked for me for a fair few years, and I am well aware of some of the problems she has, not from a personal point of view but from watching her and seeing how it affects her days as she works. Most GPs do not offer the facility that her GP does.

There are two specialists in Northern Ireland, and we are left with women who are in pain and afraid for their fertility potential. Their partners do not know how best to support and help with what they cannot see and perhaps cannot understand—I think that is part of it as well. People can offer sympathy and comfort and talk to their partner or wife, or perhaps friend, on these matters, but sometimes they do not really understand, because they cannot really feel what they are going through. I believe that the right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell is right. We need an absolute shift in the narrative, away from closed doors, to understanding.

We need to stop the classification of “women’s problems”. My mother probably suffered from something similar to this. She is 92, going on 93. I remember that when she was younger, she had a number of miscarriages and other things that happened. My mother says that they were always referred to as “women’s problems”. That covers very generic subject matter, but it does not really illustrate the issue.

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way and I apologise for my late arrival, Ms Vaz. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this is one of the fundamental problems? When we describe things as “women’s problems”, we are actually shying away from giving conditions and diseases the proper names that they have and, in so doing, are effectively avoiding an informed, intelligent discussion.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon]

Yes, I absolutely agree with that. When people refer to “women’s problems”, they do not bring into the open the painful issue; they almost push it aside. The right hon. Lady is absolutely right to make that point. It is an issue that deserves medical attention, and significant attention at some times. We need to encourage medical students to take up this speciality by providing help with tuition, as has been done in colleagues’ constituencies in Wales. I understand that Wales has done some of these things. There has been a shortage of physiotherapists and other things. Therefore the question I ask the Minister—I am ever mindful that he is always responsive to the questions we ask, and we appreciate that because it makes our job of putting questions to him a wee bit easier when we know we are going to get a decent answer—is this. How do we encourage medical students to take up this speciality? We do so by normalising the conversation around reproductive health and by removing boundaries to conversations. That must start in education, at the very beginning—at school level, secondary school level, and college level—and the conversation should then continue right through life. That is what the right hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell is asking for, and I support him.

I will finish with this comment. The NHS is failing young women, but more than this, it is failing families. We do a disservice by taking a silent stance. It is right that today we bring endometriosis out of the silence and into the conversation, but only if action follows.

Support for Bereaved Children

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2024 Westminster Hall

[Andy Carter (Warrington South) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered support for bereaved children.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Rosindell, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for facilitating the debate. I want to talk about a subject that has affected almost all of us at some point or that will do so in the future: grief, and particularly the grief experienced as a result of being bereaved of a parent. Grief is unique; it is both an experience and an emotion, and it comes in many forms, whether it be for the loss of a family member, a friend, a colleague or even a beloved pet. In fact, the only commonality shared between people when they grieve is the pure uniqueness of that experience.

Like many colleagues, I know that it is difficult, to say the least, to lose a parent. It is something that we will all experience in our lives, so we can only hope and pray that it comes later rather than sooner. Tragically, for some people, that is not the case. They lose their mum or dad during childhood, and that is the area I want to focus on.

Bereavement is a complex challenge to navigate at any stage in life, but going through it during childhood has its own unique challenges. The raw wound of loss carries a heavy burden, and we must ensure that it is handled with delicacy and in the manner that best suits the grieving child.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this issue to Westminster Hall. It is certainly one we all are or will be affected by. Is he aware that the voluntary Barnardo’s advice line is available on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 am to 1 pm and on Fridays from 10 am to 12.30 pm? It is for adults concerned about bereaved children, and we thank the charity for setting it up. However, a helpline for bereaved children does not go far enough, and I think the hon. Gentleman will be asking for Government action. Through the education system and the NHS, the Government must set up a statutory body to provide permanent, accessible support without people having to search that out.

[Andy Carter]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for highlighting the work that many charities do. He is absolutely right, and I will come to his point shortly.

I want to put the issue into some context. The Childhood Bereavement Network provides statistics on the number of children bereaved of a parent every year. The figure currently sits at about 46,000 annually. To put that in context, it equates to a young person being bereaved of a parent every 20 minutes. However, we know that that figure is inaccurate, and we have tried to estimate the total number of bereaved children. That is because grief can come with so many types of loss, and the figure we have applies only to children who have lost parents. Crucially, we lack the statistics that charities and service providers need in order to ensure that bereavement support networks, schools and professionals can support children.

Relationships, Sex and Health Education: Statutory Guidance

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

Yes. Indeed, many Members of this House are positive male role models—there are many positive male role models—and we want to ensure that we celebrate and support positive male role models, not misogynistic online influencers. We need to teach children about the dangers of those people and ensure that their influence is countered by people who are real role models for children.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the Secretary of State for her statement and the wisdom she has shown. The Democratic Unionist party welcomes the guidance issued to let kids be kids and to prevent sexualised content from being taught to under-nines. Indeed, the Government’s rationale is similar to that which I gave in the Chamber when I asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland not to change the RSE regime for Northern Ireland. Will the Secretary of State speak to her Cabinet colleagues to ensure that the innocence of our children is protected in all regions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and that parents who are genuinely seeking to safeguard their children are afforded respect in terms of the classroom syllabus and have their rights to reasonably held views protected?

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. Of course, what makes this subject difficult is the need to tread that fine line carefully—letting kids be kids while making sure that they are equipped in a world that is increasingly more complex than the world that we grew up in. We have sought very much to ensure that we get that balance right.

Water Safety Education

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 7th May 2024 Westminster Hall

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the provision of water safety education in schools.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank Mr Speaker for choosing this debate, which I am delighted to have secured. It is on a subject that is of great importance to me as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on swimming, and I am sure that it is a matter of interest and concern for Members on both sides of the House. I also want briefly to thank both Philip Brownlie, head of public affairs at Swim England—it used to be the Amateur Swimming Association, in my day—for all his help in securing the debate and with my speech, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West), the chair of the all-party group.

Swimming has been a genuine passion of mine for many years. I started to swim at the age of five or six and I have swum with various swimming clubs, such as Leyton ASC, Hornchurch ASC and East Grinstead Tri Club. I want every child to have the kind of opportunity that I and many others had when we were growing up. If we can develop children’s physical literacy through good-quality, positive experiences at school, we can set them up for a lifelong love of being active.

Swimming is obviously a sport, but it is probably the only sport that might save someone’s life at some point. Figures shared with me by the Royal Life Saving Society show that the number of child drownings is increasing at an alarming rate. In my view, that is not unconnected to the net loss of swimming pools in this country of about 400 over the past decade. In 2022, there was a 46% increase in the number of child drownings against the five-year average, and although the 2023 data has not been officially published, early indications suggest that child drownings may have increased significantly again last year.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate on what, for me, is a critical issue. In my constituency, many young people and children in particular have died while swimming. In the figures that he referred to, 35 accidental child fatalities were reported. That is a classroom full of children. That gives us an idea of the magnitude of the issue. Does he agree that consideration should be given to a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland awareness campaign, alongside the education systems in the devolved nations, to ensure that children have an understanding of basic water safety, and how to be safe and keep safe?

[John Cryer]

I fully agree with the hon. Gentleman. I will not comment on the devolved nations, but he speaks very eloquently.

When the figures are adjusted for socioeconomic status and ethnicity, there are worrying elements in the child mortality data. The National Child Mortality Database reported that the risk of drowning was twice as high among children from poorer backgrounds as among those from better-off backgrounds, and that the risk of drowning was three and a half times higher for children from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. For me, that is a particular worry, because I represent one of the most diverse constituencies in the country.

The debate is very timely, particularly when we consider that we are fast approaching the summer and that 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of swimming’s inclusion in the national curriculum. For all these reasons, it is important that we have this debate today and that the importance of swimming and water safety is highlighted in this place.

Figures from the latest Sport England Active Lives survey of children show that 71% of children in year 7 are able to swim 25 metres, which represents a fall of 6.3% compared with five years ago. Worryingly, pupils are also being offered fewer swimming lessons at school. That is raised with me just about every time I visit a school in my constituency. Swim England has also seen concerning examples of parents being asked to pay for their children’s school swimming lessons, which risks exacerbating existing inequalities. I represent some of the poorest wards in London, so that is very relevant to my daily work.

I pay tribute to the many hard-working teachers in Leyton and Wanstead and across the country. I recognise that teaching swimming and water safety presents a number of serious challenges, particularly under current circumstances. On top of that, school staff are often underqualified, underprepared and inexperienced when it comes to delivering comprehensive physical education. That is not a criticism of the teachers, but a criticism of the lack of resources. More qualified and prepared school staff would enable smaller ratios and higher-quality teaching to make the most of limited learning time for pupils.

Organisations such as Swim England produce free resources, including the school swimming and water safety charter, to support teachers, as well as running courses such as the national curriculum training programme for primary school teachers, but the Department for Education and Ofsted have been a bit too reluctant to adequately monitor and enforce the curriculum requirements. Although schools are required to publish their swimming and water safety attainment levels in order to receive PE premium funding, evidence suggests that many are not doing so. Could the Minister share the number of schools that the Department has taken action against for not meeting that requirement since its introduction? PE premium funding itself is only guaranteed until the end of the 2024-25 academic year. Could the Minister confirm that the requirement to provide that data directly to the Department will remain, regardless of what might happen to PE premium funding?

PE premium funding has helped schools offer top-up swimming lessons, but I cannot help feeling that providing schools with enough core funding to deliver appropriate school swimming lessons would be a better way to proceed. The Minister may or may not be aware that in Estonia, for example, pupils receive 40 hours of school swimming lessons paid for by the Government.

A 2023 Ofsted report on PE described swimming and water safety attainment as “mixed” and stated that

“evaluation of the swimming and water safety element of the curriculum is limited”.

It recommended that primary school schools should ensure that

“their curriculum matches the breadth and ambition of the national curriculum for all pupils. It should include carefully sequenced and taught swimming and water safety lessons”.

I would like the Department to be much more active in monitoring and enforcing curriculum requirements, a point that members of the Swim Alliance have raised with me. The alliance, which is chaired by Debbie Kaye of the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association, is a grouping of organisations from across the sector, including pool operators and groups such as the Black Swimming Association, Unity Swimming and Swim England.

Organisations such as the Youth Sport Trust, the Association for Physical Education and Swim England have proposed that PE should be made a core subject. I wonder whether the Minister might consider that in order to help PE obtain the profile and support in schools that it merits.

The growth in the number of pop-up pools is broadly welcome, but their small size and shallow depth means that it is impossible for them to meet curriculum requirements, and local authorities have raised concerns about the impact that increased use of pop-up pools could have on existing community facilities.

I want to allow time for my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green to speak and for the Minister to respond, but we cannot discuss water safety without discussing access to pools for pupils to learn in. Part of my constituency—three wards—is in the London Borough of Redbridge, which, according to Swim England, is the third most deprived local authority in the country with regard to available water space. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that just 20% of children across all ages in Redbridge can swim 25 metres, compared with 75% in Wandsworth. If we are to improve water safety, we must ensure that we have the pools we need for the future.

To summarise my views very briefly, schools need to be adequately resourced and able to provide swimming and water safety opportunities. School leadership groups need to prioritise swimming and water safety in schools. School swimming and water safety need more hands-on monitoring and enforcement from the DFE and Ofsted. As a country, we desperately need to invest in the community pools we need for the future, with both capital funding and revenue funding, so that swimming is an affordable activity. If we do all that, we can start to make the sort of progress that I am sure everyone across the House wants to see.

Finally, I mentioned that my three of my wards are in Redbridge; the other six are in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, where we have seen enormous core funding cuts. As I said at the beginning of my speech, just about every school I visit, in both Waltham Forest and Redbridge, has raised the difficulty of getting access to pool time for swimming. With that, I had better stop speaking and give others a chance to contribute.

Post-16 Education: Isles of Scilly

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 29th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con)]

I thank Mr Speaker for granting this debate on the cost of post-16 education for families on the Isles of Scilly. I have yet to stand up in this Chamber unless it is to raise an issue that has been raised directly with me by a constituent, and today is no exception. I rise to raise an issue that has been raised by not just one but several constituents. They are all parents, and they met me last month to set out their concerns.

The Isles of Scilly are unique in so many ways. They are situated just off Land’s End, and they are a beautiful part of the UK and a fantastic part of my constituency. I have often spoken in this Chamber about the unique environment on the islands, but the people of Scilly also face unique challenges—or almost unique. As I prepared for this debate, I found that there are in fact two local authority areas in this country with no sixth-form provision. One is the Isles of Scilly; the other is the City of London. So the situation is not unique; the consequences, however, are. Young people in the City of London can walk to a sixth form college or pay 85p for a bus ride; the buses are rarely cancelled because of stormy weather or high seas and, unlike the Scillonian ferry, they run all year round. More to the point, those young people can go home to their families at the end of each school day.

That option is not open to the families I met on Scilly. They know that they have to send their young people to stay on the mainland to fulfil the statutory requirements but, as one of my constituents told me,

“the decision about where to go was based on accommodation, not educational preference”.

The lucky ones could stay with family or friends on the mainland—I should perhaps say “the lucky one”, if the council’s unofficial survey is accurate—but everyone else had to choose between staying with a host family or in a boarding school. Last year’s Ofsted report on Scilly’s children’s services stated:

“To access…post-16 education children must live away from home on the mainland. This adds the potential for social, emotional and mental health challenges and additional safeguarding risks for some children.”

It is not surprising, but still shocking, that 20% of 16 and 17-year-olds from Scilly are not in education, employment or training, which is four times the national average and infinitely more than the City of London’s 0%. This is despite the fact that students from the Isles of Scilly consistently outperform students on the mainland in GCSE attainment.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly is responsible for the provision of compulsory education until the age of 18 and, like all local authorities, is expected to meet the costs of delivery from its own budget. The council is supported by post-16 travel and accommodation grants administered by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The funding is currently £6,365 per student, which can go towards travel to and from the mainland and accommodation while studying. The actual costs are considerably more, and I am grateful to the parents of current students who have prepared very helpful figures that show just how much more they have to fork out for their children’s education.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. Does he feel it is immoral and wrong for a parent to have to pay for their children’s education when sixth-form education is free across the rest of this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? It is wrong that the parents and children of the Scilly Isles cannot have the same advantages as we have elsewhere.

[Derek Thomas]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I will be covering that injustice and how equality and levelling up really should apply, but I am pleased to know that there is someone else in the Chamber who also takes an interest in the Isles of Scilly. I appreciate that they are not everyone’s area of interest or expertise, but they are beautiful, remote islands. I am sure they are a holiday destination for many, but visitors do not always consider the challenges that people face.

As I was saying, the cheapest option for sixth-formers is staying with a host family, but even this costs more than the £6,300 grant, and it is increasing. That is without factoring in the cost of travel, with six return journeys a year, including transport on the mainland, costing £1,750 for each student on average. This does not include contingency for overnight stays when travel is disrupted, despite the high risk of the weather scuppering travel plans. And this weather disruption is not limited to the winter. Everyone in the Chamber will appreciate the difficulty of finding accommodation in a wonderful destination like Penzance at the peak of the tourist season. There are obvious safeguarding issues with young people staying on their own when their journey is disrupted.

Many parents are understandably reluctant to entrust their children to host families, who are currently unregulated. At an age when most young people are living with their parents, 16 and 17-year-olds from Scilly are living in digs. They lack the structure and support they need, in the absence of family and friends. Some hosts become like second families, but other parents have chilling stories.

One constituent told me that their child became very ill while living in host family accommodation. Nobody was aware, because nobody had pastoral oversight. Nobody noticed the student lose 1½ stone over a six-week half term, and he ended up with one A-level, having started doing five with top grade predictions. There are other cases where vulnerability, loneliness, isolation and naivety have placed students at risk that I cannot, of course, divulge in such a debate.

Colleges such as Truro and Penwith College, our excellent further education college in west Cornwall, and the main post-16 provider for Scilly, have concerns. They see how often this lack of support is reflected in poor attendance and work at school, and it can lead to students failing to complete their studies. According to the informal survey I mentioned, less than two thirds of children attending post-16 education completed their courses successfully.

Although colleges take seriously the challenges facing students who are required to leave Scilly to learn, their pastoral care is limited to their statutory role, which covers only the school day. Outside that period, which may be only 18 hours during a typical school week, students are left to their own devices. They may not have access to the support and extracurricular activities, such as sport and social clubs, that young people take for granted in the rest of the country.

For all those reasons, homestays are becoming less popular with families on Scilly; nearly half of students did this just three years ago but now just over a quarter do. The other option available to families is boarding school, where these young people have supervision and support. There are a number of state boarding schools in the south-west, but, as was hinted at in the intervention, although the education is free, the board and lodging is not. According to the parents’ figures, the shortfall can be as much as £13,000, including travel costs, per child. Again, that does not include contingencies or incidental expenses; many students never see their sixth forms until they arrive for the first time in September, as the cost of visiting beforehand is not covered by the grant and is just not achievable.

The cost of living is already high on Scilly, because of freight costs, and salaries are lower than average, yet families on Scilly are forced to pay for their 16 and 17-year-olds to have the same opportunities as anyone else. Furthermore, when their children have finished their A-levels and are thinking about higher education, families are already saddled with debt and reluctant to take on more. I am aware that the Department for Education is already reviewing the policy on Scilly post-16 education, but it is my understanding that a robust equalities impact assessment has not yet been undertaken by Government. It is, however, clear that families on Scilly do not have an equal access to post-16 education.

The Isles of Scilly Council, with which I have been working closely on this issue, has suggested a grant of £15,000 per student per year is required to ensure financial parity with those on the mainland and to meet the additional increased costs to enable the students to continue in their education or training. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that he will direct his officials in the Education and Skills Funding Agency to take Scilly’s unique challenges into consideration when assessing the size of the grant and to hasten a decision, as the next academic year is just four months away and decisions about the next stage of a child’s education are needing to be made imminently.

When I corresponded with the Minister’s predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), he made the point that young people all over the country have options to study in diverse and widespread locations, and it would not be “financially feasible” for local authorities to fund all the costs this involves. But families on Scilly do not have options: they have a straight choice between sending their children to a potentially unsafe environment or racking up thousands of pounds in debt. A number of parents told me they were considering leaving Scilly purely so that it was financially feasible to educate their children as the law required. The one thing everyone on Scilly would like to say to this House is that when families leave, it becomes difficult to maintain the services and all the things that are required to keep a community of about 2,200 people viable and going on a remote island setting such as Scilly.

The cohort over the next few years fluctuates from 15 to 32 students, so I submit to the Minister that it is not financially infeasible for the Department for Education to look seriously at the figure of £15,000 that the council has identified. We know that money allocated for Scilly in the Government’s levelling-up fund is not now going to be spent as intended; this would be an ideal opportunity for the Government to show their commitment to these unique islands and to their future as thriving communities.

Although the subject of this debate is the cost of post-16 education to families on Scilly, there are wider issues about how to ensure the welfare and wellbeing of Scilly’s young people so they can fully and appropriately engage with their education. The council needs the capacity to commission packages of support for students on the mainland where it is necessary. That could be through bespoke packages enabling them to return to mainstream tuition after a period of absence; or through the Future Foundations programme, which, as the Minister will know, empowers students to aim high and achieve their potential. The council aims to work with the multi-academy trust, of which the Five Islands Academy is a member, to provide opportunities for students to engage in extra-curricular activities. It also wants to work with voluntary organisations such as Action for Children and Young People Cornwall to improve the offer for post-16 students outside the hours of formal education. As I have hinted, there needs to be some money set aside for contingency.

These are not outlandish requests. All the officers at the Council of the Isles of Scilly want is to enable students to remain safe in an unfamiliar environment; to remain gainfully and safely occupied outside the times of formal education; to have and to maintain good mental health and wellbeing; and to thrive socially, emotionally and academically. These are not unique requirements—they are what we all want for our children and young people. There is no reason why parents on Scilly should not want the same. I look forward to the Minister’s comments on how he plans to ensure that the families on Scilly can have the same.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 29th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

I appreciate what my hon. Friend says. History is a very important subject for many reasons. Learning about Israel and the wider region can be covered in history, for example in the “challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world since 1901” theme. In general, we do not specify individual historical events in our national curriculum, with the sole exception of the holocaust, as he will know.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for his positive and helpful response. What discussions has he had with counterparts in the devolved nations, in particular in Northern Ireland, where the two different groups—the nationalists and the Unionists; the Protestants and the Catholics—have been able to develop an understanding on education? They are able to look at each other without the suspicion that may have been there 20 or 30 years ago. Has the Minister had a chance to talk to the devolved nations to ascertain whether introducing compulsory education on the importance of combatting antisemitism is possible, taking the Northern Ireland example as one that works?

[Damian Hinds]

I always value opportunities to speak to colleagues and counterparts in the devolved Administrations. I believe that we will have another opportunity relatively soon to speak to the hon. Gentleman’s colleagues in Northern Ireland, and I have no doubt that that will be one thing that we will wish to talk about.

Digital Skills and Careers

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2024 Westminster Hall

[Dr Cameron]

I totally agree; the hon. Member makes an excellent point. Indeed, I have just come from a meeting with DFN Project SEARCH, which works with young people with special needs to give them placements in a variety of industries, including in digital industries and in this Parliament. We must harness everyone’s potential, and everyone should have the opportunity to realise their potential. We should particularly focus on making sure the transformation is inclusive, including of people with special needs.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the hon. Lady for securing the debate; she always brings interesting and sensible debates to Westminster Hall and elsewhere. From the time I have known her, she has always been astute and assiduous on these issues, and I thank her for that.

We should teach the importance of having sound digital skills, especially for most modern jobs, which require that we understand information and communications technology. I say that as one who probably does not, to be truthful—but it is important for young people coming through that they do.

Lloyds Bank found that 18% of adults lack the necessary essential digital skills. Does the hon. Lady agree that consideration should be given to teaching a mandatory ICT lesson within careers classes in all schools across the United Kingdom to ensure that young people have the skills needed to obtain employment in all types of industries? In my constituency, we need young people with those skills. I think the hon. Lady would probably agree that she needs them in her constituency as well.

[Dr Cameron]

I totally agree. Digital skills are going to be an integral part of the curriculum for everybody moving through the school process, and for people at all stages of their lives; some people might want to change career and move into the digital posts of the future.

If I may give a small anecdote, when I attended one of the APPG’s sessions, the Children’s Parliament came to speak to us. We were talking about the metaverse and a person from Roblox was there. I spend a lot of money on Roblox, as a mother, because children are so interested in it, so I was desperate to speak to this person about what Roblox was really about. He asked a question of those in the room—Members of Parliament; Members of the House of Lords; and Members of the Children’s Parliament, who are aged from about eight to 14— “Who understands the metaverse?” All the children put their hands in the air, but not very many MPs or Lords Members did.

Digital skills should be part of the curriculum, but younger people are quite digitally native; they are quite used to it. I therefore think there must be across-the-lifespan development so that older adults who are in careers in which they have not had the opportunity to gain digital skills can gain them if they would like to. Certainly, we in Parliament have a way to go to catch up with the children in terms of digital understanding. I include myself in that.

Music Education

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)]

I rise to speak about the changes to funding for music education hubs. This Government have made an important and worthwhile commitment to a vision of enabling all children and young people to learn how to sing, to learn how to play a musical instrument and to have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally, if that is what they want to do.

The 2022 national music plan published three key aims for music hubs: first, to support schools and other education settings to deliver high-quality music education; secondly, to support young people to further develop their musical interests and talent, including into employment in some cases; and thirdly, to support all children and young people to engage with a range of musical opportunities in and out of school.

By 2018, record numbers of children were learning instruments because of this Government’s actions. As my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister will know, music education hubs have been funded nationally to the level of around £75 million to £80 million a year since their inception under this Conservative Government in 2012, which is sometimes referred to as the national music grant.

However, the national music grant, which funds the functions of the music hub leads, has risen by only 1% since 2012. During this time, the Bank of England inflation calculator shows inflation running at 37%. As I am sure the House understands, it has therefore always been a challenge for music hubs to maintain their exceptional levels of service up and down the country.

My Northampton North constituency is home to a great many talented young musicians and performers. I spy many Northamptonshire Members in the House today, and they will know the value of music in their constituencies.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the right hon. and learned Gentleman for securing the debate. He is right that music encourages us all, and not just in Northamptonshire. The Education Authority in Northern Ireland supports 689 primary and post-primary schools to provide musical learning to students. These are fantastic opportunities, but some courses cost £140, which is a disadvantage. In Northern Ireland we have a tradition of flute bands, pipe bands, accordion bands and brass bands, and they are associated with people who come from my tradition, as Members will know. Such bands also give opportunities for young people to learn an instrument. When it comes to music, we in Northern Ireland have the better part of the deal.

[Sir Michael Ellis]

I knew that the hon. Gentleman and I would be singing from the same hymn sheet. His melodious tones resonate daily in this House, and on this subject, as on so many others, we are in complete agreement. He will know, as will other Members, that I am a former Culture Minister, so that pleases me greatly.

Tutoring Provision

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2024 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It really is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Cummins. I look forward to you being in the Chair every time I am here. Thank you for being here and for your fairness.

I thank the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) for leading this debate on a very important issue. As always, I will try to bring a Northern Ireland perspective, not because the Minister has responsibility for Northern Ireland but because it adds to the debate. I will give some stats and talk about what we have done back home, and hopefully we can share those experiences for our betterment.

The hon. Lady and the Liberal Democrat party have done much work on children’s education, and specifically on tutoring. She set the scene well and talked about what she and her party espouse and hope to achieve. She spoke about the benefits of tutoring, which were endorsed by the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell). There is certainly a disparity across the United Kingdom, but we must ensure that children from all backgrounds can take advantage of good educational learning. It is great to be here to give a Northern Ireland perspective on this issue.

The Government set up the national tutoring programme in England in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education. Those two and a half to three years really did change life for everyone. The programme provided subsidised, small-group catch-up teaching and mentoring for pupils impacted by covid. It is crazy to think about where we were just a few years ago and about how much school young people missed out on. Although teachers did their best, it was always going to be a difficult task, so it was important that we looked at different ways of providing education. The Government did that, especially for key worker parents.

The latest child poverty figures for Northern Ireland show that 82,000 children live in absolute poverty. Remember that we have a population of 1.95 million, so those figures show the enormity of the situation and what we are trying to achieve back home—we are talking about almost one in every five children. Just under 100,000 children in Northern Ireland live in relative poverty. Adding those two figures together gives a sum of 182,000 living in absolute or relative poverty. Those figures worry me. They highlight not only the situation in Northern Ireland but the need for better one-to-one tutoring provision.

Key worker parents provided essential services, but their children had less face-to-face teaching at home, so it is likely that many of those children suffered due to that too. The hon. Members for Twickenham and for Sedgefield talked about a combination of issues, and I know that the hon. Members for Stoke-on-Trent North (Jonathan Gullis) and for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) will do likewise.

I always look forward to the Minister’s response, because he tries to encapsulate our fears, concerns and questions, and gives us some encouragement as elected representatives. Funding for Northern Ireland was secured by the Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland and the Charities Aid Foundation. That allowed for the creation of a free online tuition service for the children of key workers from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and for children with special educational needs. The combination of those two issues—parents who are away at work, and the education of children with special educational needs—is a massive problem. I have realised from all the debates we have here that the issues relating to children with special educational needs affect not just Northern Ireland but the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Ask a Tutor scheme really did make a difference, and I thank the Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland and the Charities Aid Foundation for that.

The Government have said that raising children’s attainment is at the heart of their agenda, and that is very true. Being able to obtain good tutoring services is one thing, but that must be deliverable across the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I am a passionate believer in the strength of the Union, and I am sure everybody in this Chamber is of a similar disposition. The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North spoke at my association dinner two weeks ago about the strength of the Union, and he enthralled that audience of true Unionists in Newtownards with his words. I put my thanks for that on record, and I am pleased to see him here.

Although it is fully understood that education is devolved, we need to ensure that the initial budget is there to support one-to-one tutoring in our schools. The Assembly is now up and working again, and the Minister for Education back home is my colleague Paul Givan MLA. I know him and I know that he will work hard on this issue, but there also needs to be the support from Westminster. I am sure the Minister will give us encouragement on that through his words, as well as his actions.

One of my staff members was tutored in maths through her fourth and fifth years of secondary school, and her sessions cost £32 for one hour each week. That was almost eight years ago, so I imagine that they cost at least another £10 to £15, which would make it quite challenging for any person to afford that individually—it could cost over £200 a month, depending on how many sessions someone was having. Although there are people out there who will be able to afford that—that is fine, and those are the sacrifices we make—there are those who simply will not be able to. Giving consideration to those families should be made a priority, and that is the first of my requests in this debate.

We all want our young children to grow up and excel at school, and to have the best opportunities possible, and providing extra one-to-one tutoring sessions is an excellent way to ensure they do. I see that through the staff in my office and what they have told me, and we heard it in the introduction from the hon. Member for Twickenham, who explained why tutoring is important, and others have added to that message and will add to it in a minute.

I urge the Minister to engage with the devolved nations to ensure that we can all play a role in improving educational outcomes for young people in this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Isn’t it great that we have that Union? Isn’t it great that we can share these ideas? Isn’t it great that we can do that for our children?