Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to assess the potential impact of the cost of childcare on single parents.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is providing over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for working parents with children aged nine months to three years in England. This will remove one of the biggest barriers to parents working by vastly increasing the amount of free childcare that working families can access. This is set to save working families who use the full 30 funded hours up to £6,900 per year from when their child is nine months until they are five years old by September next year.
Already, hundreds of thousands of children aged three and four are registered for a 30-hour place, which can save eligible working parents up to £6,000 per child per year. Expanding this entitlement will help even more eligible working parents with the cost of childcare and make a real difference to the lives of those families.
To be eligible for the expanded 30 hours entitlement, as with the current 30 hours offer, parents will need to earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum wage or living wage, which is £183 per week or £9,518 per year in 2024-2025, and less than £100,000 adjusted net income per year. For families with two parents, both must be working to meet the criteria, unless one is receiving certain benefits. In a single-parent household, the single parent must meet the threshold. This offer aims to support parents to return to work or to work more hours, if they wish.
In addition to the expanded entitlements, the government has also taken action to support parents on Universal Credit with childcare costs upfront when they need it, rather than in arrears. The department has increased support for these parents by increasing the childcare cost maximum amounts to £950 for one child and £1629 for two children.
Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0-11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children. This can save parents up to £2,000 per year, or up to £4,000 for eligible children with disabilities and has the same income criteria as 30 hours free childcare.
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare and government funding schemes are designed to be flexible enough to support families’ different situations, including parents who are night workers and shift workers.
The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme. The government’s ambition is for all parents of primary school children who need it to be able to access childcare in their local area from 8am to 6pm. Parents will still be expected to pay to access this provision but support will be available to eligible parents through Universal Credit childcare and Tax Free Childcare.
Parents should expect to see an expansion in the availability of wraparound care from September 2024, with every parent who needs it able to access term-time wraparound childcare by September 2026. The department is also providing over £200 million a year for the continuation of the Holiday Activities and Food programme and the department is investing a transformational £560 million in youth services in England over the next three years. This is part of a wider package the government has provided long term to support young people facing the greatest challenges.
The department will also continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places across the sector. The department’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that both the number of places available and the workforce has increased since 2022.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure the availability of childcare placements in school holidays.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the government’s Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. This included £289 million to support the expansion of wraparound childcare for primary school-aged children. By 2026, all parents and carers of primary school-aged children, who need it, will be able to access term time wraparound childcare in their local area from 8am to 6pm.
Since 2021, the department has provided more than £200 million of funding per year to local authorities across England, who take responsibility for the provision of the Holidays Activities and Food programme (HAF) in their area.
The HAF programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their heath, wellbeing and learning.
School holidays can be particular pressure points for some families because of increased costs, such as food and childcare, and reduced incomes. For some children that can lead to a holiday experience gap, with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities, more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health and are more likely to experience social isolation.
Free holiday clubs are a response to this issue and evidence suggests that they can have a positive impact on children and young people. It also shows they work best when they provide consistent and easily accessible enrichment activities, when they offer more than just breakfast or lunch, and when they involve children and parents in food preparation.
Local authorities are responsible for understanding the needs of the children and families in their area and ensuring that the programme reaches those who need it.
While the majority of funding that local authorities receive should be used for holiday club places for children in receipt of free school meals (FSM), local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children who are not in receipt of benefits-related FSM but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision.
In deciding which children should benefit from the 15% flexible funding, local authorities are asked to ensure that these places are aligned to their local priorities.
A number of local authorities across England have secured additional funding or resources that has allowed them to expand the reach of their programme.
The HAF programme is delivered during longer school holidays, Easter, summer and the Christmas break, in all 153 local authorities in England.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 11.3 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. Across 2023, a total of 5.3 million HAF days were provided during Easter, summer and winter delivery.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grant funding for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year.
In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students. The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year the department has increased the Student Premium, including the full-time, part-time and disabled premium, by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the 2024/25 academic year will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The department believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grants for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year.
In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students. The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year the department has increased the Student Premium, including the full-time, part-time and disabled premium, by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the 2024/25 academic year will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The department believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children with SEND are provided with the (a) educational and (b) wider support required by their education, health and care plan in school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department shares the ambition that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should receive the vital support they need across Education, Health and Care (EHC). As set out in the Children and Families Act 2014, the local authority has a legal duty to ensure that the special educational provision specified in an EHC plan is delivered. The department also has a number of measures in place to ensure that children receive the educational and wider support they need.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a set of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses. The department is also investing heavily in the SEND system, including £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and alternative provision (AP) places and improve existing support, including the announcement of 41 new special free schools.
The department is also taking steps to improve the SEND system in the longer term, so that EHC plans can be issued as quickly as possible when needed and enable children and young people to access the support they require. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment. The department is currently testing measures which it believes will make the biggest improvements to both the quality of plans, the experience of getting a plan and the quality and speed with which support is put in place.
The department is strengthening accountability across the system so that everyone is held to account for supporting children and young people. This includes the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Area SEND inspection framework, which gives more prominence to the quality integration and commissioning of EHC services, and a national and local dashboard, which gives parents the opportunity to monitor the performance of their local systems.
If a child or young person does not receive the support detailed in their EHC plan, the young person or parent can raise their concern with the school or local authority directly. Families can appeal to the First-Tier SEND Tribunal if they are unhappy with a local authority’s decision regarding an EHC assessment or plan. The Tribunal can also hear appeals and make non-binding recommendations about health and social aspects of EHC plans.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's data release Pupil absence in schools in England, published on 21 March 2024, how many children were subject to a (a) special guardianship and (b) child arrangements order by (i), age (ii) ethnicity and (iii) local authority in 2022/23.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Data on pupils who have ceased to be looked after and are subject to a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or Child Arrangements Order (CAO) by age, ethnicity and local authority in England in the 2022/23 academic year is attached. The information is taken from the school census, where children are reported as having previously left care due to adoption, a SGO or a CAO only if their parents or carers have declared this information to the school. Therefore, the data is reliant on self-declaration from parents and is partial rather than a full count.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the lessons learned for her Department of the implementation of the skills electrification project element of the emerging skills projects.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Skills Electrification Project was part of the Emerging Skills Projects, which were pilot projects funded by the department to identify future skills needs and develop high-quality modular courses to help address future skills gaps in key sectors. The Skills Electrification Project, as well as the other emerging skills projects, were developed and run by the Advanced Manufacturing Catapult and completed in March 2022.
The department recognises the changing nature of skills needs, the importance of emerging skills such as electrification and assesses skills needs for such sectors. For example, the National Grid estimates the electricity network workforce will grow by 400,000 roles by 2050. This includes 260,000 brand new roles, and 140,000 to replace natural attrition such as retirement. This is on top of the existing shortage of crucial workers in the sector.
To help meet those needs there are three apprenticeship standards that directly serve the electricity networks sector: community energy specialist (Level 4), building energy management systems (Level 4) and power networks craftsperson (Level 3).
Free Courses for Jobs also offers a range of qualifications in electrical disciplines, as well as digital engineering and electrotechnical installation.
T Levels in engineering and construction teach young people some of the skills that are crucial to the growth of the UK’s energy networks. Relevant T Levels in engineering, manufacturing, and construction can lead to crucial occupations such as civil engineering technician, electrical engineering technician and technical surveyor.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department uses to assess the adequacy of funding for each school (a) nationally and (b) in York.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing a world class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Including the additional funding for teachers’ pay and pensions, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs is £2.9 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total £60.7 billion in 2024/25, which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. This means school funding is set to have risen by £11 billion by 2024/25, compared to 2021/22.
Each year, the government publishes an assessment of schools’ costs and funding increases in the Schools’ Costs Technical Note. In the most recent publication, the department’s analysis shows mainstream school funding rising by 7.6% in 2023/24 compared to the previous year, while costs were estimated to have risen by 6.7% at the national level. This analysis reflects averages across all schools in England.
Through the Dedicated Schools Grant, York is receiving an extra £2.0 million for mainstream schools in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, taking total school funding to over £125.5 million. This represents an increase of 2.0% per pupil compared to 2023/24, and an increase of 13.4% per pupil compared to 2021/22 (excluding growth funding). On top of this, all schools will receive additional funding through the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant and Teachers' Pension Employer Contribution Grant.
The precise funding and cost increases that individual schools in York, and across the country, will face depend on each school’s unique circumstances and the decisions that it has made about how to deploy its funding. The national funding formula is designed to fund each school according to its relative needs, and is updated annually to reflect how those needs change over time.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide support for children living in poverty who are at risk of being taken into the care system.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ in February 2023. ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ is an implementation strategy and consultation that sets out the department’s plans to reform children’s social care. It set out how the department will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships and opportunities for a good life.
This government has announced over £1 billion for programmes to improve early help services, including delivering on Family Hubs and helping families facing multiple disadvantage through the Supporting Families programme and Holiday Activities and Food programme.
The Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programme is investing £84 million over five years between 2019 and 2024 to support 17 local authorities to adopt improvement approaches that have strong evidence of reducing the numbers of children requiring statutory support and entering care.
The department is also testing innovative new approaches to provide earlier help to families when they face challenges through the Families First for Children Pathfinder.
Over recent years, this government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable with one of the largest support packages in Europe. The total support over 2022 to 2025 to help households and individuals with higher bills amounts to £108 billion, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household.
Through an extension of the Household Support Fund, local authorities in England will receive an additional £421 million to support those in need locally, including supporting vulnerable households with the cost of essentials such as food and utilities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Oxford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they give third parties access to national pupil data or learner records, and whether they charge a fee for any such access.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will only share pupil, or learner, level data with others where it is lawful, secure and ethical to do so. Where these conditions are met and data is shared, the department do not charge any fee.
All requests for data from the department are subject to a robust approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications for public benefit, proportionality, legal underpinning and strict information security standards. The approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications is known as the DfE Data Sharing Approval Panel (DSAP). The DSAP panel also includes external members who scrutinise the ongoing decision making in order to increase public trust.
As part of the department’s commitment to transparency, it publishes details of all organisations it has shared personal data with alongside a short description of the project. This publication is updated quarterly and is available from GOV.UK at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares.