Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many teachers from overseas have been awarded qualified teacher status in the UK in each of the last three years, broken down by country.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Department for Education produces statistics for England only. The responsibility for education statistics in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales lies with each devolved administration.
The attached tables provide the number of qualified teachers from overseas who have been awarded qualified teacher status (QTS) in England in each of the last three years available (financial year 2014/15 to financial year 2016/17). These tables are taken from published statistics in the initial teacher training (ITT) census, available at the department’s ITT Statistics webpage.
Table 8, attached, shows the number of QTS awards made in England to qualified teachers from the European Economic Area (EEA) under EU Directive 2005/36/EC.
Table 8a, attached, shows the number of QTS awards made in England to qualified teachers from overseas (excluding the EEA).
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how often they meet their counterparts in (1) Northern Ireland, and (2) Wales, to discuss the examination arrangements for (a) GCSEs, and (b) A Levels.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Department for Education organises quarterly meetings with officials from the Welsh and Northern Irish governments. These meetings are joined by the qualifications, examinations and assessments regulators for each country: Ofqual (regulator for England), the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (regulator for Northern Ireland) and Qualifications Wales (regulator for Wales). The purpose of these meetings is to discuss and update counterparts on policy and regulatory arrangements for qualifications, including GCSEs and A levels, in each of the three countries. Ofqual also meets the regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland frequently to discuss issues relating to the regulation of GCSEs and A levels.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of people with (1) learning difficulties, and (2) other disabilities, taking part in apprenticeships.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government is implementing reforms to English apprenticeships to raise their quality and ensure they are accessible to all, including people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We already have a comprehensive set of financial provisions to assist employers and training providers in meeting the needs of disabled apprentices. Where an apprentice has an Education Health and Care Plan, £2,000 in total is available for the training provider and the employer, who receive £1,000 each. Apprentices and their employers can also apply for Access to Work funding to support the apprentice’s employment. Furthermore, training providers can claim up to £150 a month, and more in exceptional circumstances, to help with the costs of making adjustments to support apprentices with SEND. This is in addition to the £1,000 stated above.
We are implementing the Maynard Taskforce recommendations to improve access to apprenticeships for those with SEND. Recently, the rules for English and maths requirements were updated to provide more flexibility for apprentices with SEND and who hold an Education Health and Care plan or equivalent.
For the first time, British Sign Language (BSL) is now also an alternative to English Functional Skills for those who use BSL as their first language.
These changes will allow more people to benefit from the opportunities available through apprenticeships and work.
Additionally, the Government is supporting employers with apprentices who have SEND by developing new communications and guidance products. This includes our Employer Toolkit which can be found at: http://www.employer-toolkit.org.uk/.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what specific information schools are legally required to collect regarding pupils.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Schools collect a range of information on pupils for their own purposes. Full details of the specific information which schools are required to collect by law is accessible via the links in the attached annex.
Some of this information is required to be submitted by schools to the Department via various data collections which are undertaken throughout the school year. The main types of pupil information collected by the Department are:
Pupil identifiers (name, date of birth, etc).
Pupil characteristics (gender, ethnicity, language, etc).
Pupil attendance and exclusions.
Pupil special educational needs.
Pupil attainment and teacher assessments.
Data collected is stored securely by the Department under a combination of software and hardware controls which meet ISO27001 standards and the government security policy framework. The Department takes privacy extremely seriously and any third-party access to sensitive data is strictly controlled and governed by legal experts and senior civil servants.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many young people aged between 16 and 19 years of age were not in education, employment or training in each quarter of 2016.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education publish Quarterly statistics on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The data covers England and is based on academic age. Many 19 year olds will be academic age 18 so academic ages 16-18 are included in the answer below.
Statistics for Quarter 4 2016 will be published on 23rd February 2017. Trends should be assessed by comparing the current time period with the same time period in the previous year to account for seasonal effects. Figures are therefore provided for the latest 2 years below.
It should also be noted that sample sizes in the Labour Force Survey are small for individual age cohorts, so sampling variation is large and caution should be taken in interpreting changes over the short term, particularly when numbers are small such as 16 and 17 year olds NEET.
| Academic age | ||||||
| 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Total 16-18 |
| 16-18 NEET rate |
2014 Q4 | 15,000 | 34,000 | 84,000 | 133,000 | 7.0% | ||
2015 Q1 | 10,000 | 37,000 | 88,000 | 134,000 | 7.1% | ||
2015 Q2 | 14,000 | 48,000 | 80,000 | 142,000 | 7.5% | ||
2015 Q3 | 28,000 | 81,000 | 82,000 | 191,000 | 10.2% | ||
2015 Q4 | 12,000 | 28,000 | 81,000 | 122,000 | 6.6% | ||
2016 Q1 | 20,000 | 35,000 | 65,000 | 121,000 | 6.5% | ||
2016 Q2 | 25,000 | 52,000 | 74,000 | 151,000 | 8.0% | ||
2016 Q3 | 30,000 | 64,000 | 71,000 | 164,000 | 8.7% | ||
The NEET rate for the 16-18 age group overall was 8.7% at the end of Q3 2016, 1.5 percentage points lower than Q3 2015 and the lowest Q3 NEET rate since consistent records began in 2000.
The ONS also release quarterly NEET estimates but their figures cover the UK, are based on calendar age and are seasonally adjusted.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many teachers have taken early retirement and then subsequently taken up temporary teaching posts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Nash
The number of teachers who take early retirement (from state-funded schools in England) in each year from 2012-13 to 2014-15 is provided in the following table:
| ACTUARIALLY REDUCED AND PREMATURE[1][2] | ||
| Men | Women | Men and Women |
Financial year (1 April to 31 March) | |||
2012-13[3] | 2,460 | 5,400 | 7,870 |
2013-143 | 2,260 | 4,950 | 7,220 |
2014-153 | 2,160 | 4,790 | 6,950 |
Source: Pensioner Statistical System (PENSTATS).
The annual School Workforce Census records temporary staff on a contract of less than one month, but it is not possible with the data available in the current form to link retirements to temporary contracts.
[1] Excludes sixth form colleges.
[2] Includes phased retirements and in these cases the teachers may remain in service.
[3] Provisional figures which continue to be subject to slight revision due to the addition of retrospective awards.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the costs of teaching English to pupils who do not have English as their first language, broken down by region, in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Nash
Under current funding arrangements for schools in England, local authorities devise funding formulae through which to distribute funding to schools in their localities. One of the factors local authorities can include is ‘English as an additional language’ (EAL). In 2014-15, a total of £244 million was allocated through this factor to school budgets. In 2015-16, it was £267 million, and in 2016-17, £282 million. The table below provides these figures by region. These figures do not represent the cost of supporting pupils with EAL. The amounts form part of the school’s core budget and it is then for school leaders to determine how best to use their whole budget so that all pupils can reach their full potential.
We will introduce a national funding formula from 2018-19 so that funding is fair and matched to need. Our first consultation, launched earlier this year, proposed that the formula should include an EAL factor. We will set out the precise detail of the formula in our second consultation, to be published later this autumn.
Table 1: The amount of the schools Dedicated Schools Grant local authorities allocate to the EAL factor in the last three years, by region
Region | Amount allocated to EAL factor 2014-15 | Amount allocated to EAL factor 2015-16 | Amount allocated to EAL factor 2016-17 |
East Midlands | £11m | £13m | £13m |
East of England | £20m | £23m | £24m |
London | £105m | £112m | £115m |
North East | £5m | £5m | £5m |
North West | £27m | £30m | £33m |
South East | £29m | £32m | £35m |
South West | £10m | £12m | £13m |
West Midlands | £17m | £18m | £19m |
Yorkshire and the Humber | £20m | £22m | £24m |
Grand total | £244m | £267m | £282m |
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.
Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.
Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.
All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.
The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.
The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.
This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what options and support are available for young people with special educational needs, but who do not have a statement of special needs, during the transition between school and further education.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice makes it clear that both schools and further education colleges in England should support all children and young people with SEN through this important transition, whether or not they have a statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care Plan.
The Code of Practice sets out expectations for this transition. These include a working partnership between schools and colleges; opportunities for young people to familiarise themselves with the new setting; and that the new setting ensure the right provision is in place to meet the young person’s needs and aspirations.
Schools also have a duty to secure independent careers guidance for all Year 8 -13 pupils, including those with SEN. This must include information on the full range of education and training options, including further education and apprenticeships.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of young people considered not to be in education, employment or training (1) have a disability, or (2) are carers, broken down by region.
Answered by Lord Nash
Official data covering young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in England is regularly published by the Department for Education. This data cannot, however, be broken down by individual characteristics.
Local authorities collect data on the proportion of 16-18 year olds known by their local authority to be NEET, and who have a learning difficulty or disability, or who are carers.