Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they are taking to tackle anti-Semitism in universities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government takes antisemitism extremely seriously. The department is deeply concerned about the growth in antisemitic incidents on campus since the 7 October terrorist attacks against Israel. That is why, on 22 November, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in his Autumn Statement an additional £7 million over 3 years to tackle antisemitism in education.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, wrote to all schools, colleges and universities on 11 October, urging them to respond swiftly to hate-related incidents and actively reassure Jewish students that they can study without fear of harassment or intimidation. The department wrote again to Vice Chancellors on 16 November, further emphasising the use of disciplinary measures and the importance of police engagement, as well as the suspension of student visas where the student is a foreign national. This was one of the key actions set out in the five-point plan for tackling antisemitism in higher education, which was published on 5 November 2023.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further measures they will take to ensure practical, vocational training is available in each region of England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government’s skills reforms in England provide a ladder of opportunity that enables young people and adults to get good jobs and progress in their careers wherever they live in England. We are building a skills system that is employer focused, high-quality and fit for the future. It is also flexible enough to lead to more people completing high-quality courses that meet employers’ needs.
£3.8 billion has been invested in the skills agenda over this Parliament. The department is using this to expand and strengthen higher and further education, ensuring skills training is aligned to the needs of employers to enable communities to thrive. With this investment, we are putting employers at the heart of our skills system. This is why we are working with industry to shape our training offers, creating more routes into skilled employment in key economic sectors.
Apprenticeships provide people of all backgrounds across the country with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start, or progress in, an exciting career. We are increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, and employers have developed over 670 high-quality apprenticeships, to support all sectors to develop the skilled workforces they need. To support small and medium enterprises across the country, we continue to pay 95% of their apprenticeship training costs and have recently removed the limit on the number of apprentices they can recruit, making it easier for them to grow their businesses with the skilled apprentices they need.
First introduced in 2020, T Levels are boosting access to high-quality technical education for young people after their GCSEs. Developed with employers so that the content meets the needs of industry, T Levels offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 45 days. T Levels are being introduced in a phased approach, with 16 T Levels currently available and over 160 providers across the country delivering.
The Free Courses for Jobs offer, which was launched in April 2021, allows eligible adults to access over 400 level 3 qualifications, A level equivalent, for free. Eligible adults include adults without a full level 3, adults earning under the National Living Wage annually (£20,319 from April 2023) or unemployed adults, regardless of their prior qualification level.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Skills Bootcamps are available in a variety of skill areas including digital, technical, construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy. We are scaling up Skills Bootcamps delivery to 64,000 starts by the 2024/25 financial year through national procurement and grant funding to 25 Mayoral Combined Authorities and local areas.
High-quality careers information, advice and guidance is key to helping people to make informed decisions about their future, including being able to find out about and consider the different options available to them for employment in all sectors. The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance. This allows young people to be aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and to have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces.
We plan to invest £300 million of capital funding to establish 21 Institutes of Technology (IoTs) across the country providing access to industry standard facilities which focus on the needs of employers and learners in their specific geographical areas. IoTs are employer-led provider organisations working in collaboration with colleges and universities, which deliver higher technical training, with the focus on level 4-5 skills.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage children back into classroom education following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Being in school is crucial to pupils’ attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances. The department is focusing on supporting the recovery of children and young people from the disruption of COVID-19 through an ambitious multi-year programme and has made available almost £5 billion for education recovery. This investment includes up to £1.5 billion for tutoring, nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so they can deliver evidence-based interventions based on pupil needs, £400 million on teacher training opportunities, and over £800 million for additional hours in 16-19 education.
In addition, the department has brought together an Attendance Action Alliance of lead professionals from key frontline services that support families. Members from education, health, justice, the third sector, and parent organisations have collectively committed to use their roles and organisations to undertake activities to improve attendance.
The department has also published new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which makes clear the importance of addressing the barriers to attendance through strong multi-agency working at school, multi-academy trust and local authority level. This guidance intends to ensure greater consistency in the attendance support offered to pupils and families, regardless of where they live, and emphasises the importance of providing attendance support in an earlier and more targeted way to respond to pupils’ individual needs.
To support this, the department has established an automated, more timely flow of attendance data from participating schools’ management information systems. Over 75% of state-funded schools have agreed to voluntarily share this data, which allows participating schools, their trust, and their local authority to see daily attendance for their pupils in order to identify those who need support earlier. This data is also being published fortnightly at a local authority, regional and national level to enable comparisons and early identification and response to emerging attendance trends.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps will be taken to ensure that teachers are trained to identify dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response will outline the information for England only.
The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers. Published on 28 March 2022, the Schools White Paper sets the foundations to support the aims and ambitions of the SEND Review.
The department’s reformed initial teacher training (ITT) core content framework and the new Early Career Framework (ECF), both developed with sector experts, will equip teachers with a clear understanding of the needs of children with SEND.
All teachers are teachers of SEND. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.
Consideration of SEND underpins both the ITT core content framework and ECF. The ECF is designed to support all pupils to succeed and seeks to widen access for all.
Once teachers qualify and are employed in schools, headteachers use their professional judgement to identify any further training. This includes specific specialisms for and relevant to individual staff, the school, and its pupils.
The department has funded the creation of a suite of condition specific videos to provide helpful pointers, techniques, and advice on inclusive teaching strategies for newly qualified teachers. The videos cover dyslexia and dyspraxia amongst a range of specific learning needs.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure families have adequate access to early years support.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is investing £300 million to transform family help services in 75 local authorities. This includes funding for Family Hubs, parenting programmes and Start for Life services. We announced the 75 eligible local authorities on the 2 April 2022. The 75 local authorities, and the methodology used to select them can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-package-methodology-for-pre-selecting-local-authorities.
The government is committed to ensuring affordable access to childcare. Our current range of childcare offers includes 15 hours free early education for all three and four-year-olds, regardless of parental income or working status. This helps children to develop social skills and prepare them for school, regardless of their background.
In 2013, this offer was extended to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds, providing a developmental boost to disadvantaged children who are less likely to use formal childcare, but who stand to benefit from it the most.
In 2017, we introduced 30 hours free childcare for working parents of three and four-year-olds. To be eligible for this, a lone parent must earn from just over £7,400 a year, and a couple, where both parents are working, must earn from just over £14,800 per year, to access 30 hours. This can save parents over £6,000 per year.
The department has also introduced tax-free childcare, which is available for working parents of children aged 0-11 (or up to 16 if their child is disabled), with the same income thresholds as 30 hours free childcare. This scheme can save parents up to £2,000 per year (or up to £4,000 if their child is disabled) and can be used alongside 30 hours free childcare.
Working parents on Universal Credit may also be eligible for help with up to 85% of their childcare costs through the childcare element of Universal Credit. This is subject to a monthly limit of £646 for one child or £1,108 for two or more children aged 0-16.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure there are adequate specialist teachers to support children with Special Educational Needs.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response will outline the information for England only. We have the same high ambitions for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as we do for every child, and we know that they benefit from excellent teaching that allows them to fulfil their potential. The Schools White Paper, published Monday 28 March, sets the foundations to support the aims and ambitions of the SEND Review. We want to make our system even better for all children, especially those in need of extra support.
Our reformed Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (ITT CCF) and the new Early Career Framework (ECF), both developed with sector experts, will equip teachers with a clear understanding of the needs of children with SEND.
All teachers are teachers of SEND. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level, which includes the requirement that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.
Consideration of SEND underpins both the ITT CCF and ECF, which were both produced with the support of sector experts. The ECF is designed to support all pupils to succeed and seeks to widen access for all.
Furthermore, as part of the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper, we will consult on introducing a leadership level SENCO National Professional Qualification to replace the National Award in SEN Coordination (NASENCO) as the mandatory qualification for SENCOs. We have set out further detail in the SEND Review.
This will better align SENCO qualifications with our reformed teacher development system and ensure that these professionals are fully supported to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
It is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils with sensory impairments to hold the relevant mandatory qualification, known as MQSI. The department’s aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers for children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairment, in both specialist and mainstream education providers.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that adequate provisions are made to protect Ukrainian (1) orphans, and (2) unaccompanied children, who come to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to supporting those fleeing from Ukraine.
It is generally in the best interests of a child to be reunited with family members when possible. The Ukrainian government has also been clear that children should not be taken into care without their agreement.
The department takes the welfare of all unaccompanied children extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring they are properly safeguarded. Statutory duties placed on the local authority in respect of unaccompanied children will apply to any unaccompanied or orphaned Ukrainian children arriving in the UK.
In England, section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a general duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area, and to accommodate them if they meet the relevant criteria.
Generally, once a child has been accommodated by a local authority continuously for more than 24 hours, they become a looked after child and should be safeguarded. Their welfare should be promoted in the same way as any other looked after child, taking account of their particular needs.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many vulnerable children are in (1) council, or (2) social care, facilities in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department collects data on the number of children looked after in local authority care in England. Local authorities have a legal duty to provide appropriate accommodation for all children that are looked after. This data is collected on the annual SSD903 'children looked after by local authorities in England' statistical return, and the latest figures relate to the collection year ending 31 March 2021.
These figures on the number of children looked after by their placement type were published on the 18 November 2021 in Table A5 of the annual statistical release at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions. This is the first release of data covering the time period of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they intend to take to ensure that lifelong learning is available to all, including those with special educational needs.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We are committed to supporting everyone, whatever their age and background, including those with a special education need or disability, to attain the skills that will be needed in the economy of the future.
In the first three quarters of the 2020/21 academic year (August to April), 16.2% of all adult learners declared a learning difficulty or disability, which demonstrates our commitment to those learners with additional needs.
Our Skills for Jobs white paper published in January 2021, is focused on giving people the skills they need, in a way that suits them, so they can get great jobs in sectors the economy needs and boost this country’s productivity. Through our reforms we are ensuring people have opportunities to study, by delivering my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, to upskill and reskill at different points in their life.
Starting this year, the government is investing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) in the National Skills Fund. This is a significant investment and has the potential to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind.
Since 1 April this year, the government is supporting any adult who does not have A level equivalent or higher qualifications, to access over 400 fully funded level 3 courses, with Free Courses for Jobs.
This offer is a long-term commitment, backed by £95 million from the National Skills Fund in year one. Removing the barrier of funding training for millions of adults gives more people the chance to get ahead in work, no matter their age or background.
Complementing this support for adults, Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. We expect the Skills Bootcamps to represent the diversity of the local population and we encourage people from under-represented groups to take advantage of these fantastic opportunities.
Through our lifelong loan entitlement, introduced from 2025, we will make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly. This will allow them to space out their studies across their lifetimes, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.
More specifically, students with special educational needs and disabilities are an important part of our vision for, and motivation behind, a flexible skills system. We believe that more flexible provision can be of particular benefit to these students and plan to use the upcoming consultation on the lifelong loan entitlement to build our evidence base on how to support all people to access or benefit from this offer.
We are also continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) by providing £1.34 billion in the 2021/22 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
The AEB also provides funds to providers to help adults overcome barriers to learning. This includes learner support for those with financial hardship and learning support to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to stop fake positive COVID-19 test results being used to require school pupils to self-isolate.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
It is important that everyone using lateral flow devices (LFD) uses them in the correct way to ensure we can control and slow the spread of COVID-19. On their return to school or college from 8 March, pupils and students were tested three times at an on-site asymptomatic testing site. This gave pupils and students the opportunity to get used to swabbing in a supervised environment.
In line with the latest public health advice, it is important to continue regular testing and reporting in order to detect cases of COVID-19. Around one in three people with COVID-19 experience no symptoms and rapid testing with lateral flow tests helps to identify positive cases that would otherwise be missed. Antigen LFD tests have a very high specificity, possibly as high as 99.97%, which means three false positives in every 10,000 LFDs. Despite this, due to the lower prevalence, the probability of a false positive from an LFD becomes higher. We are mitigating this by asking people to confirm a positive antigen LFD test with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
From Step 4 of the roadmap, nurseries, schools and colleges will not routinely be required to undertake contact tracing for children and young people. Instead, pupils and students who test positive will be subject to the normal test and trace process, which will identify close contacts. This will be limited to close contacts. Unless they test positive, children and those who are double vaccinated will not be required to isolate from 16 August, if they are identified as a close contact, and instead will be advised to take a PCR test. Further guidance will be provided shortly. Self-isolation continues for those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and for those with symptoms.