Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what strategies are in place to improve school attainment performance of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma pupils from early years onwards.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are able to take advantage of early years education provision. Since 2013, over half a million of the country’s most disadvantaged two year olds, including those from Gypsy Roma and Traveller populations, have benefitted from 15 hours of free early education a week, and can continue this early education with 15 hours of free early education at ages 3 and 4. In the recently published strategy ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’ a copy of which is available in the Library of the House of Lords, an ambition was laid out to close the word gap backed by over £100 million of investment. Once a child is at school the Pupil Premium is provided, an additional funding provision that continues with nearly £2.5 billion this year alone, to help schools improve the progress and attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. High proportions of Gypsy Roma and Traveller pupils are eligible for and benefit from this support.
The department also provides a number of financial support programmes for economically disadvantaged 16 to 19 year olds to help with the costs associated with staying in post 16 education such as travel and course equipment.
The department is taking action to ensure that high quality apprenticeships are accessible to all. The Apprenticeships Diversity Champions Network and recently launched partnership with five major cities in England, aim to drive up apprenticeships among underrepresented groups.
In Higher Education, providers will now be required to publish application data broken down by ethnicity and those charging higher fees will be required to agree Access and Participation Plans. The plans will set out measures to support the access and successful participation for disadvantaged and under-represented groups, including those from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
In January 2018 the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller stakeholder group was established to inform policy development to raise the attainment and participation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils at all stages of education. In March 2018 a review of exclusions was launched, exploring why certain pupil groups, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils, are over-represented in exclusions statistics. The department continues to collaborate with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on their 2018-19 pilot programme to improve the social integration of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. In addition as part of the Careers Strategy, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller youth will be included as a target group for a pilot testing ways of providing guidance on routes into careers to vulnerable groups.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what information, if any, they hold on the (1) ethnicity, and (2) religious beliefs, of school governors in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with church representatives regarding a new model church supplemental agreement by denomination.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department keeps model documentation used by academy trusts under review and this includes the Church Supplemental Agreement. Department for Education ministers and officials meet with representatives of the Church of England and Catholic Church on a regular basis and discuss a range of topics including the Church Supplemental Agreement.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to agreeing a new model church supplemental agreement.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department keeps model documentation used by academy trusts under review and this includes the Church Supplemental Agreement. Department for Education ministers and officials meet with representatives of the Church of England and Catholic Church on a regular basis and discuss a range of topics including the Church Supplemental Agreement.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish further details about plans to cancel all prison service instructions and replace them with a national policy framework.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The Government has reviewed all existing prison service operational polices and started the process of either cancelling these where they are no longer relevant, or replacing them with Policy Frameworks. Policy Frameworks will contain clear minimum mandatory requirements to ensure a safe, decent and lawful prison system, with consistency across the estate where necessary. To date, under the Government’s deregulation programme, 212 operational prison polices have been cancelled.
Policy Frameworks are currently being developed in a number of areas under a rolling programme. We expect to publish several Policy Frameworks during 2018/19, including those which contain the key levers for prison reform and the rehabilitation of offenders. Policy Frameworks will be published on the Government’s website, in line with the practice for existing prison operational policies.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in implementing the recommendations of the Farmer Review of the UK construction labour model.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government supports the implementation, in full or in part, of nine of the ten recommendations made by the Farmer Review. We have already incorporated the review’s findings and recommendations into policy development. This includes measures to increase housing supply in the Housing White Paper, a review of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), additional funding for adult retraining in construction skills and a ‘presumption in favour of offsite construction’ (by 2019) across five major procuring Departments. In addition, Mark Farmer is chairing a stakeholder group (for MHCLG) which is examining barriers to finance for offsite housing.
Importantly, the Industrial Strategy White Paper (November 2017) announced an ambitious Sector Deal for construction to transform construction productivity by boosting innovation, increasing adoption of digital and manufacturing technologies, and improving procurement and the supply of skills to the sector. This is underpinned by £170m investment in R&D in the sector from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Going forward, Government and the Construction Leadership Council will continue to support the modernisation agenda set out in the Farmer Review through implementation of the Sector Deal.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to guarantee the continued provision of quality assured chaplaincy services to every prison in England and Wales by continuing the guidelines Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners (PSI 05/2016) and including those guidelines in any future prison policy frameworks.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
PSI 05/2016 Faith and Pastoral Care of Prisoners is not in the first tranche of PSIs to be deregulated. When it is replaced by a Policy Framework I am confident that Governors will have the guidance they need to ensure the delivery of chaplaincy services that meet the pastoral and faith needs of prisoners. Discussions are already under way to see how the present Assurance and Compliance quality assurance process may be developed to support delivery of chaplaincy services in the future.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that overcrowding does not restrict prisoners' access to chaplaincy services; and whether they intend to include such access in future performance measures.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The Prison Safety and Reform White paper set out a range of performance measures so that the performance of prisons is judged on the results they deliver rather than just compliance with processes. Access to Chaplaincy services is not currently included in these measures. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service seek to ensure that prisoners have access to chaplaincy services in accordance with PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners). Overcrowding in and of itself would not restrict access to chaplaincy services.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement a systematic and quality assured communications gateway to enable prison staff to work with families to reduce self-harm and suicide.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
Families can play a significant role in supporting offenders; positive family relationships have been identified as a protective factor in desistance from crime. For this reason, we are promoting strong family ties (including significant others) as an important plank of our Prison Reform Programme, alongside education and employment.
The Government published a review by Lord Farmer on 10 August, which made several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around and protect public safety. We are taking the recommendations forward, including (in October 2017) giving Governors the budget and flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family ties.
One of Lord Farmer’s recommendations related to the introduction of an “auditable and responsive ‘gateway’ communication system for families and significant others”. We are fully committed to ensuring that prisoners can communicate with their loved ones. We recognise that there is no single method of communication that will be suitable for all users. We will shortly be issuing guidance to prisons on publicising how loved ones can share information about prisoners who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. In addition, we will issue guidance on facilitating early contact with prisoners’ families or their significant others when they arrive at the prison, so that we can involve them in their support and encourage ongoing contact; and on involving families in the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork process for supporting those at risk.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce performance measures on family contact covering every stage of a prisoner's sentence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
Families can play a significant role in supporting an offender; positive family relationships have been identified as helping to reduce reoffending. For this reason, we are promoting strong family or significant other ties as part of prison reform, alongside education and employment. We believe that a prisoner’s family or significant other is the most effective resettlement agency we have – as the prison inspectorate, the probation service and Ofsted all agree.
Lord Farmer’s review (August 2017) contains several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around.
We are taking forward his recommendations. In October of this year we devolved the budget for family interventions to governors, providing them with the flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family or significant other ties.
The Prison Safety and Reform White Paper committed to implementing a performance measure on family relationships for governors, and this will build upon the observations contained within Lord Farmer’s comprehensive report. Work is currently underway to define the content of this measure.