Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the estimated shortfall of foster carers in England at present in relation to children being placed in institutional care; and how any shortfall is being addressed.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Whilst the number of looked after children has increased steadily over the last nine years, the proportions of children placed in foster care (74%) and in residential care (11%) remain similar to previous years. We cannot ascertain, however, whether there is a shortfall of carers in certain parts of England. Data on children looked after in England can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.
The department is carefully considering how to support local authorities and fostering agencies to improve the recruitment and retention of foster parents as it develops the government’s response to ‘Foster Care in England’ (attached) the independent review into the fostering system, and the report from the Education Select Committee’s inquiry into fostering (attached).
The department is working with Boarding Schools Partnerships to encourage more local authorities to consider boarding for children in or at risk of going into care, where it might be the right support for them. There are few more vulnerable groups of children in England and the department is focused on enabling them to succeed in life.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future education prospects and social mobility of children taken into local authority care and moved around the care system.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We know that stability for a child in care is a key factor in forming secure, high-quality relationships that can help a child to thrive in education and into adulthood. Research by the Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education shows the important relationship between stability and better outcomes for young people in care in mainstream schools at the end of key stage 4.
The Department for Education is working to improve stability for looked after children, including investing £3.8 million in the Mockingbird Family Model. This aims to improve placement stability by providing enhanced support to foster carers and the children they look after. The department collects and publishes annually information on the educational attainment of looked-after children and outcomes for care leavers aged 19, 20 and 21 years old and uses this information to inform policies to improve outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the long-term implications for children's education of increasing numbers of schools switching to a four and a half day week.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
All schools have the autonomy to decide the structure and duration of their school day, which includes the flexibility to decide when their school day should start and finish. We trust head teachers to decide how best to structure their school day to support their pupils’ education. The department does not collect data on the number of schools who have chosen to make changes to their school days and has not made an assessment of these decisions taken by individual schools.
The Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999 require all maintained schools to be open to educate their pupils for at least 380 sessions (190 days) in each school year. There are no specific legal requirements setting out over how many days in each week these sessions should be delivered, or how long each individual school day should be. Governing bodies of all maintained schools in England are responsible for deciding when sessions should begin and end on each school day. They are also responsible for deciding the length of each lesson and the timings for the morning session, the midday break, and the afternoon session. Academy and free school funding agreements state that the duration of the school day is the responsibility of the academy trust.
In the event that a school decides to make changes to its school day, it is our expectation that the school should act reasonably; giving parents notice and considering those affected, including pupils, teachers, and parents.
Schools and trusts should ensure they achieve efficiency through non-teaching spend, effective curriculum planning, and learning from best practice being delivered by good or outstanding schools of comparable sizes, phase and geography.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report Economic evaluation of Place2Be's counselling service in primary schools by Pro Bono Economics and Place2Be published on 26 April; and what assessment they have made of increasing mental health counselling provision for primary school pupils and the potential long-term benefits for the economy of such an increase.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department recognises the importance of school based counselling. The economic evaluation of Place2Be's counselling service in primary schools provides an assessment of the potential benefits of such provision.
Schools are best placed to make decisions on the most appropriate support for their pupils, and 61% of schools and colleges already provide counselling services. The government has published advice on delivering high quality school based counselling to all pupils. The advice for schools was developed in consultation with counselling experts, including Place2Be, and is attached.
The green paper, ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’, sets out proposals to provide significant further help to schools. These include the introduction of Mental Health Support Teams, which will increase the support available to pupils with emerging mental health problems. Additional funding will be provided for new professionals trained in evidence-based interventions, with supervision from expert clinicians. The teams will provide better routes into specialist NHS services for the pupils who need them. The green paper is attached.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for early years education of the findings by TeachFirst that one in three children are not "school ready" when they start primary school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Teach First’s analysis of the latest Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results shows that 29.3% of children in England did not achieve a good level of development (GLD) in 2017. However, the proportion of children arriving at primary school with a GLD is continuing to increase year on year, rising from 51.7% in 2013 to 70.7% in 2017.
Reception year presents a window of opportunity to address gaps within a child’s development before they have a chance to widen. In ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’ (attached), the government sets out its ambitious plans to support teachers to address these development gaps. Plans include a £26 million investment in a Centre of Excellence and national network of English Hubs, focussing on raising standards in reception year and key stage 1, and plans to work with experts to identify and share strong reception year practice.
Evidence also shows that a highly qualified workforce is strongly associated with higher quality provision and better child outcomes. We continue to support graduates in the sector by funding the Early Years Initial Teacher Training programme, including bursaries and employer incentives.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there has been any reduction in the number of (1) teachers, and (2) teaching assistants, in the secondary school sector in England since 2015; if so, by how many; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such reductions on children's future education.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of teachers and support staff in secondary schools is provided in the School workforce in England statistical first release. This is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2016.
Year | Full-time equivalent numbers in state funded secondary schools, November each year | |
Teachers | Teaching assistant | |
20001 | 194,300 | 12,500 |
20112 | 215,200 | 52,800 |
20152 | 210,900 | 52,300 |
20162 | 208,200 | 50,100 |
1. Source - Form 618g. Figures are as at January 2000.
2. Source - Figures are taken from the School Workforce Census and are as at November.
In June 2018 the data for November 2017 is expected to be published.
The department makes an annual assessment of the need for new teachers through the Teacher Supply Model. The model makes use of the latest available data on the school workforce, projected growth in pupil numbers and policy changes.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding of the report from The Place2Be's survey of headteachers that children with mental health problems are suffering as a consequence of school environments with a paucity of mental health support staff for teachers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Good mental health is a priority for the department. It can have a profound impact on the whole of a child’s life. Schools and colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people by developing approaches that suit their needs.
The department recognises that teachers are not mental health professionals and that many schools and colleges have reported having to deal with an increase in mental health problems requiring support from specialist services. The findings from Place2Be’s survey echo the findings from our Supporting Mental Health in Schools and Colleges study and Teacher Voice omnibus survey. These indicate teachers would like more information on what works in schools in promoting good mental wellbeing and better access to specialist support. That is why the government is committed to supporting schools and colleges to promote good mental wellbeing in children, to provide a supportive environment for those experiencing problems, and to secure access to more specialist help for those who need it. The Department of Health and Social Care have committed £1.4 billion for mental health services for children, young people and new mothers over the five years to 2020.
The attached green paper, ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’, sets out proposals to provide significant further support linked to schools, supported by over £300 million funding. These include incentivising and supporting all schools and colleges to identify and train a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health, to deliver whole school approaches to promoting better mental health. The government will also fund new Mental Health Support Teams, to provide additional, clinically-supervised, staff trained in evidence-based interventions and to ensure schools and the NHS work together.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are considering the provision of independent mental health counselling for pupils in all secondary schools in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We believe that schools are best placed to make decisions on the most appropriate support for their pupils, and we know that many schools already provide a valued counselling service. To support more schools to do so, the government has provided the attached guidance on delivering high quality school-based counselling.
Our green paper, ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’, attached, sets out proposals to provide significant further help to schools. These include the introduction of Mental Health Support Teams, which will increase the support available to pupils with emerging mental health problems. Additional funding will be provided for new professionals trained in evidence-based interventions, with supervision from expert clinicians. The teams will provide better routes into specialist NHS services for the pupils who need them.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future prospects of children in the poorest and most deprived areas in England; and what assessment they have made of whether there has been any disproportionate loss of children's services in those areas.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Although children from more disadvantaged areas often do less well on average than their peers from more affluent areas, significant progress has been made in recent years. The national index measuring the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in key stage 4 narrowed by 10% overall since 2011. For key stage 2, the gap has narrowed by 10.5%. The department recently published plans to improve social mobility and support all children and young people, wherever they live, to fulfil their potential. The report, ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’ was placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Government reforms aim to create a culture in which skilled staff are able to operate in environments where strong practice is valued and developed to secure services that meet the needs of local children and families. Where children’s services are not of an acceptable standard, the government will intervene to ensure that effective improvement plans are in place and delivered at pace.
Funding for children’s services is un-ring fenced, as part of the wider local government finance settlement. This gives local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally determined priorities and, of course, their statutory responsibilities to children. Local authorities used this flexibility to increase spending on children and young people’s services to around £9.2 billion in 2016/17. The Spending Review 2015 made more than £200 billion available to councils for local services, including children’s social care, up to 2019/20.
A range of measures are available to assess how children are faring in all areas of the country, including the most deprived. These measures include area-based statistics such as the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), progress and attainment data at key stages 2 and 4, and data on access to and success at university. The IDACI data can be found at this website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what shortcomings, if any, they have identified with the performance of multi-academy trusts; what are the oversight arrangements for governance and public accountability; and what assessment they have made of the extent to which those arrangements are adequate and fit for purpose.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Academy trusts are held to account through a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State and bound by both company and charity law.
The department publishes statistics on the performance of schools in multi-academy trusts on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-academy-trust-performance-measures-2015-to-2016, and in the ‘Academy Schools Sector in England’, attached.
Academy trusts are required to submit audited accounts on an annual basis. The auditors are required to express a view on the financial health of a trust and to produce a public management letter summarising their audit.
The primary responsibility for the oversight of trusts rests with the trustees themselves. Regional Schools Commissioners act on behalf of the Secretary of State, and continually review the performance of all of the multi-academy trusts in their region, working closely with the Education and Skills Funding Agency who have oversight of financial performance and governance. Where concerns are identified, the department acts swiftly and robustly to address these.
Further information on the oversight arrangements for academy trusts is set out in ‘Multi-academy trusts: Government Response to the Committee’s Seventh Report of Session 2016–17’, which is attached.
We continuously review the adequacy of oversight arrangements.