Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce the number of children at risk, following the finding by the Local Government Association that an average of 1,770 children are being referred each day to local authorities' children's services; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the resources for, and responses to, the needs of vulnerable children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is committed to ensuring that children at risk receive the right support. The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion to councils for local services (including children’s services) up to 2019-20. Local authorities are best-placed, and have the flexibility, to direct this towards locally determined priorities, including children’s services. The Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have recently commissioned a joint data-research project to gather evidence on cost and demand pressures in the sector, including data collection into ‘need to spend’ on children’s services.
The government’s statutory guidance, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, attached, makes clear that providing support for children as soon as a problem emerges is more effective than reacting later. The guidance sets out that preventative action relies on local agencies working together to identify children and families who would benefit from early help. This should form part of continued support to respond to the different levels of need of individual children and families. Through the £200 million ‘Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme’, the government is investing nearly £5 million in targeted support for children in need, testing new approaches to prevent further harm.
The government is carrying out a fundamental reform programme seeking to create a world-class child protection system, with the aim of achieving safety and stability for children, as set out in the government’s publication ‘Putting Children First: Delivering our vision for excellent children’s social care’, July 2016, attached. This work is organised around the key pillars of people and leadership, practice and systems, and governance and accountability. This wide-ranging programme of reforms underpins action to reduce the number of children at risk – such as through the introduction of new stronger local safeguarding arrangements, assessment and accreditation of social workers and targeted action to reduce risk, for example for children at risk of child sexual exploitation and unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of future demand for primary school places in England; and whether additional resources will be provided to those local education authorities with the greatest need for increased school places provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Forecasts of pupil place demand are provided by local authorities to the department through the annual School Capacity Survey and published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-capacity.
Local authority level forecasts for primary and secondary age pupils are given in Table A5 and Table A6 (attached) respectively.
The department also estimates the number of additional places needed to meet demand in each local authority by comparing pupil forecasts with existing and planned school place provision. These are published in the School Places scorecards here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-school-places-scorecards-2016. Details of the calculations are contained in the technical notes for that publication.
The department allocates basic need funding to local authorities to provide the school places required in their local area. The number of places we have funded by local authority can be found in Table 3, which is attached and available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations.
This funding is based on local authorities’ own data, which means funding is provided for all the places councils say they need to create. The department has allocated £5.8 billion between 2015 and 2020 to deliver new schools places, which is on top of investment through the free schools programme.
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 measures and resources required to enable local authorities to provide support to young offenders who, without such support, could be at risk of being effectively excluded from education provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 (as amended), local authorities have a duty to put alternative provision in place for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive suitable education for any reason. A number of these children may be young offenders who are not in custody. The department issues statutory guidance for local authorities on alternative provision which outlines that good alternative provision (AP) should have arrangements for working with youth offending teams.
Funding for compulsory school age children in alternative provision is made available to local authorities through high needs funding. The department also collects data annually on the number of children in local authority-commissioned alternative provision in schools, pupils and their characteristics. This can be found in the attached spreadsheet, which is part of information collected in the January 2017 school census available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017.
Where a child is in custody, education providers (in Youth Offending Institutions and Secure Training Centres) are required to assess the educational needs of young people. Their contracts also require them to provide support services for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, what educational policy objectives are supported by the advice to Ofsted inspectors from Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Schools, to ask young girls who wear a hijab why they do so; and what assessment they have made of the effect of that advice on equality of treatment and educational outcomes.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
This is a matter for Ofsted; I have asked Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, to write to you. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
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 measures and resources required to enable local authorities to provide education, health and care plans for all children with special educational needs who, without such plans, could be at risk of being effectively excluded from education provision.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, local councils are required to conduct statutory education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments. These determine whether children and young people in their area have special educational needs which require additional support or provision. Where a local council deems that a statutory EHC plan should be issued, it is responsible for securing the special educational provision specified in the plan. If a maintained school, academy, non-maintained special school, general further education college or an independent provider on the section 41 approved list is named in an EHC plan, the institution must admit the child or young person.
The department has provided local councils with £252 million between 2014-15 and 2017-18. This supports local councils to embed the special educational needs and disability reforms, as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they (1) assess, (2) evaluate, and (3) effectively manage, improvements in social mobility.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Tackling social mobility is the department’s priority. We use a range of measures to assess our progress towards giving all young people the best start in life, regardless of their background.
Thanks to these measures, we can already evaluate some of our successes. Raising school standards is key to social mobility and we know that there are 1.9 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010. The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers – another core measure of our progress – has narrowed since we introduced the Pupil Premium in 2011. This is now worth around £2.5 billion per year. Young pupils from disadvantaged areas are also entering universities at record rates, providing another key measure of success.
Through the department’s Opportunity Areas program, we use an Index developed by the Social Mobility Commission to identify 12 areas of the country with some of the greatest challenges. We will be targeting £72 million of investment over three years in these areas to improve outcomes for disadvantaged young people at every level of the education system.
In order to continue the department’s work in effectively managing improvements in social mobility we have recently published 'Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential' - an ambitious strategy that sets out an agenda for action from early years’ education to university and vocational education. A copy of this report has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the light of the reduced number of young people starting an apprenticeship in the current year, they have considered withdrawing the apprenticeship levy charged to companies with more than 250 members of staff.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There have been over 1.1 million apprenticeship starts since May 2015 and the Government remains committed to reaching 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. The Government has introduced the Apprenticeship Levy to provide sustainable investment in high quality apprenticeships, and by 2020 apprenticeship funding in England will be £2.45 billion, which is double than in 2010.
The Government is monitoring the number of apprenticeship starts as these changes take effect. Ultimately, it is too early to draw conclusions on the impact of these reforms before employers have had time to adjust. However, the Government will continue to oversee the apprenticeship program to ensure its success.
These reforms to apprenticeships are the biggest changes the Government has ever made in this area, and include the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy and new funding arrangements in April and May respectively. As a result, the Government expects a period of adjustment for employers wanting to explore the opportunities such reforms offer. Employers have 24 months to spend their levy funds.
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 causatory factors leading to a decline in the number of young people starting an apprenticeship in the current year; and how that decline will affect their target to create three million apprenticeships by 2020.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There have been over 1.1 million apprenticeship starts since May 2015 and the Government remains committed to reaching 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. The Government has introduced the Apprenticeship Levy to provide sustainable investment in high quality apprenticeships, and by 2020 apprenticeship funding in England will be £2.45 billion, which is double than in 2010.
The Government is monitoring the number of apprenticeship starts as these changes take effect. Ultimately, it is too early to draw conclusions on the impact of these reforms before employers have had time to adjust. However, the Government will continue to oversee the apprenticeship program to ensure its success.
These reforms to apprenticeships are the biggest changes the Government has ever made in this area, and include the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy and new funding arrangements in April and May respectively. As a result, the Government expects a period of adjustment for employers wanting to explore the opportunities such reforms offer. Employers have 24 months to spend their levy funds.
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 concerns expressed by the NSPCC regarding the 60 per cent rise in reports of child neglect over the past five years.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department’s children in need annual census demonstrates an increase between 2011-12 and 2015-16 of 27% in the number of Child Protection Plans at 31 March with the initial category of neglect as the form of abuse (from 18,220 to 23,150). Over the same period there was an increase of
19 per cent in the number of children in need at 31 March with the primary need of ‘abuse or neglect’ (from 168,270 to 199,720), although this cannot be disaggregated to identify neglect needs only. These figures are in the context of general increases of 17 per cent with regard to Child Protection Plans at 31 March and 7 per cent with regard to children in need at 31 March.
We recognise the great importance of identifying hidden abuse, including in the form of neglect, and continue to fund the NSPCC to deliver the Childline service, with £8 million invested to 2020. We have also delivered a major communications campaign, Together, we can tackle child abuse, to raise awareness and encourage the members of the public to raise concerns. Through our wide-ranging reforms to children’s social care, we are working to ensure all forms of abuse, including neglect, are identified early, with timely and proportionate assessments of individual needs, and the right services provided at the right time to keep children safe.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the research undertaken for the Local Government Association by the Learning and Work Institute estimating that 12 million people will, by 2024, be without work, or in work for which they are over-qualified; and what action they are taking to address the skills gap.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government wants to create a world-class technical education system and is investing heavily to ensure that we deliver the right skills that the economy, employers and individuals all need to be successful.
We plan to deliver on our commitment to create 3 million apprenticeships by 2020, and drive up the quality of apprenticeships to ensure they deliver the skills employers need.
We are developing a proper system of technical education based on 15 new technical routes and introducing new qualifications, known as T-levels, which will provide clear pathways to jobs.
We are also strengthening the provider base, including by establishing a network of new Institutes of Technology specialising in delivering higher-level technical skills.