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 effectiveness of policies and programmes to tackle social inequality in the UK; and what evidence exists to demonstrate that children and young people living in poverty and low-income households have been enabled by those policies and programmes to overcome the barriers to social mobility.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Social mobility is a top priority, and the department is taking action to remove barriers to opportunity at every stage of the education system. The department has set out a 10 year ambition to boost children’s early reading and communication skills. We have invested more than £15 billion in the pupil premium to support the most disadvantaged pupils and we are reforming technical education. The evidence shows we are closing the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and others, as measured by the disadvantage gap index, by around 13 % at key stage 2 and 9.5 % at key stage 4 since 2011. As well as increasing the proportion of disadvantaged 18 year olds entering full-time higher education from 13.3% in 2009 to 20.2% in 2018.
The department has invested over £137 million in the Education Endowment Foundation to help schools use the pupil premium in ways that are proven to have a positive impact.
We are committed to tackling the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and we are making good progress. Nationally, there are now over a million fewer workless households, and around 665,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many students have had their visas revoked or curtailed for allegedly cheating in Government-approved English proficiency tests in each year since 2014; how many were detained or forcibly removed in that period; how many students made challenges to decisions; and how many cases are awaiting decision by the Court of Appeal.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The exact information requested is not held centrally by the Home Office. UKVI transparency data provides details of refusal, curtailments and removal decisions on those linked to the abuse of secure English language testing. A link to the most recent available data is provided here;
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2017
The table in SELT_02 is the closest match to the information requested.
The data was last published in February 2017 and only contains data to the last quarter (December 2016). ETS data is no longer published after this date.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are being applied to young offender institutions and secure training centres to make them safe and secure for staff and offenders, and appropriate for the provision of care for detainees.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Carrying on the youth justice reforms from 2017, we are providing funding for every Prison Officer in the Youth Custody Service to undertake a youth justice qualification and, on completion, transition into a new youth justice specialist role on promotion and at a higher pay-grade. Over 400 frontline staff are currently enrolled on this qualification.
To better support young people in custody, we are rolling out the Custody Support Plan (CuSP) and implementing the use of Promoting Risk Intervention by Situational Management (PRISM). CuSP will provide each young person with a personal officer to work with in order to build trust and consistency. PRISM is an evidence-based process specifically designed and tested for use within custodial institutions. It provides a comprehensive framework for reviewing features of an environment that are known to contribute to the likelihood and emergence of violence.
As well as this we are working closely with the NHS on ‘Secure Stairs’, which is a new integrated approach to strengthen the provision of health care to address the needs of young people holistically and co-ordinates services through a coherent, joined up approach. In addition, we are increasing psychology staff and support, and opening Enhanced Support Units for young people with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received about the implications of introducing tests for children aged four; and what their response has been to such representations.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Following positive feedback on the proposal made in the 2017 primary assessment consultation, we committed to introducing the reception baseline assessment (RBA) at the beginning of the reception year to form the baseline for primary school progress measures. The consultation received 4,165 responses including representations from headteachers, teachers, teaching unions and sector experts. A majority of responses demonstrated clear support for moving the baseline assessment to reception. It is important to note the RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception. The full consultation response is attached and can also be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644871/Primary_assessment_consultation_response.pdf.
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 education benefits for children and their families of the introduction of tests for children aged four.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The reception baseline assessment (RBA) will enable us to create school-level progress measures for primary schools which show the progress pupils make from reception until the end of key stage 2. Progress is an important measure - it will give schools credit for the important work they do with their pupils between reception and year 2 and will give parents better information about which schools may help their children to make the most progress. The RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception.
We have worked closely with early years practitioners, schools and other education experts to develop the RBA, and continue to do so. All aspects of the assessment’s development have been informed by an extensive evidence base of early years research.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 23 April (HL15116), what well-evidenced assessment they made when deciding to outsource public service provision to Interserve; and what assessment has been made of the quality and reliability of its provision.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Contracts are never awarded lightly; each has an agreed and robust process. Government has always been compliant with public procurement regulations and follows these diligently when assessing the suitability of suppliers to deliver a particular contract
The various contracting authorities, such as individual Government Departments, manage their contracts with Interserve and monitor performance against each contract. I am unable to comment on specifics as this information remains commercially sensitive
The Cabinet Office also monitors the overall financial health and performance of all of our strategic suppliers, including Interserve, and has regular discussions with the company’s management.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact (1) of the closure of youth service provision across the country, and (2) of the closure of youth services on the rise of knife and violent crimes.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Government recognises that the causes of youth crime are complex and are often tied to local factors. Local authorities allocate funding and deliver youth services in line with local need. The Government has made over £200bn available to local authorities to spend on local services over this Spending Review.
The Government is committed to making sure young people have opportunities to develop their skills and benefit from youth services, which are an important partner in the strategy to tackle the root causes of serious violence.
My department will continue to work closely with the Home Office on the implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the creation of the National Citizen Service on the funding available for youth services.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The decision to fund local youth services lies with Local Authorities, not with central government. NCS is a universal offer funded by central government, that is accessible to all young people and is designed to support, and not cut across other services. It is delivered via a network of over 100 local delivery partners, many of which are local youth organisations. As such, we have made no specific assessment of the impact of the creation of NCS on the funding available for youth services.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relevance and effectiveness of the National Citizen Service in meeting the particular needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
NCS is a programme that successfully reaches young people from all backgrounds. We have made no specific assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of NCS in meeting the needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities, but we do know that participants from vulnerable and minority groups are overrepresented on the programme. In 2018, 16% of participants were eligible for Free School Meals, 31% were from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and 5% had Special Educational Needs* compared to 12%, 25% and 2% of the comparative population respectively.
Work is ongoing to reach the most marginalised young people. The NCS Trust has established strong links with Local Authorities to support the hardest to reach young people in accessing the programme; provide specialist support during the programme; and help young people access opportunities after NCS. The NCS Trust has also introduced a central inclusion fund, so that its network partners can apply for funding to support young people with additional needs to access the NCS programme.
* The final 2018 participation figures are still subject to ongoing compliance checks.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative merits of public services being run directly by public service operations in comparison to private contractors.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Outsourcing is an important component in a “mixed economy” of government service provision which includes in-house and the voluntary sector. Research commissioned by the previous government has shown that outsourcing can deliver savings of some twenty to thirty percent.
Decisions on whether to outsource any particular service are made on a case by case basis according to Treasury guidance and the newly published Outsourcing Playbook. This guidance aims to ensure government makes well evidenced assessments when deciding whether to outsource a public service and helps government and industry work better together to deliver high quality public services.