Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of The National Parent Survey, published by Parentkind on 4 December 2023.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Parent Survey highlights the importance of engaging parents in their children’s education. While it is for schools to decide how to engage parents based on their particular circumstances, the department has put in place a range of support for schools and families for the issues the survey identifies. This includes support for access and attainment for those from lower income backgrounds and support for mental health and wellbeing.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. The department is providing total support worth £104 billion over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. This includes additional Cost of Living Payments totalling up to £900 in the 2023/24 financial year for over 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, and an additional £1 billion to help with the cost of household essentials.
Further support is available through the Pupil Premium, to improve the educational outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. In line with the variety of approaches set by the department, this funding can be used to support high-quality teaching and to provide targeted academic support. It can also be used to tackle wider barriers to academic success, such as difficulties in attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional wellbeing. Pupil Premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24.
The government is addressing specific cost issues such as school uniform. New statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms came into force in September 2022, which requires schools in England to ensure that their uniforms are affordable and secures best value for money for parents.
The department is committed to ensuring schools are calm, safe and supportive learning environments which promote and support good mental health and wellbeing. To support this commitment, the department is offering all state schools funding to train a senior mental health lead, who can oversee an effective whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing, which informs areas such as behaviour, tackling bullying and exam preparation. The department is also continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams, to increase access to early intervention support.
The department shares parents’ concerns about the time spent by children on electronic devices. New non-statutory guidance will aim to ensure that headteachers and members of staff have a clear mandate and practical advice to prohibit the use of mobile phones during the school day, which further supports the department’s aim for schools to be a calm, safe and supportive environment to learn and work.
As highlighted by the report, the experience children gain outside of their lessons is important to them fulfilling their potential as they progress from schools. The department is providing support to increase access to enriching extra-curricular activity. For example, the department is supporting cadets schemes in schools and funding an expansion in access to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in secondary schools, starting in more disadvantaged areas. Disadvantaged areas now rank amongst the highest performing in the country for careers provision and the department’s guidance is clear that schools should recognise the opportunity to improve social mobility by identifying any barriers to participation pupils may have and identify the support needed to maximise their life chances.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they decided to end the National Leaders of Governance Programme for schools in October 2023, rather than extend it to 2025.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Leaders of Governance (NLG) programme closed in October 2023 following the natural end of the contract with the National Governance Association (NGA). The department is grateful to the NGA for their successful delivery and for the quality of governance support the NLGs provided to schools and trusts.
Strong governance remains a core pillar of the department’s vision for ensuring quality in the school system. The department continues to encourage school and trust boards to regularly review their governance arrangements to ensure they are operating as effectively as possible. The department recently published the Trust Quality Descriptions which state the department’s expectation that high-quality trusts will regularly access an independent review of their governance arrangements. The department, local authorities and governance support organisations can signpost boards to the growing number of potential providers that may be commissioned to undertake such a review. The Chartered Governance Institute has also started a process of accrediting providers of external reviews of governance which will be a helpful resource for school and trust boards. More information on the Trust Quality Descriptions can be found in the attached pdf.
More guidance for school and trust governing boards can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/external-reviews-of-governance-whats-involved, and maintained school boards can seek advice from their local authority.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the provision of safe and suitable housing for care leavers and thereby reduce the risk of care leavers becoming homeless.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Helping care leavers to make a successful transition from care to independence is a priority for this government. Care leavers face barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing and this is why we are committed to undertake actions within Mission 5 of the Care Review implementation plan to ensure an increase in the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and a reduction in care leaver homelessness by 2027. This includes bringing forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, for Staying Put to support young people up to age 23 and for Staying Close to be a national entitlement, recognising that young people in the general population are leaving home at older ages. The department will also bring forward legislation to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.
The department has previously provided £11.3 million in targeted funding to local authorities in England as part of the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. An additional £3 million is being provided this year to deliver extra support for care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.
To support care leavers in the current spending review period (2022/2025), the department is providing £99.8 million to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme. The department is also providing £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their disability action plan; and whether they expect publication to be delayed due to the cancellation of the role of minister for disabled people, health and work.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Disability Action Plan consultation was published on 18 July 2023. The consultation ran for 12 weeks from 18 July to 6 October 2023. Since then, we have been carefully working through the responses and will publish our response to that plan in early 2024.
On 14 December, Government confirmed the appointment of Mims Davies as the new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work.
The Minister will build upon this Government’s strong track record and champion the issues disabled people face to ensure that their voices continue to be heard in all parts of government. We will build on our existing measures including through our multi-billion-pound support plans announced at Autumn Statement to help millions more disabled people get into and stay in work.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their publication on 16 November of data on 'Children looked after in England including adoptions', which showed that more than 21 per cent of children in care had been moved more than 20 miles away from home, what steps they are taking to ensure that the number does not continue to rise in future years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care.
The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duties through £259 million capital funding over this Parliament. The funding for open residential placements, which is match-funded equally by the department and local authority investment, is expected to create 95 new children’s homes, providing 360 additional placements across England. Funding will also create 54 additional secure welfare placements and ten step-down placements through the delivery of two new build and one rebuild secure children’s home, which are scheduled to be completed in the next spending review period.
The department is investing over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it. This is in addition to the department establishing a kinship carer training offer and implementing family network support packages through the £45 million Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Networks pilot.
The department is also investing £10 million to develop Regional Care Co-operatives to plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the Regional Care Co-operatives will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements.
While there are some circumstances that mean it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority to, for example, protect them from criminal or sexual exploitation, the department recognises that it is not ideal for children to be placed away from home and wants to reduce the number of out of area placements.