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 Achieving for Children, a community interest company created in 2014 by the Royal Borough of Kingston and the London Borough of Richmond to provide their children’s services; and whether they plan to promote this model for use by other local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Achieving for Children was jointly established in 2014 by the local authorities (LAs) of Kingston and Richmond and has since been joined by Windsor & Maidenhead in 2017 as a third partner. Since joining the Trust, Richmond have maintained their Good Ofsted judgement (2022) and Kingston are now rated Outstanding (2019), an excellent improvement from their previous Inadequate judgement (2013). Ofsted viewed Achieving for Children’s leadership as strong, which was highlighted in Kingston’s latest focused visit (May 2022).
For those LAs who are not failing in their delivery of children’s social care (CSC) services, it is a decision for the leadership team as to whether they would like to voluntarily create or join a trust. The department does not specifically promote the community interest company model being used in this space as any decision on this would sit with the LA and be dependent on their own local context and needs. If, however, a LA is found to be persistently or systemically failing by Ofsted then the department will follow its intervention protocol and appoint a commissioner to assess whether services should be removed from the council. One possible outcome of this assessment is the recommendation that a trust be set up to manage services on the LAs behalf.
There are currently nine Children’s Services Trusts in operation across England. Achieving for Children is different to the other eight in that it was not set up in response to a failure in CSC service delivery. The other eight Trusts are in Bradford, Birmingham, Northamptonshire (covering North and West), Reading, Sandwell, Slough, Sunderland and Worcestershire.
The introduction of Children’s Services Trusts has worked well in helping failing LAs turn their services around such as in Birmingham which has improved to Good and in Sunderland where services went from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Outstanding’ in a single inspection cycle.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in relation to the recent advertisement for the post of Chair of Social Work England, what assessment they have made of the extent to which the requirement to "respond proactively to the current and future direction of Government policy and strategy" is consistent with the requirement to maintain Social Work England's "reputation as a trusted, knowledgeable and independent regulator".
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As an independent regulator, overseen by the Professional Standards Authority, Social Work England carries out its regulatory functions, as set out in legislation. This includes holding a register of social workers and carrying out fitness to practise processes. In the context of significant reform of both children’s and adult’s social care, Social Work England is also helping to shape the future direction of government policy with respect to its areas of responsibility, including legislative frameworks for social workers. As a central government organisation, it is entirely consistent that an independent professional regulator should work with government to shape policy and strategy in this way. Further information about Social Work England can be found at: https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/our-role-and-legislation/.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Schools on 30 June (190680) stating that schools will be expected to manage the upcoming teacher pay award from within existing funding, how many schools they estimate have surpluses which would enable them to do so without affecting current spending commitments.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations for 2023/24 teacher pay awards in full. This means that teachers and headteachers in maintained schools will receive an award of 6.5%, the highest STRB award in three decades. The department will be providing an additional £525 million to schools this year, to support schools with the teachers’ pay award, and £900 million in financial year 2024/25, and as the unions have agreed, this means that the award is properly funded.
This is on top of funding totals previously announced, meaning that school funding is rising by over £3.9 billion in the 2023/24 financial year alone, on top of a £4 billion cash increase last year. Combined, that represents a 16% increase in just two years. Next year, school funding will be over £59.6 billion, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.
This additional funding will enable headteachers to continue to invest in the areas that positively impact educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, as well as help schools to manage higher costs, including teacher pay awards.
Each year the department publishes an assessment of schools’ costs and funding, which informs what pay award we judge to be affordable for schools from within this existing funding. In March 2023, the department set out a calculation that schools, on average, could afford a pay award of 4% from within existing funding.
The department decided to fund the 2023 pay award from a lower affordability figure than that calculation, funding the costs of the pay award above 3.5%, on average, rather than above our 4% national affordability calculation. This is a more generous funding offer than in March.
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 research by Rebecca Simpson-Hargreaves Starting a new chapter – childhood literacy education, published on 25 May; and in particular, the conclusion that the focus on phonics creates a non-balanced approach to literacy and the related finding by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) that only 29 per cent of English children say that they enjoy reading.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
By ensuring high quality systematic synthetic phonics teaching, the government wants to improve literacy levels to give all children a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school and help children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has carried out a comprehensive review of robust studies on the impact of phonics. It found that phonics is more effective on average than other approaches for early reading, when embedded in a rich literacy environment.
Evidence has also shown that phonics is an important component in the development of early reading skills, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The reading framework, published on 11 July 2023, is unequivocal in its support for reading for pleasure and provides guidance on how the best schools build on their strong phonics teaching to create a strong reading culture.
Those reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check (PSC) are substantially more likely to subsequently reach the expected standard in Key Stage 2 reading. In 2022, 85% of those meeting PSC expectations in Year 1 subsequently met Key Stage 2 reading expectations, compared to 18% of those who had not met PSC expectations in Years 1 or 2. Additionally, the strongest predictor of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) performance was the Year 1 phonics check mark, for which a 1-point increase was associated with nearly a 4-point gain in PIRLS 2021 overall reading performance.
In PIRLS 2021, 76% of surveyed pupils in England reported that they ‘very much like’ or ‘somewhat like’ reading.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many teachers at state-funded secondary schools in England do not have a teaching qualification in the subject that they teach.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information on the school workforce in England, including qualified teacher status (QTS), qualifications held and for state-funded secondary schools, the subjects taught, is published in the school workforce in England statistical publication. A link to this information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
QTS is considered desirable for teachers in most schools in England. In some schools, including academies, free schools, and independent schools, QTS is not a legal requirement. Academies have a fundamental freedom to employ talented teachers who do not necessarily have QTS.
Most teachers in all schools, including academies, have QTS and have undertaken Initial Teacher Training (ITT). The most recent data from November 2022 shows 12,739 full time equivalent teachers in state funded schools in England did not have QTS, which is equivalent to 2.7% of teachers. This information is in the attached table 1. Information on the qualifications held by teachers is collected in the annual census. However, the information collected does not identify teaching qualifications specifically. Information on the highest qualification of teachers is in the attached table 2. The percent of secondary school teachers with a relevant post A level qualification in the subject they are teaching is is in the attached table 3.
Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the department.
There are 27,000 more teachers now than there were in 2010. The quality of teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Evidence is clear that high quality professional development can lead to improved pupil attainment.
The department has invested in transforming training for teachers and head teachers. Every teacher and head teacher now has access to high quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career, starting with ITT.
By 2024, a reformed ITT provider market will be delivering quality assured training leading to QTS that places a greater emphasis than ever before on embedding structured practice into courses, ensuring trainees are ready to thrive in the classroom.
A new system of higher quality training provider partnerships will be supported by £36 million to introduce new quality requirements, including better training for mentors and the delivery of new, cutting edge, intensive training, and practice activity. Every teaching school hub will be involved in ITT to ensure that training places are available across the country.
The department wants to continue bringing great people into teaching and have introduced bursaries worth up to £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth up to £29,000 tax free, to attract talented trainees in subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
In addition to scholarships and bursaries, the department are offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many teachers at state-funded schools in England do not have a teaching qualification.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information on the school workforce in England, including qualified teacher status (QTS), qualifications held and for state-funded secondary schools, the subjects taught, is published in the school workforce in England statistical publication. A link to this information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
QTS is considered desirable for teachers in most schools in England. In some schools, including academies, free schools, and independent schools, QTS is not a legal requirement. Academies have a fundamental freedom to employ talented teachers who do not necessarily have QTS.
Most teachers in all schools, including academies, have QTS and have undertaken Initial Teacher Training (ITT). The most recent data from November 2022 shows 12,739 full time equivalent teachers in state funded schools in England did not have QTS, which is equivalent to 2.7% of teachers. This information is in the attached table 1. Information on the qualifications held by teachers is collected in the annual census. However, the information collected does not identify teaching qualifications specifically. Information on the highest qualification of teachers is in the attached table 2. The percent of secondary school teachers with a relevant post A level qualification in the subject they are teaching is is in the attached table 3.
Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the department.
There are 27,000 more teachers now than there were in 2010. The quality of teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Evidence is clear that high quality professional development can lead to improved pupil attainment.
The department has invested in transforming training for teachers and head teachers. Every teacher and head teacher now has access to high quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career, starting with ITT.
By 2024, a reformed ITT provider market will be delivering quality assured training leading to QTS that places a greater emphasis than ever before on embedding structured practice into courses, ensuring trainees are ready to thrive in the classroom.
A new system of higher quality training provider partnerships will be supported by £36 million to introduce new quality requirements, including better training for mentors and the delivery of new, cutting edge, intensive training, and practice activity. Every teaching school hub will be involved in ITT to ensure that training places are available across the country.
The department wants to continue bringing great people into teaching and have introduced bursaries worth up to £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth up to £29,000 tax free, to attract talented trainees in subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
In addition to scholarships and bursaries, the department are offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many teachers at state-funded schools in England do not have qualified teacher status.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information on the school workforce in England, including qualified teacher status (QTS), qualifications held and for state-funded secondary schools, the subjects taught, is published in the school workforce in England statistical publication. A link to this information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
QTS is considered desirable for teachers in most schools in England. In some schools, including academies, free schools, and independent schools, QTS is not a legal requirement. Academies have a fundamental freedom to employ talented teachers who do not necessarily have QTS.
Most teachers in all schools, including academies, have QTS and have undertaken Initial Teacher Training (ITT). The most recent data from November 2022 shows 12,739 full time equivalent teachers in state funded schools in England did not have QTS, which is equivalent to 2.7% of teachers. This information is in the attached table 1. Information on the qualifications held by teachers is collected in the annual census. However, the information collected does not identify teaching qualifications specifically. Information on the highest qualification of teachers is in the attached table 2. The percent of secondary school teachers with a relevant post A level qualification in the subject they are teaching is is in the attached table 3.
Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the department.
There are 27,000 more teachers now than there were in 2010. The quality of teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Evidence is clear that high quality professional development can lead to improved pupil attainment.
The department has invested in transforming training for teachers and head teachers. Every teacher and head teacher now has access to high quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career, starting with ITT.
By 2024, a reformed ITT provider market will be delivering quality assured training leading to QTS that places a greater emphasis than ever before on embedding structured practice into courses, ensuring trainees are ready to thrive in the classroom.
A new system of higher quality training provider partnerships will be supported by £36 million to introduce new quality requirements, including better training for mentors and the delivery of new, cutting edge, intensive training, and practice activity. Every teaching school hub will be involved in ITT to ensure that training places are available across the country.
The department wants to continue bringing great people into teaching and have introduced bursaries worth up to £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth up to £29,000 tax free, to attract talented trainees in subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
In addition to scholarships and bursaries, the department are offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support is available to those managing small music venues to enable them to acquire the freehold ownership of those venues in order to create protected leaseholds.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.
That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the potential merits of a ticket levy on large music events and arenas to increase funding for grassroots music.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.
That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits that would accrue from the extension of social investment tax relief to grassroots music venues.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting grassroots music venues, which are crucial to our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The Department works closely with industry representatives and across Government to ensure that the live music sector continues to thrive.
That is why we are helping the sector to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging, and diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and to develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other support the Government has provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.