Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report, Out of sight: Girls in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate, published by Centre for Mental Health on 5 October 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of capacity in secure children’s homes to meet demand.
Answered by Will Quince
This report raises a number of important issues of concern to all those who are responsible for the care and provision of accommodation for girls within the secure estate.
The responsibility to ensure there is adequate secure welfare provision rests with local authorities as they have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of all children in their care.
The department has taken a number of steps to support local authorities in fulfilling this duty. The department established the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit in 2016 and continue to fund its work to help plan and coordinate welfare placements and to highlight capacity issues.
The department understands that local authorities sometimes find themselves in a position where the most appropriate placement is difficult to access, particularly for children with the most complex needs. That is why the government announced £24 million of investment to start a programme of work to support local authorities to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure children’s homes and will mean children can live closer to their families and support networks, addressing geographic disparities, in provision that meets their needs.
In addition, as part of this year’s Spending Review (SR), the government announced £259 million over the SR period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes. The department will announce more details on this funding shortly and the findings of the Centre for Mental Health’s report will be useful to inform the future design of the secure welfare estate.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress the Government has made on providing a sharia-compliant alternative student finance system.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
I refer the hon. Member for West Ham to the answer I gave on 18 October 2021 to Question 53884.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for sixth form students.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
We forecast future 16-19 year old student numbers and take into account population forecasts when considering the future need for education funding for 16-19 year olds. Future budgets for this education provision are being considered in the current Spending Review.
We have invested an extra £291 million in 16-19 education in the 2021-22 financial year. This is in addition to the £400 million awarded in the 2019 Spending Review, which was the biggest injection of funding into 16-19 education in a single year since 2010. This has allowed us to raise the base rate of funding for all providers of 16-19 education, including school sixth forms and sixth form colleges, from £4,000 in the 2019/20 academic year to £4,188 in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, as well as to make further funding increases targeted on high value and high cost programmes.
This year, we have also made £83 million in capital funding available through the Post-16 Capacity Fund to support eligible post-16 providers to accommodate the upcoming increase in 16-19 year olds. Bids are currently being assessed and the outcome will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report, Higher Education awarding gaps and ethnicity in London: Going beyond BAME published by AccessHE on 16 July 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing the recommendations made in that report.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
It is vital that all young people entering higher education (HE) in the UK do so with the same opportunities as their peers to fully benefit from their chosen course of study.
Under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the Office for Students (OfS) has a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity for disadvantaged and traditionally under-represented groups. This includes non-continuation and attainment levels of students from those backgrounds.
The OfS has set itself and the HE sector targets to address longstanding inequalities, including to eliminate the gap in degree outcomes between white and black students. In 2019-20, there was a difference of 18.3% between the proportion of white and black students getting a 1st or 2:1. The OfS has plans to eliminate the unexplained gap in degree outcomes (1sts or 2:1s) between white students and black students by 2024-25, and to eliminate the absolute gap by 2030-31.
On 11 March 2021 the OfS published the access and participation data dashboard, which is used to identify gaps in access, continuation, attainment, and progression at English providers delivering undergraduate provision by different student characteristics. This is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/access-and-participation-data-dashboard/.
In our latest strategic guidance to the OfS we asked them to urge providers to do more to ensure that all students, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, are recruited on to courses that will deliver good outcomes. We have also asked that the OfS encourage universities to work with schools to meaningfully raise the attainment in schools, because we know this is one of the strongest predictors of future participation in HE.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 25 of the report, Higher Education awarding gaps and ethnicity in London: Going beyond BAME, published by AccessHE on 16 July 2021, what steps his Department is taking to tackle differences in higher education attainment by ethnic background.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
It is vital that all young people entering higher education (HE) in the UK do so with the same opportunities as their peers to fully benefit from their chosen course of study.
Under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the Office for Students (OfS) has a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity for disadvantaged and traditionally under-represented groups. This includes non-continuation and attainment levels of students from those backgrounds.
The OfS has set itself and the HE sector targets to address longstanding inequalities, including to eliminate the gap in degree outcomes between white and black students.
On 11 March 2021 the OfS published the access and participation data dashboard, which is used to identify gaps in access, continuation, attainment, and progression, at English providers delivering undergraduate provision by different student characteristics. This is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/access-and-participation-data-dashboard/.
In our latest strategic guidance to the OfS we asked them to urge providers to do more to ensure that all students, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, are recruited onto courses that will deliver good outcomes. We have also asked that the OfS encourage universities to work with schools to meaningfully raise attainment in schools, as this is one of the strongest predictors of future participation in HE.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) financial and (b) academic effect on Higher Education students of the covid-19 outbreak in the 2020-21 academic year.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The government’s expectations are, and have been, very clear: Universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have the resources to study remotely.
The Office for Student (OfS), the higher education (HE) regulatory body, is taking the potential impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on teaching and learning very seriously. It is actively monitoring providers to ensure that they maintain the quality of their provision, that students are supported and achieve good quality outcomes, that tuition is accessible to all and that HE providers have been clear in their communications with students about how arrangements for teaching and learning may change throughout the year.
The OfS is also following up directly with providers where they receive notifications from students, parents or others that raise concerns about the quality of teaching on offer and requiring providers to report to them when they are not able to deliver a course or award a qualification. If the OfS has any concerns, it will investigate further.
This government recognises that this academic year has been incredibly difficult for students. As a result of these exceptional circumstances, some students are facing financial hardship, with some incurring additional costs at their alternative address. Officials are working hard with the sector to continue to monitor the situation and explore potential approaches to supporting students, particularly from disadvantaged groups.
We have made an additional £85 million of student hardship funding available to HE providers in the 2020/21 academic year. Providers have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to their students, in a way that best prioritises those in greatest need. Support can include help for students, including international students and postgraduates, facing additional costs arising from having to maintain accommodation in more than one location or assistance to help students access teaching remotely.
This is in addition to the £256 million of government-funded student premium funding already available to HE providers to draw on for this academic year, 2020/21. We know that not all students will face financial hardship. The current measures aim to target support for students in greatest need. The government continues to monitor the situation to look at what impact this funding is having.
The OfS required HE providers to return information on disbursement of hardship funding as part of the monitoring of its use. I have been liaising with the OfS on the analysis of those returns.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce the PE and sport premium funding for 2021-22.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is aware of the importance of giving schools as much notice as possible of future funding. We will confirm arrangements for the Primary physical education and sport premium for the 2021/22 academic year as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of making an announcement on PE and sport premium funding with a short period remaining before the start of the 2021-22 school year on (a) the efficacy of programmes for pupil health and wellbeing, (b) additional costs for participant schools and (c) staff job security.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is aware of the importance of giving schools as much notice as possible of future funding. We will confirm arrangements for the Primary physical education and sport premium for the 2021/22 academic year as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he plans to provide funding through the 2021-22 PE and sport premium for additional work with schools in 2021-22 to improve levels of pupil physical activity following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The physical education (PE) and sport premium can be used by primary schools to develop or add to their PE, sport, and physical activity provision, and to build capacity and capability within the school. This includes providing additional opportunities for pupils to be physically active to help with recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department has ensured that schools have flexibility to use PE and sport premium from last year where their ability to make provision was limited by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department is currently considering arrangements for the Primary PE and sport premium for the 2021/22 academic year and will confirm the position as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential that the statement on the effectiveness and safety of transparent face coverings in the guidance for schools on mask wearing during the covid-19 outbreak may discourage some teaching staff from using such masks.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department continues to work closely with other Government Departments throughout its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector. The Department is continuing to work to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, in order to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’ and to understand the effect of these measures on staff, pupils and parents.
The Department recently published updated guidance for schools to support the return to full attendance from 8 March, which includes updated advice on face coverings. This guidance explains the actions school leaders should take to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in their school. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.
As the guidance outlines, where pupils in Year 7 and above are educated, the Department recommends that face coverings should be worn by adults and pupils when moving around outside of classrooms, such as in corridors and communal areas where social distancing cannot easily be maintained.
From 8 March, the Department recommends that in schools and colleges where pupils in Year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn in classrooms unless social distancing can be maintained. The Department is recommending these additional precautionary measures for a for a time limited period until Easter.
Some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This includes people who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability, or if you are speaking to or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate. The same legal exemptions that apply to the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport also apply in schools and colleges.
Individuals working with someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate are exempt from wearing a face covering in environments where they are normally required.
Transparent face coverings, which may assist communication with someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expression to communicate, can also be worn. There is currently very limited evidence regarding the effectiveness or safety of transparent face coverings, but they may be effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19.
As with all measures, they will be under review and guidance will be updated as necessary.