Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in nurseries during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.
Answered by David Johnston
The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.
Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.
The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help monitor the availability of childcare during school holidays in (a) Suffolk and (b) England.
Answered by David Johnston
The department is investing over £200 million per year, until March 2025, in free holiday club places for children from low-income families, through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, with all 153 local authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.
The HAF Programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things, and improving socialisation.
While the Programme is targeted primarily towards children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals (FSM), local authorities also have flexibility to use up to 15% of their funding to target and support other children and families that align with the local authorities’ own priorities.
This summer, the programme reached more than 580,000 children and young people in England, including over 460,000 children eligible for FSM.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.
This year, the department has allocated over £2.2 million for the HAF programme to support children and families across Suffolk, building on the £2.2 million that was allocated to them for 2022/23.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to extend the livestock production syllabus of the agriculture land management and production T-level to include (a) pigs and (b) sheep.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Agriculture, Land Management and Production T Level is designed to equip students with the core knowledge and skills they need to enter a range of agriculture, land management and production occupations.
In their second year, students choose an occupational specialism to complete. The Livestock Production Occupational Specialism in the T Level provides students with a strong foundation knowledge relating to cattle, sheep/lambs, pigs and poultry production.
The assessed skill elements within the T Level currently relate to cattle and sheep/lambs. While the skills related to pig production was considered for inclusion, in addition to cattle and sheep, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education had concerns that delivering and assessing pigs content would not be practical due to manageability and resourcing issues for providers and the need to ensure comparability of assessment.
T Levels are designed to provide high quality learning for students and deliver the knowledge and skills employers need. T Level content may evolve as the underpinning occupational standards are updated and as the department continues to regularly review the content through engagement with employers, providers and industry experts.