Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will issue guidance to (a) schools and (b) local authorities on making reasonable adjustments when providing Free School Meals for eligible disabled children who (i) have medical or sensory needs and (ii) are unable to attend school due to long term medical reasons and are receiving education elsewhere.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils who meet the eligibility criteria, including being a registered pupil of a state funded school. Free school meal (FSM) provision should be made to eligible pupils either on the school premises or at any other place where education is being provided. The Department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs and has published statutory guidance, which describes steps school may take, including the establishment of individual healthcare plans which may include special diets. The statutory guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803956/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf#:~:text=On%201%20September%202014%20a%20new%20duty%20came,life%2C%20remain%20healthy%20and%20achieve%20their%20academic%20potential.
Local Authorities are funded to support children with special needs, including those who are unable to attend school on a long term basis. The Department’s published guidance on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/illness-child-education.
The Department does not plan to expand FSM to include pupils who are home, or privately educated. The Department will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of teachers employed in state schools who deliver for-profit tutoring services.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the school workforce in England, including subjects taught in state funded secondary schools, is collected as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. Information is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Information on the number of teachers delivering for profit tutoring services is not collected by the Department.
There are no contractual restrictions on teachers having more than one job, as long as there is no detrimental impact on the teacher’s ability to deliver their contractual obligations and responsibilities. These would need to be negotiated between the individual teacher and their employer.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to take into consideration the historic under-recruitment of subject-specialist teachers in the future allocation of teacher training bursaries.
Answered by Nick Gibb
When deciding the bursaries for Initial Teacher Training (ITT), the Department takes a number of factors into account including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions and teacher supply need in each subject.
The unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT seen in 2020/21 has declined over the past two years. The graduate labour market became more competitive and pay has risen in competing sectors.
To respond to this challenge, the Department announced an ITT financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for 2023/24, which is a £52 million increase on the previous year. This includes bursaries worth £27,000 tax free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach in key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of updating the national guidance on Free School Meals to include reference to the duty to make reasonable adjustments for eligible disabled children who are unable to access meals due to dietary or sensory requirements.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Education Act 1996 places a duty on maintained schools and academies to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils that meet the eligibility criteria, and are attending school during term time. These meals must meet the standards for school food as laid out in ‘The Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014’, which can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made.
The Department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary, and cultural needs.
It is important that the Department that the guidance on free school meals meets the needs of pupils. As such, this guidance is kept under review.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that recruitment targets for religious education teachers are met.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As at the last school workforce census (November 2021, published in June 2022), the number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country.
In the 2020/21 academic year the Department exceeded the postgraduate initial teacher training target for religious education (RE). 129% of the target was achieved (660 new entrants recruited), whilst in the 2021/22 academic year performance against the target fell to 94% (442 new entrants recruited) and in 2022/23, 76% of the target was achieved (341 new trainees) in RE.
The Department is concentrating funding in attracting the best teachers where they are needed the most, through its teaching marketing campaign, support services for prospective trainees, and competitive starting salary.
To make it easier for people to become teachers, the Department has launched its new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’, enabling a more streamlined, user-friendly application route.
The Teaching marketing campaign provides inspiration and support to explore a career in teaching and directs people to the ‘Get Into Teaching’ service. Through a new website, prospective trainees can access support and advice through expert one to one Teacher Training Advisers, a contact centre and a national programme of events.
The Department has recently raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract people to teaching.
The Department is delivering 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and headteachers access to world-class, evidence-based training and professional development at every stage of their career.
The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession in all subjects, including RE.
To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the Department has rolled out the Early Career Framework nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching. This is backed by over £130 million a year in funding.
The Department has also launched a new and updated suite of National Professional Qualifications for teachers and headteachers at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts.
The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside headteachers to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2023 to Question 161361 on Children: Swimming, what proportion of Year 6 pupils in London met the three swimming and water safety National Curriculum expectations in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect data on the percentage of pupils in Year 6 in London who met each of the three swimming and water safety National Curriculum expectations.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to (a) document and (b) ban relationships between staff and students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Office for Students (OfS), the higher education (HE) regulator, is consulting on instituting regulatory interventions in the matter of relationships between staff and students at all registered HE providers. The consultation closes on 4 May 2023. The OfS will publish its conclusions in due course and will take the appropriate action.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with universities on mental health safety for students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The mental health and wellbeing of young people is high a priority for this government. It is crucial that students get the mental health and wellbeing support they need to allow them to flourish at university.
The department engages regularly with the higher education (HE) sector on the mental health of university students and works closely to ensure that effective practice is funded and shared more widely. This engagement is supported by Vice-Chancellor Edward Peck, who was appointed earlier this year as HE's first ever Student Support Champion. Edward Peck works closely with ministers and officials, and provides sector leadership to promote effective practice in areas such as mental health and information sharing,
The Office for Students (OfS) works with the HE sector to ensure providers have the necessary funding and tools to support the mental health of their students. Through annual strategic guidance to the OfS, the department asked that the OfS distributes £15 million of funding in the 2022/23 financial year to give additional support for transitions from school or college to university, and through targeting funding to support partnership working with NHS services to provide students with a pathway of care to local mental health services. This strategic guidance is available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/bb422aae-54fb-42c8-b5db-26e7ed48df80/strategic-priorities-grant-20220331_amend.pdf.
This government strongly supports the University Mental Health Charter, which is led by Student Minds. The Charter brings together universities to share effective practice and create cultural change around mental health. Programme members can work towards the Charter Award, which recognises those universities that demonstrate excellent practice in supporting student mental health. The department has written to all providers to make clear our ambition that they all sign up to the mental health charter programme by the end of 2026. The Charter is accessible at: https://www.studentminds.org.uk/charter.html.
The department has recently surveyed HE providers about their policies and practices to support student wellbeing and mental health. The study will gather sector wide insights on specific activities in this area and broad evidence on the overall approach to supporting students across HE. 179 providers have responded to this survey and results are due to be published in spring 2023.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary comprehensive schools in England have provided swimming classes to students as part of the 2022-23 curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE and Sport National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2.
The Department does not collect data on how many primary or secondary schools provide swimming lessons. All schools in receipt of the primary PE and Sport premium are required to publish the percentage of their Year 6 pupils who met each of the three swimming and water safety National Curriculum expectations.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussion she has had with school leaders on the the oversubscription of children with special educational needs and disabilities in state-funded schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department engages regularly with school leaders and their representatives on a wide range of issues, including special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Local authorities must ensure there are sufficient good school places for all pupils, including those with SEND. They are statutorily required to keep the services and provision for children and young people with SEND under review, including its sufficiency.
Nationally, 16% of pupils are identified with some form of SEND, three quarters of whom receive SEND support from their mainstream school, funded from its own resources.
In March 2022, the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. This funding is to support local authorities to deliver new places for academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25 and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require AP. This funding forms part of the £2.6 billion we are investing between 2022 and 2025 and represents a significant investment in new high needs provision. This will also deliver up to 60 new special and AP free schools, in addition to the 48 special free schools that are already in the pipeline.
The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, sets out how the government intends to support schools to meet the special educational needs of their pupils.