Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's definition is of wholly or mainly used when deciding whether a detached playing field is part of a school's premises or is a facility used by a school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s understanding of the term ‘used wholly or mainly’, in the context of determining if land forms part of a school’s premises, is whether the school has exclusive or majority use or enjoyment of the land for greater than 50% of the time.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the support of autistic spectrum children in education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local councils have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act (2014) to identify needs in their local area.
They also have a duty, together with partner agencies, to commission services to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. This includes services for children and young people with autism. These services must be included in each council’s ‘local offer’ of available services. Each local offer must be reviewed regularly in consultation with local families, which involves taking the families’ views into consideration when assessing demand and local needs.
Core funding for schools and high needs has risen from almost £41 billion in the period 2017 to 2018 to £42.4 billion in the period 2018 to 2019. £6 billion of this funding is allocated for high needs.
We have provided an additional £140 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019 and will provide an additional £120 million in the period 2019 to 2020. This supports local authorities to meet the needs of all children and young people with more complex SEND, including those with autism.
In Bristol, the local authority will receive £51 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019, which is 2.7% more than in the period 2017 to 2018. Figures for each local authority can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.
Additionally, the department has been funding the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to provide training for early years, school and further education staff. To date, the AET has provided training, through sub-contracted ‘hubs’, for more than 185,000 education staff so that they support children and young people with autism. This contract was extended from April 2018 to March 2020 with a further £1.45 million.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of funding for autistic spectrum children in education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local councils have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act (2014) to identify needs in their local area.
They also have a duty, together with partner agencies, to commission services to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. This includes services for children and young people with autism. These services must be included in each council’s ‘local offer’ of available services. Each local offer must be reviewed regularly in consultation with local families, which involves taking the families’ views into consideration when assessing demand and local needs.
Core funding for schools and high needs has risen from almost £41 billion in the period 2017 to 2018 to £42.4 billion in the period 2018 to 2019. £6 billion of this funding is allocated for high needs.
We have provided an additional £140 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019 and will provide an additional £120 million in the period 2019 to 2020. This supports local authorities to meet the needs of all children and young people with more complex SEND, including those with autism.
In Bristol, the local authority will receive £51 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019, which is 2.7% more than in the period 2017 to 2018. Figures for each local authority can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.
Additionally, the department has been funding the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to provide training for early years, school and further education staff. To date, the AET has provided training, through sub-contracted ‘hubs’, for more than 185,000 education staff so that they support children and young people with autism. This contract was extended from April 2018 to March 2020 with a further £1.45 million.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when nationality and country of birth data collected by schools for immigration purposes in the 2016-18 school census will be deleted as required by the Education Act 1996.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has consistently been clear that nationality and country of birth data was collected for the purposes of internal educational research and will not be shared with the Home Office or any other government department. At the end of the current 2017/18 academic year, the Department will have sufficient data to support the research it wishes to undertake and has proactively decided to remove the data collection burden placed on schools and parents from September 2018 onwards.
The Department has robust safeguards and controls in place to ensure this data, as with all our data, is handled securely and in accordance with relevant data protection regulations. This data will be subject to ongoing periodic reviews to ensure that the data will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the research purposes for which the data was originally collected.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when nationality and country of birth data collected by schools for immigration purposes in the 2016-18 school census will be deleted as required by the Education Act 1996.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has consistently been clear that nationality and country of birth data was collected for the purposes of internal educational research and will not be shared with the Home Office or any other government department. At the end of the current 2017/18 academic year, the Department will have sufficient data to support the research it wishes to undertake and has proactively decided to remove the data collection burden placed on schools and parents from September 2018 onwards.
The Department has robust safeguards and controls in place to ensure this data, as with all our data, is handled securely and in accordance with relevant data protection regulations. This data will be subject to ongoing periodic reviews to ensure that the data will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the research purposes for which the data was originally collected.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is the Government's policy that schools will be required to request children's nationality and country of birth through the termly school census for the academic year 2018-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The requirements for the 2018/19 school census were finalised, and communicated to schools, via publication of the 2018/19 school census guidance on 28 June 2018:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-census.
From September 2018 onwards, there is no requirement for schools to collect, or hold, nationality, country of birth and proficiency in English data for the purposes of the school census.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is the Government's policy that schools will be required to request children's nationality and country of birth through the termly school census for the academic year 2018-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The requirements for the 2018/19 school census were finalised, and communicated to schools, via publication of the 2018/19 school census guidance on 28 June 2018:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-census.
From September 2018 onwards, there is no requirement for schools to collect, or hold, nationality, country of birth and proficiency in English data for the purposes of the school census.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what statutory requirement schools must follow to ensure that school playing fields have perimeter fences for the purposes of pupil safeguarding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All schools are responsible for the health, safety and welfare of their pupils and staff. The associated statutory responsibilities on school employers are set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and regulations made under the act.
To help schools effectively manage their estate, in respect of perimeter fencing, the Department for Education has recently published a ‘Good estate management for schools’ manual. This provides advice for those who have responsibility for overseeing or managing school’s estates, and it can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/good-estate-management-for-schools/maintaining-the-estate.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the criteria are for capacity tests used to assess a person's suitability to look after a child; and what guidance his Department has issued on the use of those criteria.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Neither the Children Act 1989 nor its supporting statutory guidance prescribes the criteria that local authority social care should consider when assessing the capacity of a parent or prospective carer. However, relevant guidance for local authorities in making these decisions is set out, primarily, in the following publications:
‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015)’, setting out the parameters and principles of a high quality assessment, including of parental capacity;
‘Care Planning The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations, Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review (2015)’, setting out factors to be considered in assessing the parenting capacity of the parent, and procedures that should be followed in placing a looked after child with a carer or in residential care.
Decisions are therefore based on the professional judgement of social workers and the circumstances of the individual child; the local authority is under a duty to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare and when the court makes a decision the welfare of the child is paramount. Where a carer is needed for a child who cannot live with their birth parents, all types of prospective carers – whether foster carers, special guardians or adoptive parents – are considered in terms of their capacity to look after children in a safe and responsible way that meets the child’s development needs, and will have been assessed and approved by the local authority or a relevant agency.
The government is undertaking wide-ranging reforms to improve the quality of social work practice and decision-making, including through assessment and accreditation against Knowledge and Skills Statements, which are also the post qualifying standards for child and family social work. These standards provide clarity about the expectations of child and family social workers, with specific reference to effective assessments.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to ensure the effectiveness of capacity assessments for people with learning disabilities who wish to look after a child.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Neither the Children Act 1989 nor its supporting statutory guidance prescribes the criteria that local authority social care should consider when assessing the capacity of a parent or prospective carer. However, relevant guidance for local authorities in making these decisions is set out, primarily, in the following publications:
‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015)’, setting out the parameters and principles of a high quality assessment, including of parental capacity;
‘Care Planning The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations, Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review (2015)’, setting out factors to be considered in assessing the parenting capacity of the parent, and procedures that should be followed in placing a looked after child with a carer or in residential care.
Decisions are therefore based on the professional judgement of social workers and the circumstances of the individual child; the local authority is under a duty to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare and when the court makes a decision the welfare of the child is paramount. Where a carer is needed for a child who cannot live with their birth parents, all types of prospective carers – whether foster carers, special guardians or adoptive parents – are considered in terms of their capacity to look after children in a safe and responsible way that meets the child’s development needs, and will have been assessed and approved by the local authority or a relevant agency.
The government is undertaking wide-ranging reforms to improve the quality of social work practice and decision-making, including through assessment and accreditation against Knowledge and Skills Statements, which are also the post qualifying standards for child and family social work. These standards provide clarity about the expectations of child and family social workers, with specific reference to effective assessments.