Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the amount local authorities in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) the North West overspent on children’s services in 2017-18; and whether he plans to provide additional funding for local authority run children's services.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local authorities are required under Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (2009) to submit education and children’s social care budget and expenditure statements. This data is published in statistical releases annually:
This data is published for all local authorities in statistical releases annually.
At Autumn Budget, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an extra £410 million next year for social care, including children’s services, along with £84 million over 5 years to support up to 20 local authorities to improve their social work practice. This builds on the £200 billion government has already made available to councils up to 2020 to provide services in the best interests of local residents, including those for children and young people.
The government will continue to work closely with the sector to consider long-term children’s services funding as part of the 2019 Spending Review, when the government will set out its long-term spending approach.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many social workers have volunteered to participate in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme for Social Workers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Between December 2015 and December 2018, 35 local authorities participated in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme (NAAS) for child and family social workers. 22 of these participated in the proof of concept stage, 15 participated in Phase 1 and 2 participated in both.
This programme is live and ongoing, and local authority participation numbers will continue to increase.
Between December 2015 and December 2018, 1,252 child and family social workers participated in the NAAS. 954 social workers participated in the proof of concept stage, 278 social workers volunteered to participate in the current system to undertake the assessment. 200 social workers were involved in creating the assessment itself.
This programme is live and ongoing, and child and family social worker participation numbers will continue to increase.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities have participated in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme for Social Workers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Between December 2015 and December 2018, 35 local authorities participated in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme (NAAS) for child and family social workers. 22 of these participated in the proof of concept stage, 15 participated in Phase 1 and 2 participated in both.
This programme is live and ongoing, and local authority participation numbers will continue to increase.
Between December 2015 and December 2018, 1,252 child and family social workers participated in the NAAS. 954 social workers participated in the proof of concept stage, 278 social workers volunteered to participate in the current system to undertake the assessment. 200 social workers were involved in creating the assessment itself.
This programme is live and ongoing, and child and family social worker participation numbers will continue to increase.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional financial provision local authorities have received to help implement the Government’s commitment for 30 hours free childcare for working parents.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department is committed to supporting local authorities (LAs) in the delivery of the childcare entitlements, including the new 30 hours free childcare entitlement, and has made significant investment into the offer. We will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support in 2019-20 – a record amount. That will include funding for our free early years education entitlements, on which we plan to spend £3.5 billion this year alone.
Since 30 hours free childcare was announced, the department has also invested heavily in specific projects to support delivery of the offer at a local level.
In 2016, the department made available £100 million in capital funding for which LAs, in partnership with providers, were invited to submit bids. Over 350 projects across 123 LAs were successful in this bid round.
Following this, in 2017 the department allocated £2.15 million as part of the Digital Accelerate grant, supporting LAs in the development of their IT systems.
And in 2018, £7.7 million in grant funding was allocated to LAs through our Delivery Support Fund. This funding was intending to support LAs during the first year of delivery of 30 hours and allowed LAs to undertake projects that directly benefit 30 hours’ delivery and created (directly or indirectly) 30 hours places.
In addition to specific funding, LAs continue to receive support directly from departmental officials and through our delivery partners, Childcare Works, who provide a package of universal and targeted support to ensure LAs are best placed to deliver the government’s childcare offers.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authority run nurseries there were in (a) 2010 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department collects data on all providers offering funded early education via the schools and early years census data collections. Local authority run nurseries would be most likely to be listed in the ‘local authority day nurseries’ category. In January 2010 there were 463 local authority day nurseries with children in receipt of funded early education, and 428 local authority day nurseries with children in receipt of funded early education in January 2018. Local authority day nurseries with no funded children will be omitted from these numbers.
The provision for children under 5 years of age national statistics release shows the number of local authority day nurseries separately for 2 year-olds (table 12) and 3 and 4 year-olds (table 13): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018. Where children received funded early education at more than one private, voluntary or independent (PVI) provider they have been counted only once. The PVI provider where the child took the majority of their funded hours is the provider reported in the statistical release figures therefore, if the local authority day nursery was not providing the majority of a child’s hours, they will not have been counted in tables 12 and 13.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have held with (a) local authority leaders, (b) staff and (c) parents on the future funding of maintained nursery schools in (i) Salford and (ii) England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Since my appointment, I have held the following meetings and visits involving local authority leaders, staff and parents regarding maintained nursery schools (MNS) and local authority maintained nurseries.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has visited and met with staff at Rothesay Nursery School in Luton and Martenscroft Nursery school in Manchester. My right hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards held a roundtable with a group of headteachers to discuss school funding, which was attended by the headteacher of Castle Vale Nursery School.
We recognise that MNS are an important part of the early years sector and make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. We are providing around £60 million a year to local authorities to enable them to maintain funding levels until at least 2020 and have commissioned new research that will help us establish an evidence-base to inform long-term policy for maintained nursery schools.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the educational benefits to children of maintained nursery schools in Salford.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department has funded longitudinal studies; the ‘Study of early education and development’ and the ‘Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project’. These studies show that high quality early education supports children’s development in the short term and has benefits for educational outcomes in the long term. There are no maintained nursery schools in Salford. No specific assessment has been conducted on the educational benefits of local authority run nurseries in Salford.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers in (a) Salford, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) the North West Region are on the (a) upper, (b) leading practitioner and (c) leadership pay ranges.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The attached table provides the number and proportion of full and part-time regular teachers in service in state funded schools who are paid on the upper, leading practitioner and leadership pay ranges for Salford, Greater Manchester and the North West Region and in England in November 2017.
Figures for teachers on the main pay scale have been provided for context.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) reasons for and (b) evidential basis for his Department's decision on winding up Salford Academy Trust.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Following consultation with the department, Salford Academy Trust (SAT) has decided that the best option for its academies is to merge with another trust. The department’s priority is to ensure that all pupils in SAT receive the best possible education and in this case, we have agreed to identify a trust to provide increased capacity to improve outcomes for pupils. The department is working closely with SAT to manage a smooth transition for its pupils. The decision on whether or not SAT winds up is a matter for the trust.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to answer of 13 December 2017 to Question 117656 on ICT: Education, what the timetable is for the National Centre for Computing Education to be in operation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department expects the first National Centre to be appointed by autumn 2018, with the first training taking place in the 2018-2019 academic year.
In May 2018, the Department released the tender inviting bids for the programme. The closing date for the submission of bids is 15 June 2018. Ensuring that our children have the digital and computing skills needed for the future is a key priority of this Government. The National Centre of Computing Education is part of a new £84 million programme to improve the teaching of computing and to increase participation in computer science. The National Centre will support a national network of computing hubs to raise academic standards by providing comprehensive training and resources to schools.