Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that school caterers receive the full amount allocated for school meals.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises the cost pressures that some schools and suppliers may be facing. The Department is holding regular meetings with other Government Departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
Following the 2022 Autumn Statement, schools will receive an additional £2 billion in each of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. The core schools’ budget, which covers schools’ day-to-day running costs, including schools’ energy bills and the costs of providing income-related free school meals (FSM), has risen from £49.8 billion in 2021/22 to £53.8 billion in 2022/23 and will continue to rise to £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25. By 2024/25, funding per pupil will have risen to its highest ever level in real terms. These increases provide support to schools to deal with the impact of inflation on their budgets.
The Department is continuing to review funding to ensure that schools continue to be able to provide healthy and nutritious meals in schools. The funding for the FSM factor is increasing by 2.4% for 2023/24, in line with the latest available Gross Domestic Product deflator forecast when the National Funding Formula was published in July 2022.
Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) are funded through a direct grant to schools. In June 2022, the Government announced an increase to the per pupil meal rate in UIFSM to £2.41. This was backdated, recognising the cost pressures schools and some suppliers may be experiencing.
The standards for school food are set out in the requirements for school food regulations 2014 and are designed to ensure that schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day. Schools also have flexibility under the Standards to substitute food and regularly update and change menus. They may make changes if ingredients or meals are not readily available.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and most contract with private sector caterers to manage this on their behalf. It is for schools and caterers to decide what is an appropriate portion and to balance the food served across the school week. Guidance to accompany the School Food Standards includes guidance on portion sizes and food groups.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to provide additional funding (a) for increased (i) food and (ii) labour costs for school meal caterers and (b) to increase (A) universal infant free school meal and (B) free school meal funding in line with inflation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises the cost pressures that some schools and suppliers may be facing. The Department is holding regular meetings with other Government Departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
Following the 2022 Autumn Statement, schools will receive an additional £2 billion in each of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. The core schools’ budget, which covers schools’ day-to-day running costs, including schools’ energy bills and the costs of providing income-related free school meals (FSM), has risen from £49.8 billion in 2021/22 to £53.8 billion in 2022/23 and will continue to rise to £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25. By 2024/25, funding per pupil will have risen to its highest ever level in real terms. These increases provide support to schools to deal with the impact of inflation on their budgets.
The Department is continuing to review funding to ensure that schools continue to be able to provide healthy and nutritious meals in schools. The funding for the FSM factor is increasing by 2.4% for 2023/24, in line with the latest available Gross Domestic Product deflator forecast when the National Funding Formula was published in July 2022.
Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) are funded through a direct grant to schools. In June 2022, the Government announced an increase to the per pupil meal rate in UIFSM to £2.41. This was backdated, recognising the cost pressures schools and some suppliers may be experiencing.
The standards for school food are set out in the requirements for school food regulations 2014 and are designed to ensure that schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need throughout the school day. Schools also have flexibility under the Standards to substitute food and regularly update and change menus. They may make changes if ingredients or meals are not readily available.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and most contract with private sector caterers to manage this on their behalf. It is for schools and caterers to decide what is an appropriate portion and to balance the food served across the school week. Guidance to accompany the School Food Standards includes guidance on portion sizes and food groups.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the white paper entitled Levelling Up the United Kingdom, published on 2 February 2022, and the policy paper entitled Government food strategy, published on 13 June 2022, whether her Department has taken recent steps to require schools to report on their food provision.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In February 2022, the Levelling Up White Paper outlined several actions the Department is taking to strengthen adherence with the School Food Standards, including piloting work with the Foods Standards Agency, spending up to £200,000 in a pilot Governor Training Scheme and encouraging schools to publish a school food policy on their school websites.
The Department will promote accountability and transparency of school food arrangements by encouraging schools to develop and publish a policy that sets out their whole school approach to food.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools had at least one construction element in condition grade (a) C and (b) D in Washington and Sunderland West constituency when that data was collated; and which of those schools (i) have received and (ii) expect to receive in the next two years funding from the School Rebuilding Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:
Parliamentary constituency | Schools selected for SRP |
Warwick and Leamington |
|
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the National School Breakfast Club Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to continuing support for school breakfast clubs and the Department is investing up to £30 million between July 2021 and July 2024 to continue the national programme. This funding will support up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas meaning that thousands of children from low-income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn. The focus of the programme is to target the most disadvantaged areas of the country, including the Department’s Education Investment Areas.
Over 2,100 schools are currently participating in the programme, and the supplier, Family Action, is continuing to recruit more schools. Family Action has estimated that 270,000 children are having a breakfast from the programme on an average school day.
Research shows the positive impact of school breakfasts. An Education Endowment Fund evaluation of the earlier Magic Breakfast programme, found that supporting schools to run a free of charge, universal breakfast club before school delivered an average of 2 months’ additional progress for pupils in Key Stage 1 with moderate to low security. Schools also saw an improvement in pupil behaviour and attendance.
It also found that pupils who attended breakfast clubs had reduced hunger and improved concertation levels in class. Additional positive impacts on pupils’ social development and the way in which they helped some pupils make wider friendship groups and become more confident were also highlighted by schools.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of research commissioned by the Impact for Urban Health and analysed by PwC on the cost-benefit of expanding free school meals.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department continues to monitor the consequences arising from the increasing cost of living and is working with other Government Departments in providing support. The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming free school meals (FSM). This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. With a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of school children are now provided with FSM.
The Department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who need them most. In setting a threshold, the Government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Social Mobility Pledge and PwC's report Building Relationships, Creating Value, published in October 2022, what assessment she has made of that report's findings on her review of free school meals eligibility; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department continues to monitor the consequences arising from the increasing cost of living and is working with other Government Departments in providing support. The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming free school meals (FSM). This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. With a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of school children are now provided with FSM.
The Department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who need them most. In setting a threshold, the Government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51633 on Schools: Solar Power, how many school buildings in Washington and Sunderland West constituency were inspected as part of the CDC Survey.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is preparing detailed analysis of the data collected for the Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme and plan to publish the details by the end of the year.
The key, high-level findings of the CDC programme, were published in May 2021 in the report ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’.
The report is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
The Department has no plans to make a statement.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his Answer of 27 September to Question 51628 on Schools: Buildings, which schools in Washington and Sunderland West constituency have one or more buildings classified in Category D of condition need; how long each of those buildings has been classified in that category; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is preparing detailed analysis of the data collected for the Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme and plan to publish the details by the end of the year.
The key, high-level findings of the CDC programme, were published in May 2021 in the report ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’.
The report is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
The Department has no plans to make a statement.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) Ofsted-registered childminders are working and (b) children aged (i) 1-3 and (ii) 4-11 are living in Washington and Sunderland West constituency; what assessment he has made of the adequacy of childcare provision in that constituency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
A breakdown in the number of Ofsted-registered childminders who are working, and the number of children aged 1-3 and 4-11 by parliamentary constituency and local authorities requested, can be found in the attached table. Childminders are generally the most affordable and flexible form of childcare and form an important part of the broader childcare market.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. At present, all local authorities report that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.