Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) Universities UK and (b) UK universities on (i) diversifying international student recruitment and (ii) the potential risks arising from reliance on international students from a small number of countries.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government appreciates the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector and their positive impact on our society as a whole. The department is proud to have met its international student recruitment ambition two years running by attracting 600,000 international students.
Ministers and officials regularly speak to the HE sector, including sector bodies such as Universities UK and HE providers, on a range of issues.
The government’s International Education Strategy makes clear that the internationalisation of the HE sector cannot come at any cost. A key element of that strategy is diversification. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage risks associated with dependence on a single source of funding, whether that is from a single organisation or a single country.
The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of HE in England, monitors the risk of over-reliance on overseas income at a sector level. The role of the OfS is not to direct how HE providers manage themselves or to limit their recruitment from a particular country of origin, but to ensure they understand where there is greater reliance and how any risks are being managed, and to take action to protect students from the consequences of unmanaged financial risk, if necessary.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential impact of the University and College Union marking and assessment boycott on student visa applications by students (a) studying at a UK higher education institution in the 2022-23 academic year and (b) who wish to apply to study at a UK higher education institution in the 2023-24 academic year; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the boycott on the international reputation of UK higher education institutions.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department understands that the vast majority of students will remain unaffected by the industrial action and, in most cases, will receive their full results on time and progress and/or graduate as normal.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has published research findings which surveyed 49% of higher education (HE) institutions in the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff. These institutions provided updated feedback on the impact of the marking and assessment boycott on students at their institutions:
These research findings can be accessed at: https://www.ucea.ac.uk/news-releases/23june23/.
On 22 June 2023, I met with Universities UK (UUK), the Russell Group, and UCEA to better understand the impact that this boycott will have on students and the mitigating actions their members are taking to protect students’ interests.
I have also written to the Russell Group and UUK, encouraging them to continue to do everything within their powers to protect the interests of students during this phase of industrial action. On 27 June 2023, I met with a number of HE representative groups to discuss the marking and assessment boycott, including the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
HE institutions are working on minimising the disruption to their students in a variety of ways, including reallocating marking to other staff members, and hiring external markers. Many HE institutions can award degrees when they have enough evidence of a student’s prior attainment to do so. Others will be able to assign provisional grades to students to allow them to progress.
The government believes students should be at the heart of the HE system. This is why we set up the Office for Students (OfS) to regulate the HE sector in England, protect student rights, and ensure the sector is delivering real value for money. The OfS has published guidance to students on their rights during industrial action at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-rights-and-welfare/student-guide-to-industrial-action/.
On 12 June 2023, the OfS wrote to institutions affected by the boycott to reiterate its expectations in relation to its conditions of registration. The OfS will continue to monitor this ongoing situation through their normal regulatory mechanisms.
Students who have complaints about their HE experience should contact their provider in the first instance. Students in England and Wales may also raise a complaint with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), which was set up to provide an alternative to the courts and is free of charge to students. Further information is available at: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.
We are exercising operational discretion to ensure students can still apply to the graduate route whilst the marking and assessment boycott continues.
If it is necessary for a student who intends to apply to the ‘graduate’ route to apply to extend their permission whilst waiting for their results due to the boycott, they will be exceptionally exempt from meeting academic progression requirements. All other requirements of the ‘student’ route, including having a new confirmation of acceptance for studies, will still need to be met.
This a discretionary arrangement and not a concessionary policy. It is being communicated in a way that is proportionate to the nature and type of the issue covered. We encourage the sector, including sponsors, to drive the dissemination of this flexibility, as the circumstances are the result of a dispute between institutions and their employees.
We have a world class university sector, with four institutions in the world’s top 10, and the government fully expects the UK to continue to be a major destination of choice for international students.
We hope all parties can reach an agreement that delivers good value for students, staff and universities, so further industrial action can be avoided. The department will continue to engage with the HE sector over the coming weeks to help better understand the boycott’s impact on students and the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has held discussions with representatives of higher education institutions on the potential impact of the University and College Union marking and assessment boycott (a) the experience of students at affected institutions, (b) the reputation of the higher education sector and (c) international students who wish to continue studying in the UK and require an award decision to apply for a visa from the UK.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department understands that the vast majority of students will remain unaffected by the industrial action and, in most cases, will receive their full results on time and progress and/or graduate as normal.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has published research findings which surveyed 49% of higher education (HE) institutions in the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff. These institutions provided updated feedback on the impact of the marking and assessment boycott on students at their institutions:
These research findings can be accessed at: https://www.ucea.ac.uk/news-releases/23june23/.
On 22 June 2023, I met with Universities UK (UUK), the Russell Group, and UCEA to better understand the impact that this boycott will have on students and the mitigating actions their members are taking to protect students’ interests.
I have also written to the Russell Group and UUK, encouraging them to continue to do everything within their powers to protect the interests of students during this phase of industrial action. On 27 June 2023, I met with a number of HE representative groups to discuss the marking and assessment boycott, including the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
HE institutions are working on minimising the disruption to their students in a variety of ways, including reallocating marking to other staff members, and hiring external markers. Many HE institutions can award degrees when they have enough evidence of a student’s prior attainment to do so. Others will be able to assign provisional grades to students to allow them to progress.
The government believes students should be at the heart of the HE system. This is why we set up the Office for Students (OfS) to regulate the HE sector in England, protect student rights, and ensure the sector is delivering real value for money. The OfS has published guidance to students on their rights during industrial action at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-rights-and-welfare/student-guide-to-industrial-action/.
On 12 June 2023, the OfS wrote to institutions affected by the boycott to reiterate its expectations in relation to its conditions of registration. The OfS will continue to monitor this ongoing situation through their normal regulatory mechanisms.
Students who have complaints about their HE experience should contact their provider in the first instance. Students in England and Wales may also raise a complaint with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), which was set up to provide an alternative to the courts and is free of charge to students. Further information is available at: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.
We are exercising operational discretion to ensure students can still apply to the graduate route whilst the marking and assessment boycott continues.
If it is necessary for a student who intends to apply to the ‘graduate’ route to apply to extend their permission whilst waiting for their results due to the boycott, they will be exceptionally exempt from meeting academic progression requirements. All other requirements of the ‘student’ route, including having a new confirmation of acceptance for studies, will still need to be met.
This a discretionary arrangement and not a concessionary policy. It is being communicated in a way that is proportionate to the nature and type of the issue covered. We encourage the sector, including sponsors, to drive the dissemination of this flexibility, as the circumstances are the result of a dispute between institutions and their employees.
We have a world class university sector, with four institutions in the world’s top 10, and the government fully expects the UK to continue to be a major destination of choice for international students.
We hope all parties can reach an agreement that delivers good value for students, staff and universities, so further industrial action can be avoided. The department will continue to engage with the HE sector over the coming weeks to help better understand the boycott’s impact on students and the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether their Department has purchased products manufactured by (a) Hikvision and (b) Dahua in the last three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is not Government policy to comment on the Government’s security arrangements. This includes any specific details regarding the make and model of security systems, which are withheld on national security grounds.
Each Department is responsible for their own procurement decisions. However, I would refer the Hon. member to the Written Ministerial Statement made by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 24 November 2022, which set out that Departments had been instructed to disconnect surveillance equipment from core departmental networks where it is subject to the National Intelligence Law of China.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) availability and (b) quality of student (i) support and (ii) wellbeing services provided by universities.
Answered by Robert Halfon
It is a priority for the government that students are provided with the mental health support they need.
We are taking an approach based on three pillars:
The department recently conducted research on the design and delivery of mental health and wellbeing services to meet the needs of their students. This found that 99% of HE institutions provided in-house self-help resources and 97% offered in-house psychological support for those experiencing poor mental health, either face-to-face or virtual contact with a counsellor[1]. It also found a substantial increase in the proportion of higher education institutions that now have a specific mental health and wellbeing strategy in place (two thirds in 2022 compared with just over a half in 2019) A link to the report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-practices-in-higher-education.
While good progress has been made by the sector, the department is going further to protect students’ wellbeing. The department wants all universities to be adopting the Mental Health Charter and following the principles it sets out for a whole university approach to mental health. 61 universities are already part of the Charter Programme. The department wants students to have confidence in the support they will receive, whatever university they have chosen to study at. The department has set a target for all remaining universities to sign up to the Mental Health Charter Programme by September 2024.
To look at further improvements in student mental health support, the department has asked the Student Support Champion, Professor Edward Peck, to lead the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The taskforce will set strong, clear, and measurable targets for the sector. The taskforce will conclude its work with a final report in May 2024, having produced an interim plan by the end of 2023.
The department is confident the HE sector will rise to meet the challenge. If the response is not satisfactory, the department will go further, and ask the Office for Students to look carefully at the merits of a new registration condition on mental health.
[1] 53% of private providers and 93% of Further Education Colleges provided in house self-help resources and 53% and 85% respectively offered either face to face or virtual contact with a counsellor.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 24 November 2022 on Security Update on Surveillance Equipment, WMS 386, whether they have (a) ceased deployment of visual surveillance systems produced by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China onto sensitive sites, (b) ensured no such equipment is connected to their departmental core network, (c) considered whether there are sites outside the definition of sensitive sites to which they would wish to extend risk mitigation and (d) put in place any additional controls or taken any further steps.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 24 November 2022, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster published a Written Ministerial Statement noting that Departments had been instructed to take a series of actions relating to surveillance equipment subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China. The Department has been implementing this policy along with other protective security controls.
At Report Stage of the Procurement Bill the Government committed that, within six months of Royal Assent, the Government will set out the timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment supplied by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of China from sensitive sites. The Department will be providing information to the Cabinet Office to support this commitment. It is a longstanding Government policy that specific security arrangements regarding Government estates are withheld on security grounds.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide funding for Family Hubs in Slough.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The government would like to see family hubs across the country. However, it is crucial that the department focusses on delivering well and building the evidence in the 87 local areas we are working with through the current family hubs transformation programmes. Through the programme, the government is investing around £300 million in areas with the highest levels of disadvantage and disproportionately poor health and educational outcomes. The evidence and learning from this investment will help to improve services across England where they are most needed.
All local authorities in England, including Slough, are able to access expert advice, guidance and resources from the National Centre for Family Hubs in order to support the implementation of family hubs. Further information can be found here: https://www.nationalcentreforfamilyhubs.org.uk/. Some local authorities are already operating their own family hubs, using existing funding streams to move their local service model towards a family hub model. Additional family hubs funding for local areas would be subject to future spending decisions.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) colleges and (b) other stakeholders on the potential impact of the proposed withdrawal of funding from Level 3 BTEC courses for which there would be no replacement qualification.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Qualifications reform will ensure that A levels and T Levels are at the heart of most young people’s study programmes, as these qualifications offer the best progression for students. The department will also fund other qualifications where they are necessary, high-quality and lead to good progression. This includes alternative academic qualifications, such as BTECs, which could be studied alongside A levels to support entry to public sector occupations, such as the police. The new system will also support technical occupational entry qualifications where these cover Institution for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) occupational standards not covered by T Levels, such as in travel and tourism and public services.
Unlike current alternatives to A levels such as BTECs, T Levels, and other new technical qualifications at level 3 will be designed in line with IFATE occupational standards. The standards can be found here: https://occupational-maps.instituteforapprenticeships.org/.
These standards have been designed by employers to ensure that young people have the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need in the workplace. Alongside the highly successful apprenticeships programme and the increasing availability of T Levels, this represents a transformation of technical education to ensure that it meets the needs of employers in the future and provides excellent outcomes for young people.
There are no T Levels specifically in travel and tourism or public/protective services. However, there are several occupational standards at level 3 on which reformed travel and tourism qualifications could be based, and the department fully anticipates awarding organisations to be adapting existing qualifications and basing them on these standards. We anticipate that current large qualifications in travel and tourism will be reformed to align with the relevant occupational standards so that they can be approved as technical qualifications going forward.
The department regularly meets with colleges, stakeholders and employers to discuss the development of this new technical education landscape. We have also provided extensive support to colleges to facilitate the transition to T Levels, such as online guidance materials, workshops, and webinars for employers to attend, as well as offering direct, hands-on support.
The newly updated provider support package supports providers in delivering T Levels, but from September 2023 will also aid providers in developing effective employer engagement strategies to aid them to source industry placements and engage with employers at scale.
Earlier this year, the department launched a £12 million one-year employer support fund that will provide financial assistance to employers offering placements in the 2023/24 financial year, to help with costs such as administration, support with training staff who will supervise learners or tangible costs such as personal protective equipment or vaccinations.
We have also launched the T Levels and Industry Placement Support for Employers website, which can be found here: https://employers.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb. The website offers guidance, case studies and more information about T Levels, specifically for employers. Following this, in November 2022, we launched the ‘Connect with employers interested in T Levels’ service, which enables providers to find employers who have expressed an interested in T Levels and industry placements. This service can be found here: https://connect.tlevels.gov.uk/start.
The department regularly discusses qualification reform with stakeholders and listen to their concerns.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of withdrawing funding from some BTEC qualifications on levels of future recruitment in the (a) public and (b) travel and tourism sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Qualifications reform will ensure that A levels and T Levels are at the heart of most young people’s study programmes, as these qualifications offer the best progression for students. The department will also fund other qualifications where they are necessary, high-quality and lead to good progression. This includes alternative academic qualifications, such as BTECs, which could be studied alongside A levels to support entry to public sector occupations, such as the police. The new system will also support technical occupational entry qualifications where these cover Institution for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) occupational standards not covered by T Levels, such as in travel and tourism and public services.
Unlike current alternatives to A levels such as BTECs, T Levels, and other new technical qualifications at level 3 will be designed in line with IFATE occupational standards. The standards can be found here: https://occupational-maps.instituteforapprenticeships.org/.
These standards have been designed by employers to ensure that young people have the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need in the workplace. Alongside the highly successful apprenticeships programme and the increasing availability of T Levels, this represents a transformation of technical education to ensure that it meets the needs of employers in the future and provides excellent outcomes for young people.
There are no T Levels specifically in travel and tourism or public/protective services. However, there are several occupational standards at level 3 on which reformed travel and tourism qualifications could be based, and the department fully anticipates awarding organisations to be adapting existing qualifications and basing them on these standards. We anticipate that current large qualifications in travel and tourism will be reformed to align with the relevant occupational standards so that they can be approved as technical qualifications going forward.
The department regularly meets with colleges, stakeholders and employers to discuss the development of this new technical education landscape. We have also provided extensive support to colleges to facilitate the transition to T Levels, such as online guidance materials, workshops, and webinars for employers to attend, as well as offering direct, hands-on support.
The newly updated provider support package supports providers in delivering T Levels, but from September 2023 will also aid providers in developing effective employer engagement strategies to aid them to source industry placements and engage with employers at scale.
Earlier this year, the department launched a £12 million one-year employer support fund that will provide financial assistance to employers offering placements in the 2023/24 financial year, to help with costs such as administration, support with training staff who will supervise learners or tangible costs such as personal protective equipment or vaccinations.
We have also launched the T Levels and Industry Placement Support for Employers website, which can be found here: https://employers.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb. The website offers guidance, case studies and more information about T Levels, specifically for employers. Following this, in November 2022, we launched the ‘Connect with employers interested in T Levels’ service, which enables providers to find employers who have expressed an interested in T Levels and industry placements. This service can be found here: https://connect.tlevels.gov.uk/start.
The department regularly discusses qualification reform with stakeholders and listen to their concerns.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of (a) training and (b) guidance provided to social workers to support (i) fathers, (ii) mothers and (iii) other guardians of children.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The social work regulator, Social Work England, sets the education and training standards which all providers of initial social work education must meet, including preparing social workers to meet the Professional Standards. The current cycle of initial education inspection is expected to be completed by July 2025.
Once social workers are qualified, guidance on supporting fathers, mothers and guardians is provided in the statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.
Local authorities are responsible for the continuous professional development of their workforces, including social workers. To support child and family social workers to continuously improve their practice, the department funds professional development for around 4,000 social workers each year. The new Early Career Framework for child & family social workers will significantly extend the training and support they receive in the early stages of their career, helping to equip them with the knowledge skills they need to support children and families.