Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to help improve the standard of service provided by Herefordshire Children's Services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In its inspection report, published 21 September 2022, Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of Herefordshire Council’s children’s services to be inadequate.
There have been regular subsequent visits by Ofsted over the past 18 months, as well as two reports on the service by the Children’s Services Commissioner appointed following the inspection. All acknowledge progress, but challenge the pace at which change is being achieved.
The department is mounting a significant intervention to improve services, deploying the Commissioner and an improvement adviser to provide challenge and support, and brokering a comprehensive two-year improvement partnership with a stronger local authority, Leeds City Council.
Most recently the department has committed £300,000 this year and next to strengthen the delivery of early help arrangements so that a greater number of children and families can access help at an earlier stage and receive a more tailored response to that need.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of Herefordshire Children's Services relative to average national standards.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In its inspection report, published 21 September 2022, Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of Herefordshire Council’s children’s services to be inadequate.
There have been regular subsequent visits by Ofsted over the past 18 months, as well as two reports on the service by the Children’s Services Commissioner appointed following the inspection. All acknowledge progress, but challenge the pace at which change is being achieved.
The department is mounting a significant intervention to improve services, deploying the Commissioner and an improvement adviser to provide challenge and support, and brokering a comprehensive two-year improvement partnership with a stronger local authority, Leeds City Council.
Most recently the department has committed £300,000 this year and next to strengthen the delivery of early help arrangements so that a greater number of children and families can access help at an earlier stage and receive a more tailored response to that need.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to provide further assistance to Herefordshire Children’s Services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In its inspection report, published 21 September 2022, Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of Herefordshire Council’s children’s services to be inadequate.
There have been regular subsequent visits by Ofsted over the past 18 months, as well as two reports on the service by the Children’s Services Commissioner appointed following the inspection. All acknowledge progress, but challenge the pace at which change is being achieved.
The department is mounting a significant intervention to improve services, deploying the Commissioner and an improvement adviser to provide challenge and support, and brokering a comprehensive two-year improvement partnership with a stronger local authority, Leeds City Council.
Most recently the department has committed £300,000 this year and next to strengthen the delivery of early help arrangements so that a greater number of children and families can access help at an earlier stage and receive a more tailored response to that need.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides on whether British citizens residing in the Cayman Islands would be eligible for home fee status if they enter the UK (a) before 1 September, (b) on 1 September and (c) on the commencement date of their academic course later in September.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Students coming to the UK from specified British Overseas Territories will be eligible for home fee status in England if they have settled status on the first day of the first academic year of the course. Higher education providers in England are autonomous bodies, and they assess a student’s fee status in accordance with the Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations. Where a student does not meet the criteria for home fee status, a provider has the discretion to waive or reduce the fees where they consider it appropriate.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides on whether the date of entry into England or Wales can determine whether a British citizen ordinarily residing in the Cayman Islands qualifies for home fee status.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Students coming to the UK from specified British Overseas Territories will be eligible for home fee status in England if they have settled status on the first day of the first academic year of the course. Higher education providers in England are autonomous bodies, and they assess a student’s fee status in accordance with the Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations. Where a student does not meet the criteria for home fee status, a provider has the discretion to waive or reduce the fees where they consider it appropriate.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release by Pause entitled Pause responds to Government’s plans for children’s social care, published on 11 May 2023, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of their recommendation on annual data collection on parents who have experienced the removal of more than one child from their care.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department appreciates the need to improve the data available about children’s social care, including by making it more relevant to the experience of children, young people and families. That is why the department has published a data and digital strategy for children’s social care. This strategic approach will provide the opportunity to map and understand the data needs of the children’s social care sector as a whole and seek to address this over time. This will enable a better understanding of the system and support the planning and delivery of services. A link to the strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-social-care-data-and-digital-strategy.
Existing statutory data is captured about the child and does not capture the complex nature of families such as, for example, where siblings to not live in the same family home. Addressing data gaps in children’s social care will be a long-term endeavour due to the need to agree data definitions and standards, as well as redesign local authority and departmental systems before rolling out nationally.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the time limit on determining care proceedings as set out by the Children and Families Act 2014.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The government remains committed to meeting the 26-week timeframe for public law cases and has no plans to review this. Although there is a considerable amount of work taking place across the family justice system to improve timeliness, the government acknowledges there is more to be done. The Public Law Outline (PLO) introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014, of which the 26-week timeline is one aspect, brought about a renewed focused and statutory responsibility. In January 2023, the President of the Family Division reiterated his clear desire for the current time limits to be met by family courts in England and Wales through his re-launch of the PLO.
To measure the system’s progress in reducing delays and backlogs in the system, the national Family Justice Board, co-chaired by ministers from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice, have agreed a set of key performance indicators which are reviewed at every Board. The department is working closely with partners across the system to deliver several initiatives to ensure public family law timeliness returns to the 26-week statutory timeframe as quickly as possible. For example, we have launched a pilot to bring the child’s guardian and social worker together earlier than the case management hearing (first hearing), which should decrease delays caused at the earliest stage of proceedings. With HM Courts and Tribunals Service, we are piloting the use of two checklists to support engagement with the PLO principles and reduce last minute adjournments. We have also invested approximately £2.2 million to improve family justice pre-proceedings practice and data collection as a means of reducing court backlogs.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of legal cases arising between students and universities as a result of strike action.
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 and, once all papers have been marked, degree classifications will either remain as provisionally assigned or be uplifted to reflect the student’s achievements.
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, 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 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: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to ensure minimum service levels at universities in the event of strikes by lecturers.
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 and, once all papers have been marked, degree classifications will either remain as provisionally assigned or be uplifted to reflect the student’s achievements.
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, 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 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: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to reimburse university students who have had their degree courses impacted by staff strikes.
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 and, once all papers have been marked, degree classifications will either remain as provisionally assigned or be uplifted to reflect the student’s achievements.
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, 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 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.