Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that higher needs funding for people with additional educational needs is targeted effectively.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government has reformed the funding for children and young people with high needs to make it fairer, by introducing a new national funding formula for high needs. The formula takes into account an up to date assessment of the level of need in each area.
Allocations to local authorities in 2018-19 were calculated on the basis of the national funding formula, and provisional allocations for 2019-20 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2019-to-2020.
The department is monitoring the impact of the national funding formula on local authority spending decisions, and are keeping the overall amount of funding for high needs under review.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) provide for and (b) promote the study of (i) agriculture and (ii) related land-based subjects as academic subjects in non-rural areas.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Subject to meeting legal requirements, it is for individual schools and colleges to decide which subjects to include in their curriculum.
A number of GCSEs contain content relevant to agriculture. In GCSE geography, pupils are taught about resources and resource management, including the modification and change of ecosystems in order to obtain food, energy and water. In the food preparation and nutrition GCSE, the economic, environmental, and ethical influences on food availability and production processes are covered.
There are a number of vocational qualifications that count in 16-18 performance tables, covering agriculture and other land-based subjects. Apprenticeship standards already exist in land-based service engineering, and there are a number of further standards in development, including crop technician, farrier, poultry technician and stockperson. The Department is also reforming technical education. This includes the introduction of T levels in an agriculture, environment and animal care route.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent in North Herefordshire constituency since 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not hold information on all allocated funding for education per constituency. The table below shows the funding allocated to Herefordshire Local Authority in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to deliver education from early years to school sixth form and further education colleges. This does not include those of the Department’s budgets which are not available by local authority, for example higher education and adult education:
Herefordshire | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
| £m | £m |
Dedicated Schools Grant before recoupment (including Early Years, the Early Years Pupil Premium, schools and High Needs) | 115.5 | 116.5 |
Pupil Premium | 5.5 | 5.6 |
Education Services Grant | 1.5 | 1.4 |
Universal Infant Free School Meals | 2.1 | 2 |
Primary PE and Sport Premium | 0.7 | 0.7 |
School Sixth Forms | 0.3 | 0.3 |
Further Education colleges | 19.8 | 20.5 |
16-19 academies | 3.5 | 3.1 |
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to announce funding for the planned New Model in Technology and Engineering University in Hereford.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The planned New Model in Technology and Engineering University (NMiTE) Hereford is currently under consideration.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for the funding of a university in Hereford.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The planned New Model in Technology and Engineering University (NMiTE) for Hereford is currently under consideration.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she intends to meet the hon. Member for North Herefordshire to discuss Brockhampton school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Secretary of State met the hon. Member for North Herefordshire last Wednesday 9th December. Department for Education officials are investigating the concerns raised about Brockhampton Primary School. We will follow up with options as quickly as possible. We will keep the hon. Member for North Herefordshire informed on developments.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the take-up of the local offer as contained in the Children and Families Act 2014; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Timpson
99% of local authorities, including Herefordshire, have published their local offers and are required by the Children and Families Act 2014 to review them in consultation with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents. This will enable local authorities to assess how responsive their local offer is to local needs and take action to improve it.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assistance his Department provides for small independent schools making applications for free school status; and if he will take steps to increase such assistance.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education provides comprehensive guidance for all free school applicants on the criteria that successful applications need to meet. The Department also provides a grant to the New Schools Network to provide free expert support to applicants to develop their free school application.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in North Herefordshire have unsuccessfully applied for free school status.
Answered by Edward Timpson
There have been two applications to establish free schools in North Herefordshire: one in 2012 was successful and one in 2013 was unsuccessful.
A list of all applications to establish free schools is published online at:
Wave 1 and 2:
Wave 3:
Wave 4:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-wave-4-application-information
Wave 5:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-wave-5-application-information
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on making the process for school leaving local education authority control to become free schools easier.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Free schools are a type of academy, established either as new provision or by independent schools joining the state sector. Maintained schools cannot become free schools, but they can convert to become academies, which enjoy broadly the same freedoms as free schools. The Department for Education is continually refining the academy conversion process. Guidance has been shortened, documentation simplified and standardised, including a ‘plain English' version of the funding agreement, and an online application form introduced in March, saving schools time in submitting information to the department.
The number of converter academies continues to increase, with 2,795 converter academies open as of May 2014.