Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions in the last 12 months has a local authority in England provided Section 20 accommodation for a child under the age of 16 without the consent of an individual with parental responsibility.
Answered by Janet Daby
The information requested is not held centrally. While the department collects data on the number of children accommodated by local authorities under Section 20, we do not collect data on parental consent given as part of that arrangement.
The latest figures show that there were 5,460 children aged under 16 who were looked after in care at 31 March 2023 under a Section 20 voluntary agreement.
Figures on the overall number of children looked after placed in care under a voluntary agreement were published in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions: 2023’. This can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/7e318fb5-8949-47d1-9f84-08dba4b954ad. Figures showing numbers at 31 March 2024 will be published on 14 November 2024.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to fund the rebuild of Wetherby High School.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department has confirmed that Wetherby High School is in the school rebuilding programme. Feasibility is expected to be complete by the end of the year, with procurement, planning and design to start from January 2025. All future decisions remain subject to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to maintain the provision of school transport services in rural areas.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s school transport policy aims to ensure that no child of compulsory school age is unable to access education because of a lack of transport. Local Authorities must arrange free travel to school for children aged 5 to 16 who attend their nearest school and cannot walk there due to the distance, route safety, or as a result of special educational needs, disability or mobility problems. There are additional rights to free transport for low-income families aimed at helping them exercise school choice. Home to school travel and transport guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.
The majority of central Government funding for home to school transport is made available to Local Authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement, administered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Department provides grant funding to Local Authorities as a contribution towards the cost of extended rights transport, which is just under £45.8 million in the 2023/24 financial year.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether pension benefits that retired teachers are in receipt of will be protected, in a similar way that pension benefits of retired NHS workers have been since the start of the covid-19 outbreak, in the event that they return to work after being called upon by him in December 2021.
Answered by Robin Walker
Generally, retired teachers returning to the classroom following the recent call for ex-teachers to help will not be subject to potential abatement of their teachers’ pension. This is because it is expected that they will be employed by supply teacher agencies, which tend not to be participating Teacher Pensions’ Scheme (TPS) employers.
TPS abatement rules would currently apply to retired teachers, with a final salary pension, if they were to be employed directly by a participating TPS employer. However, the call for ex-teachers to help in the classroom is expected to involve short-term and/or part-time appointments. Consequently, the amount of earnings involved is unlikely to result in any adjustment to individuals’ pension benefits on account of abatement.
We do not, therefore, anticipate there being a compelling need to suspend the abatement provisions in the way that the NHS has done to facilitate the longer-term re-employment of key staff. However, the department is monitoring the situation and, if needed, we will review the policy position.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the outcomes of the Developer Loans for Schools pilot between 2019-2021; and whether that programme will remain open in 2022.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Developer Loans for Schools pilot was launched in October 2019. Expressions of interest were received and assessed against the initial eligibility criteria. No loans were agreed, and no monies were committed. In July 2020, an internal review of all aspects of the pilot concluded that the need had changed, and it would not continue. There is no intention to revisit the initiative in 2022.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education,if schools will be able to use the £1 billion Covid Catch-Up Premium for intensive revision lessons for Key Stage 4 pupils wishing to resit their GCSEs in the Autumn.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million, to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. This ‘Catch-Up Premium’ will be paid to schools in the 2020-21 academic year to support catch up for students aged 5 to 16.
As part of the catch-up package we have also announced a £350 million National Tutoring Programme which includes a 16 to 19 Tuition Fund. This fund will allocate up to £96 million as a one-off, one year, ring-fenced grant to school sixth forms, colleges and all other 16 to 19 providers to provide small group tutoring activity for disadvantaged 16 to 19 students whose studies have been disrupted as a result of COVID-19, including those resitting GCSEs. Further detail of this element will be confirmed in due course.