Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on improving skills training in Leeds North West constituency.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department regularly discusses skills matters with other government departments, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, but not specifically about individual constituencies.
The department is investing £3.8 billion more in further education (FE) and skills over the Parliament to ensure people across the country, including in Leeds, have access to the skills they need to build fulfilling careers in jobs the economy needs.
This additional funding will help a wide range of school sixth forms supporting young people, including providers such as Luminate Education Group in Yorkshire. In total we are funding over 18,000 16-to-18 year olds in 2022/23, including several school sixth form provisions based in the Leeds North West area.
The local college curriculum offer includes a broad range of skills training and qualifications including T Levels, apprenticeships, an extensive range of qualifications from Entry Level to Higher Education, including higher technical qualifications, and adult education programmes. The provision is shaped in collaboration with local employers to ensure it meets local skills needs and focuses on meeting Leeds City Region LEP skills priorities.
The department is also investing in local college estates through FE capital programmes to support estate condition improvement, increase college capacity to support more local people with skills training and qualifications, and T Level facilities with world class equipment.
The department is supporting employers in all sectors and all areas of the country, including Leeds, to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need. To support more employers and learners to access apprenticeships we are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. Since May 2010, there have been a total of 5,880 apprenticeship starts in Leeds North West.
Residents in Leeds can access free Level 3 qualifications to improve their skills via the Free Courses for Jobs scheme, which enables adult learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free.
In addition, the department has also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer.
The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) at £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. Currently, approximately 60% of the AEB is devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs), including West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), which covers Leeds. This gives WYCA direct control over adult education provision for their residents and provides the local area with the opportunity to meet local needs.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) removing and (b) reducing the 97 per cent attendance requirement during the trial period of managed moves.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government does not set any attendance requirements during the period of a managed move.
The law does not allow for ‘trial admissions’, once a child has been admitted to a school, they may only be deleted from the admissions register in limited circumstances prescribed by The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.
The updated Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance, published in July 2022, makes clear a managed move should be used to initiate a process which leads to the transfer of a pupil to another mainstream school permanently. Managed moves should be voluntary and agreed with all parties involved, including parents/carers and the admission authority of the new school. A managed move should only occur when it is in the pupil’s best interests.
Some Local Authorities use their Fair Access Protocols to also consider managed moves. Should anyone have any concerns about the protocols in a particular area, they should take this up with the relevant Local Authority directly.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of updating the School Food Standards to remove the mandatory servings of meat, including fish, and dairy.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes that the current school food standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils in England continue to receive high quality and nutritious food. The framework should build healthy eating habits for life.
The Department’s focus is on promoting compliance with the school food standards. The Department is keeping this under review. In February 2022, the Levelling Up White Paper outlined several measures the Department is implementing to strengthen adherence. These include piloting work with the Foods Standards Agency, investing up to £200,000 in a pilot Governor Training Scheme, and encouraging schools to complete a statement on their school websites setting out their whole school approach to food.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the rate of increase of childcare costs.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. More than £20 billion has been spent over the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare.
In July 2022 measures were announced to increase take-up of childcare support and reduce the costs and bureaucracy facing providers. These plans give providers more flexibility and autonomy, and ensure that families can access government support to save money on their childcare bills. The full announcement can be viewed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/drive-to-reduce-the-cost-of-childcare-for-parents.
There is currently a £1.2 million campaign underway, led via the childcare choices website, to ensure that every parent knows about the government funded support they are eligible for. The website can be accessed at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
The department is also actively considering ways to ensure a sufficient supply of childminders, giving more parents access to an affordable, flexible type of childcare. We will continue to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and to encourage families to use the government-funded support they are entitled to.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to introduce sensory food play in nurseries as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to age five.
The department has published an article promoting sensory food education on the ‘Help for early years providers’ online platform, which is a resource for childminders, nursery leaders and pre-school practitioners. This supports practitioners to look at incorporating sensory food education into their practice, while delivering the statutory EYFS requirements. The sensory food education article can be found here: https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/get-help-to-improve-your-practice/sensory-food-education.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will take steps to help ensure that local authorities are consistent when making decisions on whether a home-educated child is receiving an adequate education.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Local authorities already have the ability to determine whether a home educated child is receiving a suitable education. The measures in the Schools Bill do not provide local authorities with additional powers to monitor or assess education.
The Government is committed to establishing a local authority registration system for children not in school, as well as a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. Current guidance already provides local authorities with a framework to determine whether the provision was suitable. Local authorities should have the in-house expertise to make these decisions, but if they do not then they can, and should, consider undertaking additional training.
As part of the Children Not in School proposals, the Department also intends to create new statutory guidance for local authorities on how they should be implementing their duties in relation to the registers, and will also review and update existing guidance as part of this. This guidance, in addition to the measures themselves, will help toward ensuring a more consistent approach across local authorities.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Schools Bill will give local authorities the ability to determine whether a home-educated child is receiving an adequate education; and whether training will be provided to local authority employees on making these determinations.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Local authorities already have the ability to determine whether a home educated child is receiving a suitable education. The measures in the Schools Bill do not provide local authorities with additional powers to monitor or assess education.
The Government is committed to establishing a local authority registration system for children not in school, as well as a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. Current guidance already provides local authorities with a framework to determine whether the provision was suitable. Local authorities should have the in-house expertise to make these decisions, but if they do not then they can, and should, consider undertaking additional training.
As part of the Children Not in School proposals, the Department also intends to create new statutory guidance for local authorities on how they should be implementing their duties in relation to the registers, and will also review and update existing guidance as part of this. This guidance, in addition to the measures themselves, will help toward ensuring a more consistent approach across local authorities.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the proposed routes of appeal are against the School Attendance Orders available for parents under the Schools Bill.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Schools Bill has not proposed any changes to the route of appeal available to parents against School Attendance Orders.
Once parents have applied for revocation to the local authority, on the basis that their child will receive suitable education out of school and had that application refused, parents can appeal to the Secretary of State to overrule a local authority’s refusal to revoke a School Attendance Order.
There are other routes of complaint available for parents, which includes: the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman when a parent believes a local authority has not acted as per law and guidance; and the Education Act 1996 gives the Secretary of State powers to intervene when a local authority exercises their functions unreasonably or fails to comply with duties under that Act.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he is taking steps to ensure that children living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals have access to healthy meals.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I refer the right hon. Member for Knowsley to the answer I gave on 21 September 2022 to Question 45077.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities will be penalised for making autonomous decisions on absence from education based on the specific needs of their child under the provisions in the Schools Bill.
Answered by Will Quince
Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory. Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents have a duty to ensure that their child of compulsory age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education, either by attendance at school or otherwise.
The department appreciates that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, particularly for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Addressing these requires strong relationships and close working between families, schools, local authorities, and other relevant local services. This is the intention of the attendance clauses in the Schools Bill.
When considering the appropriate action to address absence, schools and local authorities should consider the individual circumstances of each pupil and family, and take the best course of action to support the child’s return to school. The department encourages parents to work with their child’s school and the local authority to discuss the reasons behind their child’s absence. They should agree together an action plan, so that the right support can be put in place to help their child to return to regular and consistent education.