Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on the ability of families to access childcare.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
The government has spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on the early education entitlements and continues to help families with their childcare bills through Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit.
On 4 July 2022, the department also announced further measures to increase take-up of childcare support and reduce the costs and bureaucracy facing providers. These reforms will help address the costs of childcare for thousands of working parents through a renewed drive to ensure parents access the support they are entitled to, ensuring government regulation is proportionate and providing greater flexibility for providers to be responsive to changing needs.
The government recognises the pressure on families relating to the cost of living and has announced £37 billion of support targeted at those most in need.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of schools in England that have an after-school club.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
In March 2022, the department surveyed teachers and school leaders in the School and College Panel. The results of this survey revealed that 65% of primary schools that responded offered after-school childcare. When weighted to be nationally representative, this translates to around 11,000 primary schools.
The results of the survey are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087043/School_and_college_panel_March_2022_Report.pdf.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of schools in England that have a breakfast club.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
The department does not have an estimate of the total number of schools which provide a breakfast club. The ‘School and College Panel – March 2022 wave’ research report, published in June 2022, reported that 75% of schools ran breakfast club provision for pupils. The report is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087043/School_and_college_panel_March_2022_Report.pdf.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make a comparative assessment of funding for childcare below school age as a proportion of national income in (a) the UK and (b) other OECD countries.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
The department has invested more than £3.5 billion in each of the last three years to deliver our early education entitlements.
The information requested is not held by the department but has been published previously by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its Education at a Glance 2021 report.
The OECD publishes data on expenditure for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). This shows that the UK spent 0.3% of GDP on pre-primary education and care (ISCED 02)[1], compared to the OECD average of 0.6%. The differences on expenditure are largely explained by enrolment rates, legal entitlements, and the intensity of participation, as well as the different starting ages for primary education. The UK has one of the earliest primary school starting ages in the OECD, with most children starting at age 4. Therefore, the window for pre-primary education and spend is smaller than in many other OECD countries. This information is available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/financing-of-early-childhood-education-and-care-isced-0-and-change-in-expenditure-2018_b62e6aba-en.
[1] ISCED 02 refers to the UNESCO pre-primary education term. A full definition is available at: http://uis.unesco.org/node/3674229.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of families that require grandparents’ support for childcare.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
According to data from the 2021 Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents, 21% of families with children aged 0 to 4 used grandparents to help provide childcare for their children.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate the Government has made of the number of childcare providers in each region of the UK.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for Wirral South, and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships starts there have been by (a) level, (b) sector and (c) region since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In January and February 2021, reported to date, there have been 49,550 apprenticeship starts in England. The attached table contains breakdowns of these 49,550 starts by sector subject area and level.
The last publication of apprenticeship starts by region covers August 2020 to January 2021, reported to date, and can be found in the 'Geographical breakdowns' section of the 'Apprenticeships and traineeships' release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships/2020-21.
The next update of apprenticeship starts by region will be published in July 2021.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships have been started since January 2021 to the latest available date for which data is available.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In January and February 2021, reported to date, there have been 49,550 apprenticeship starts in England. The attached table contains breakdowns of these 49,550 starts by sector subject area and level.
The last publication of apprenticeship starts by region covers August 2020 to January 2021, reported to date, and can be found in the 'Geographical breakdowns' section of the 'Apprenticeships and traineeships' release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships/2020-21.
The next update of apprenticeship starts by region will be published in July 2021.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of pupils that will leave school in summer 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Pupil counts by year group are published in the annual “Schools, pupils and their characteristics” statistical release. This includes pupils who are coming to the end of their secondary education in Year 11 and those in Years 12 to 14 in school sixth forms. Data relating to the 2020/21 academic year will be published in June 2021 at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department holds on the number of students that are expected to graduate in 2021.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students enrolled in higher education (HE) in the UK.
The latest statistics on students graduating from HE refer to the academic year 2019/20. They are available in Figure 15 (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb258/figure-15) of the HESA publication ‘Higher Education Statistics: UK’: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/27-01-2021/sb258-higher-education-student-statistics.
Statistics about students obtaining qualifications in the 2020/21 academic year will be published by the HESA in January 2022. The department does not hold an estimate of how many students are expected to graduate.