Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have gone missing from (a) local authority and (b) foster care in each month in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only
The department takes the issue of any child going missing, either from home or from local authority care, extremely seriously. Local authorities are legally responsible for protecting all children, regardless of where they go missing from.
When a child is found, they must be offered an independent return interview and local authorities, police, and voluntary services should work together to build a comprehensive picture of why the child went missing and to understand what support they may need in the future to prevent them from going missing again.
The latest available information on children missing from care relates to the year ending 31 March 2022 and is available in the ‘Children looked after in England (including adoption): 2021 to 2022’ statistical release, at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d3f7d671-6341-4294-fa64-08db73cb8f1d. This data has been collected since 2014/15. The vast majority (90%) of missing incidents for all looked after children last for two days or less.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support he plans to provide to the English language teaching sector in 2021 in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The International Education Strategy recognises the crucial contribution of the English language to the UK's global potential and the important role of the English language training sector. Our update to this strategy, published on 6 February 2021, outlines the government’s support for the education sector, including English language training, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as work across government aimed at improving the ability of the English language training sector to export their services and expertise.
English language schools are privately run businesses who teach fee-paying students in the UK and as such, are not in receipt of any funding from the department for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision. The department provides ESOL provision for people already resident within the UK through the Adult Education Budget.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) female and (b) male students have undertaken part-time (i) undergraduate and (ii) postgraduate courses in the UK in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students enrolled at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The latest available statistics refer to the 2015/16 academic year and are published at the following link:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/12-01-2017/sfr242-student-enrolments-and-qualifications
Statistics on enrolments in part-time study by gender and level of study in the latest ten years for which data are available have been provided in the attached table.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students undertaking (a) full-time and (b) part-time courses at higher education institutions in (i) Scotland, (ii) England, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) the UK were women in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on students enrolled at UK higher education institutions (HEIs). The latest available statistics refer to the 2015/16 academic year and are published at the following link:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/12-01-2017/sfr242-student-enrolments-and-qualifications
The proportion of higher education enrolments that were female, by mode and location of study has been provided for the academic years 2006/07 to 2015/16 in the attached table.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) facilities and (b) other support her Department provides for (i) visitors and (ii) staff for (A) lactating mothers and (B) the expressing of breast milk.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Education’s main office in London and other Department sites in Coventry, Darlington, Manchester and Sheffield have rooms available for use by nursing mothers. The Nottingham site is a conference centre, with overnight accommodation facilities.
My department has issued guidance to managers on the support available to new and expectant mothers.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote breastfeeding in the curriculum.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Where there is a demand from parents and pupils, schools can choose to teach about any topic of interest, including breastfeeding. For example, it can be covered in schools’ personal, social, heath and economic (PSHE) lessons. The suggested programme of study for teachers by the PSHE Association does not specifically cover breastfeeding, but it includes teaching about parenthood and the development of parental skills. Schools can expand on these topics if they wish, and include breastfeeding if there is a demand to cover it.