Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of childcare in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
By 2027/28, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
The government is providing over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to fund 30 hours of free childcare for children over the age of nine months. Investing £204 million next year, increasing to £288 million by 2024/25 for local authorities to increase the hourly funding rate to providers. This will include an average of 30% increase in the national average 2-year-old hourly rate from September 2023, which means that in 2024, the average hourly 2-year-old rate will be more than £8.
As part of this, Central Bedfordshire is due to receive £1,597,036.11 to enable them to deliver additional wraparound places. This financial year, local authorities have also received £12 million of delivery support funding to support them with meeting programme and delivery costs associated with rolling out the expanded early year entitlements. Central Bedfordshire will be allocated funds from this also.
The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity. The department is raising awareness of government funded childcare support available to stimulate increased take-up by eligible families. This support could make a significant financial difference to families, as well as incentivising more eligible providers to register with Ofsted, in order to give parents more choices about where they can use their government funding.
The department also continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. The department’s Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that the number of places available has remained broadly stable since 2019. A £100 million allocation for local areas to use to make sure childcare settings in their areas have enough physical space, anticipated to add thousands of new places across the country. More detail on the £100 million capital funding, including allocation amounts to local authorities and accompanying guidance, will be published shortly. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the 'Early education and childcare' statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the financial support available to Central Bedfordshire Council to facilitate its transition from three-tier to two-tier schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Central Bedfordshire Council has decided to transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system. In these instances, it is a local authority’s responsibility to manage such a transition.
The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, it is not ringfenced (subject to published conditions), meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
It is ultimately the council’s responsibility to manage the three-tier to two-tier process. The department has a support, a challenge and a decision-making role for changes made to academies.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact of population growth on the adequacy of school capital funding in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places.
Basic Need funding allocations are based on the number of additional mainstream places needed in Reception to Year 11, which the department calculates using local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and data on existing school capacity. The department funds local authorities to provide at least a 2 per cent operating margin of places, to help support parental choice, churn in the pupil population, and the general manageability of the system. The funding rate per place each local authority receives is adjusted to reflect inflation and the different cost of construction in regions across the country.
The department has announced Central Bedfordshire will receive a total of just under £36.1 million to support the provision of new school places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
Developer contributions are also an important way of helping to meet demand for new school places when housing developments are driving pupil numbers. It is for Central Bedfordshire Council, as the Local Planning Authority, to secure developer contributions through section 106 agreements or the Community Infrastructure Levy, and to decide on the local infrastructure needs that this contribution should support.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of support for kinship carers (a) nationally and (b) in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the commitments outlined in 'Stable Homes, Built on Love', the department made a commitment to implement or explore each of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s recommendations on kinship care.
The department is in the final stages of drafting its kinship strategy, which outlines plans to enhance support for all kinship families in England. This strategy will complement the existing support initiatives offered by the department, such as the peer-to-peer support service.
Following on from the progress and positive impact of the peer-to-peer support contract, the department will deliver a package of training and support that all kinship carers in England can access if they wish to, regardless of whether they have a legal order in place. This will be implemented from Spring 2024.
Statutory guidance issued to local authorities already makes it clear that children and young people should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare. There is no limit on the level of support, including financial support, that local authorities can provide. All local authorities should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services.
The department has committed to work across government to explore possible additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers with a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or Child Arrangement Order (CAO), as well as exploring the case for mandating a financial allowance for kinship carers with SGOs and CAOs in every local authority. Further details will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to publish the National Kinship strategy by the end of 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to delivering this strategy this year and to improving outcomes for children in kinship care. This is part of a wider, once in a generation reset to the children’s social care system, as set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which aims to rebalance the children’s social care system away from costly crisis intervention, towards meaningful and effective help for families, to deliver better outcomes for children.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to support Central Bedfordshire Council with the transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Local Authorities can decide to transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system. It is a Local Authority’s responsibility to manage such a transition. The Secretary of State is aware of some of the challenges faced, and recently met with parents, staff as well as representatives from the local community to discuss their concerns around delivering Central Bedfordshire Council’s transitional arrangements. The department’s role is to approve or decline changes to age ranges for schools that are academies. To date, the department has approved seven applications to support academies to become either primary or secondary schools.
The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support Local Authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, the funding is not ringfenced, subject to published conditions, and Local Authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to support Central Bedfordshire Council with SEND provision.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has appointed a specialist Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) adviser to work alongside an NHS England SEND adviser to advise, support and challenge the Central Bedfordshire local partnership to rapidly improve its SEND provision.
Central Bedfordshire is also part of the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme, which aims to support local authorities to improve SEND services for children and young people while ensuring services are sustainable. This programme provides dedicated support and funding by the department, in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
On 2 March 2023, the department published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan which set out what the department will do to make sure more children and young people with SEND or in AP get the support they need.
The department is testing key reforms through the nine Change Programme Partnerships (CPPs) announced as part of the £70 million Change Programme. Central Bedfordshire is one of those CPPs, working with Bedford and Luton. Each CPP is being supported with funding of approximately £6.3 million between now and March 2025.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the median level of student debt in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The median debt of full-time undergraduate borrowers funded by student finance England, whose postcode is within the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, and who entered repayment within the last 5 years, is £43,772.37. The median debt includes tuition fees and maintenance loans.
The borrower’s postcode refers to the current contact or home address supplied by the borrower to the Student Loans Company.
Full-time undergraduate higher education students starting in the academic year 2022/23 are expected to borrow on average £42,100 over the course of their studies. More information and a link to the publication can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average staff-to-student ratio was in secondary schools (a) nationally and (b) in Mid Bedfordshire constituency in each year since 2019.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Information on the school workforce, including the pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios at national, regional, Local Authority and individual school level, is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
As at November 2022, the latest data available, there were over 468,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes the highest number of FTE teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The table below provides the pupil to adult ratio and the pupil to teacher ratio for state funded secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency and England for academic years 2019/20 to 2022/23.
Pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios for state funded secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency and England, by year
2019/20 and 2022/231
| Mid Bedfordshire constituency2 | England | ||
| Pupil to adult ratio3, 5 | Pupil to teacher ratio4, 5 | Pupil to adult ratio3, 5 | Pupil to teacher ratio4, 5 |
2019/20 | 12.8 | 18.1 | 11.9 | 16.6 |
2020/212 | 12.3 | 19.1 | 11.9 | 16.6 |
2021/22 | 12.6 | 18.2 | 11.9 | 16.7 |
2022/23 | 12.3 | 18.0 | 12.0 | 16.8 |
Source: School Workforce Census.
1. Workforce data as at November and pupil data as at the following January. For instance, 2019/20 relates to November 2019 workforce and January 2020 pupils.
2. There are 14 secondary schools in Mid Bedfordshire constituency. One school is removed from the ratio calculations each year due to the low reliability of reported figures, and a second school is not included for 2020/21 as they did not return data that year.
3. Pupil to adult ratio includes teachers and support staff (excluding administrative and auxiliary staff).
4. Pupil to teacher ratio includes all teachers.
5. The ratios are calculated using pupil numbers taken from the publication, ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.