Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support additional expenditure on cleaning and hygiene measures in schools during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government intends that all pupils, in all year groups, will return to school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term. On 2 July we published guidance to help schools prepare for this. The guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
Schools have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. As stated in our guidance, schools should use their existing resources when making arrangements to welcome all children back for the autumn.
Schools have been able to claim additional funding for exceptional costs incurred due to COVID-19, between March and July 2020, such as additional cleaning required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases and increased premises costs to keep schools open for priority groups during the Easter and summer half term holidays.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to Birmingham City Council for the refurbishment of schools for the 2020-21 calendar year; and whether that funding has been ringfenced.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In the financial year 2020-21, Birmingham City Council has been awarded £9,505,036 in capital funding to maintain and improve the condition of the schools for which it is responsible. Local authorities have the flexibility to prioritise capital projects to meet local needs. The responsible bodies for voluntary aided schools and academies are awarded separate capital funding.
In addition, individual schools are allocated Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) to invest in capital projects to meet their own priorities. Allocations are published on GOV.UK.
The government has also committed to providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to support essential maintenance projects. This comes on top of over £1.4 billion capital funding already provided for school maintenance in the financial year 2020-21. We will set out details of how the additional capital funding will be allocated shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the level of take-up of the 30 hour childcare entitlement in the (a) West Midlands and (b) England.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The National Statistics release, 'Education provision for children under 5 years of age in England', estimates that around 4 out of 5 eligible children were taking up some extended hours in January 2019. It is not possible to reliably produce an equivalent estimate for the number of eligible children at a regional level due to the relatively small sample population within sub-national geographies in the data that the Department holds.
The release shows that 34,764 3 to 4 year olds in the West Midlands benefited from extended hours in January 2019, an increase from 31,610 in January 2018. The national figures show that 328,127 3 to 4 year olds across England benefited from extended hours in January 2019, compared to 296,924 in January 2018.
The release is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2019.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase the number of places in (a) secondary and (b) primary schools in Sutton Coldfield after 2022.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The Department provides basic need funding for every place that local authorities forecast is needed. Local authorities can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.
The Department does not collect information at Parliamentary constituency level, only at local authority and at sub-local authority planning area level. Birmingham has been allocated £294.7 million to provide new school places from 2011-2021, and there are now 30,872 more places than there were in 2010.
The next set of basic need allocations, for places needed in September 2022, will be announced in spring 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress is being made in implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health recommendation that her Department establish an expert group to examine the needs of children vulnerable to developing mental health problems and how their needs should be met, including through provision of personalised budgets.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department of Health and the Department for Education have established an Expert Working Group to ensure that the emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of children and young people in care, those adopted from care or under a Special Guardianship Order and care leavers are better met. The group is due to report in October.