Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what systems are in place for a Children Missing Education Officer to contact HM Revenue and Customs to request information on a family where there are concerns about a child not receiving a suitable education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities (LA) have a duty to make arrangements to establish, as far as possible, the identities of children of compulsory school age in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not otherwise receiving suitable education. The Department issues statutory guidance to enable LAs to implement this legal duty.
This guidance does not include a prescriptive or comprehensive list of all possible actions LAs could undertake when trying to locate a child, but does set out that in some cases it may be appropriate for LAs to make enquiries via other agencies.
The guidance sets out that LAs could ‘follow local information sharing arrangements and where possible make enquiries via other local databases and agencies e.g. those of housing providers, school admissions, health services, police, refuge, Youth Justice Services, children’s social care, and HMRC’. The guidance advises LAs that it may be helpful to have local contacts with the HMRC, and other agencies, to assist them in tracing children missing education.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the criteria is for HMRC to make available to local authority children missing education officers contact details of the families concerned.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nothing is more important than keeping children safe and in suitable education. Local authorities have a duty to make arrangements to establish, as far as possible, the identities of children of compulsory school age in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise.
When the whereabouts of a child is unclear or unknown, local authorities should consider the individual facts of each case, and use their judgment to decide what would constitute reasonable enquiries in order to try to locate the child.
The Department does not provide a prescriptive list of actions that should be completed when trying to locate a child. In some cases, it may be appropriate for local authorities to make enquiries via other agencies, including HMRC. There is no specific criteria they are required to meet in order to be provided this information. Any sharing of information must comply with the law relating to data protection, which should be in line with local arrangements for recording and sharing information. Further information can be found in our statutory guidance on Children Missing Education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-missing-education.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the statistics on educational participation and attainment by Irish Travellers in the race disparity audit can be broken down for (a) Travellers living in settled accommodation in a mixed community and (b) Travellers living on Traveller-only sites.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect information on educational participation and attainment by Irish Travelers broken down by where they live (e.g. in settled accommodation in a mixed community or on traveller-only sites).
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 28 June 2017 to Question 854 on sex and relationship education, if she will provide an update on the engagement process for statutory guidance on relationships and sex education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We will announce shortly further details on the wider engagement process. This will set out how we will build evidence from schools, parents, younger people and other organisations to shape draft statutory guidance, which will then be subject to public consultation.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to consult on proposed changes to relationships and sex education in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education will be conducting a thorough engagement process on the scope and content of relationships education and relationships and sex education, involving a wide range of interested stakeholders. This process will seek evidence from schools and teachers; parents and pupils; experts in safeguarding and child wellbeing; subject experts; voluntary organisations and other interested parties; and other government departments and public sector bodies.
It will inform the development of regulations and statutory guidance, covering subject content, school practice and quality of delivery, which will then be subject to consultation. Following consultation, regulations will be laid in the House allowing for a full and considered debate.
We will set out more details shortly about the engagement process and the work to consider age appropriate subject content.