Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of looked-after children being placed 20 miles or more outside the boundary of their local authority.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The government is clear that the needs of the child are paramount when making decisions about the right care placement. Local councils have a statutory duty to consider the right placement for each child and take into account a number of factors, one of which is placement area. Sometimes circumstances make it the right decision for a local council to identify a placement outside of the child’s local area, for example when a child is at risk from child sexual exploitation, trafficking or gang violence or when they need very specialist care.
Out of area placements require approval from the Director of Children’s Services, and Ofsted will challenge local councils where they believe poor out of area placement are being made. The government is funding Innovation Programme pilots for residential care in areas where demand for residential places outstrips supply. We are also setting up a Residential Care Leadership Board, which will bring together representatives from local councils and providers to explore how to improve commissioning of children’s residential placements. As part of this work we expect the Board to assess data on the use of out of area placements.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide adequate pastoral support for social workers; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Local councils as employers are responsible for the provision of appropriate pastoral support. The Standards for Employers of Social Workers, published by the Local Government Association, provide an important means of ensuring that employers are providing the right support to social workers in the difficult work they do.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children were placed 20 miles or more outside the boundary of their local authority in (a) Redcar and Cleveland, (b) the North East and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
At 31 March in each of the last five years for which figures are available, the number of looked-after children placed outside their local council boundary and more than 20 miles from their home is given in the table below:
Children looked after who were placed outside the boundary of their responsible local council and over 20 miles from home at 31 March1,2,3 | |||||
Years ending 31 March 2012 to 2016 | |||||
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| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
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Redcar and Cleveland | 25 | 25 | 30 | 25 | 25 |
North East | 350 | 360 | 380 | 390 | 410 |
England | 8,160 | 8,430 | 9,500 | 9,890 | 10,000 |
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Source: SSDA903 | |||||
1. England and regional figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Local council figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. | |||||
2. Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. | |||||
3. Figures exclude children whose local council of placement is not known. | |||||
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what systems are in place for schools reporting hate incidents occurring in the classroom.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are required by law to have behaviour and safeguarding policies. Schools should record and deal with incidents according to those policies and are held to account for how they do so by Ofsted. The Department for Education’s statutory safeguarding guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (September 2016), is clear that if staff have any concerns about a child, or think that the child is in danger, they should speak to the school’s designated safeguarding lead.
The Department’s ‘Preventing and Tackling Bullying’ guidance (July 2017) sets out that some types of harassing or threatening behaviour or communications could constitute a criminal offence. When school staff feel that an offence may have been committed, they should seek assistance from the police.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on how many schools teach anti-racism education; and what assessment her Department has made of the quality of that education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We do not hold data on how many schools teach anti-racism education. Every school is different and each school will face its own challenges. Schools have the autonomy to tailor their approach to tackling these issues and to take action according to their individual requirements.
The Equality Act introduced the Public Sector Equality Duty. Under this duty, state funded schools must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people with protected characteristics and none.
The National Curriculum also provides many opportunities to raise awareness of racial and religious diversity and tolerance.
Teaching about racism and discrimination can be included as part of the statutory programme of study for citizenship education at ages 11-16 in maintained schools. Citizenship education should include the development of pupils’ understanding of the diverse national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom and the need for mutual respect and understanding.
Schools are also free to teach about racism in personal, social, health, economic (PSHE) education, where pupils can reflect on and challenge notions of prejudice.
Schools are already expected to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and, as part of this, fundamental British values, including the values of mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. This is at the heart of their responsibility to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to give teaching of the law more prominence in the national curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The teaching of the legal system in the UK is a key element of the National Curriculum as part of the citizenship education taught at Key Stages 3 and 4. Citizenship education aims to ensure that all pupils develop a sound knowledge and understanding of the role of law and the justice system in our society. The subject also fosters pupils’ keen awareness of democracy, Government and how laws are made and upheld.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many places were available for trainee teachers who wish to specialise in citizenship education on teacher training courses in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of places initially allocated for citizenship each year since the academic year 2013/14 is shown in the table below:
Academic year (of training) | Initial allocation of citizenship places |
2013/14 | 147 |
2014/15 | 149 |
2015/16 | 175 |
Source: Published ITT Allocations Official Statistics.[1]
Data for earlier years are not directly comparable with those shown in the table as they include allocations for Personal, Social and Health Education and Social Studies within the total for Citizenship.
[1] This includes postgraduate and undergraduate allocated places.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to review the national curriculum's citizenship programme of study as proposed in the Government's White Paper Education Excellence Everywhere, published in March 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to ensuring that high quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society.
Citizenship education is therefore part of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4. The revised programmes of study were introduced in September 2014 and seek to direct teaching towards the core knowledge of citizenship, and to give schools more scope to decide how to teach citizenship.
The Secretary of State is considering the proposal in the White Paper regarding citizenship.
Teachers are encouraged to develop their practice with the support of specialist organisations and expert professionals such as subject associations.
Ofsted, in its inspections of schools, considers the breadth and balance of the curriculum, including provision for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare, as well as their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This includes how pupils develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain. Ofsted have strengthened their inspection frameworks so that inspectors assess how well all schools protect pupils from the risks of extremism and radicalisation, and promote fundamental British values.
We are also supporting schools to meet their obligations to protect pupils from radicalisation and promote fundamental British values, and to help them build pupils’ resilience to extremism through knowledge so that they can question information, weigh arguments, and make reasoned judgments.
We are currently working with the Association of Citizenship Teaching on producing guidance and resources packs to help teachers lead knowledge based debates on topics relating to extremism, fundamental British values and contemporary political and social issues.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure effective teaching of citizenship education in schools in England; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to ensuring that high quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society.
Citizenship education is therefore part of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4. The revised programmes of study were introduced in September 2014 and seek to direct teaching towards the core knowledge of citizenship, and to give schools more scope to decide how to teach citizenship.
The Secretary of State is considering the proposal in the White Paper regarding citizenship.
Teachers are encouraged to develop their practice with the support of specialist organisations and expert professionals such as subject associations.
Ofsted, in its inspections of schools, considers the breadth and balance of the curriculum, including provision for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare, as well as their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This includes how pupils develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain. Ofsted have strengthened their inspection frameworks so that inspectors assess how well all schools protect pupils from the risks of extremism and radicalisation, and promote fundamental British values.
We are also supporting schools to meet their obligations to protect pupils from radicalisation and promote fundamental British values, and to help them build pupils’ resilience to extremism through knowledge so that they can question information, weigh arguments, and make reasoned judgments.
We are currently working with the Association of Citizenship Teaching on producing guidance and resources packs to help teachers lead knowledge based debates on topics relating to extremism, fundamental British values and contemporary political and social issues.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the change in responsibilities of teaching assistants since 2010; and what steps her Department takes to support teaching assistants who have taken on additional responsibilities.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Head teachers are responsible for the deployment of their teaching assistants, which is based on the existing guidance available such as the Education Endowment Foundation’s report “Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants”.
The report offers the latest evidence and identifies ways that schools can deploy teaching assistants in different contexts to deliver high quality support to pupils. It also recommends that teaching assistants should be fully prepared for their role by having the knowledge and training necessary to carry out their work. The report is available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/TA_Guidance_Report_Interactive.pdf