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Written Question
Education: Autism
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled Outcomes of the review of the initial teacher training core content framework and early career framework, published in January 2024, whether her Department held discussions with autistic people and their families as part of that review.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department has reviewed the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework alongside the Early Career Framework (ECF) during 2023, in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation and groups of sector experts, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) specialists. This included a public call for evidence. Following this review, the updated and combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) was published on 30 January 2024, for delivery from 2025.

The department’s review of content for the ITTECF paid particular attention to the needs of trainees and Early Career Teachers (ECTs) when supporting pupils with SEND. There is now significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND, some of which has been adapted from the new National Professional Qualification for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Coordinators to be relevant for trainees and ECTs. The department has also made some edits to existing statements to improve inclusivity for SEND throughout the framework.

Recognising the importance of ensuring trainees and ECTs are confident in supporting pupils with SEND to succeed. The department will also be enhancing the requirements on ECF lead providers when creating SEND exemplification materials.

The ITTECF is based on the best peer-reviewed evidence about what works and is designed to emphasise the importance of high-quality teaching. The framework therefore deliberately does not detail approaches specific to particular additional needs, such as autism, but what makes the most effective teaching. When reviewing the frameworks in 2023, the department tested this approach with SEND educational experts, with the consensus that the approach of ‘quality-first teaching’ would be the best way to improve outcomes for all children, particularly those with SEN.


Written Question
Education: Autism
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendations in the Education Report 2023, published by the National Autistic Society on 30 May 2023.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is aware of the recommendations outlined in the National Autistic Society’s (NAS) Education Report. The department regularly engages with the NAS, for instance testing the reforms set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan.

​​The department’s ambition is for all children and young people, no matter what their SEND, to receive the right support to succeed in their education, and as they move into adult life. The department wants them to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, lead happy and fulfilled lives, and to experience choice and control.

​​In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, the department set out its vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support. This will give parents confidence and clarity on how their child’s needs will be met.​


Written Question
Pupils: Autism
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues on adapting school environments to support the needs of autistic students.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Huddersfield to the answer of 12 February 2024 to Question 11638.


Written Question
Pre-school Education: Special Educational Needs
Tuesday 25th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of relaxing staff to pupil ratios for early years education on children with Special Educational Needs.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all children and as part of the ratio consultation it was important for the department to consider the possible impact proposals would have on different groups. Any potential impacts identified by respondents on people who share protected characteristics including children with Special Education Needs were considered.

The government trusts that setting managers know their children and their staff best, and fully supports the judgement of setting managers and practitioners to work at the ratios that are right for the individual needs of their staff and children. The changes to ratios will continue to be a statutory minimum requirement for settings, and there will be no obligation on providers to operate at the statutory minimums.

To support providers in meeting the needs of their children, the department is also investing an additional £204 million in 2023/24 to increase the hourly funding rate to providers, and £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to deliver a significantly expanded free hours offer. This sits alongside offer an Early Years Pupil Premium, through which providers can get up to £342 per year extra funding to support eligible children, including the most disadvantaged.

A full response to the consultation can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1142987/Childcare_regulatory_changes_government_consultation_response.pdf.


Written Question
Pre-school Education: Qualifications
Friday 21st April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the course completion rate is for people taking full qualifications at (a) NVQ Level 2, (b) NVQ Level 3, (c) T-Level in education and early years, (d) early years apprenticeships, (e) early childhood degree with practitioner competencies and (f) early years Initial Teacher Training.

Answered by Robert Halfon

In the 2021/22 academic year, the adult (19+) education and training achievement rate for learning at National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 2 was 83.4%, and the adult (19+) education and training achievement rate for learning at NVQ Level 3 was 75.7%.

The apprenticeship achievement rate for the Early Years Educator apprenticeship was 53.3%, and the Early Years Practitioner was 42.7% in the 2021/22 academic year. Further information is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/4a09cee3-e95c-43e2-36e4-08db30eaf34e. The early years lead practitioner apprenticeship was introduced in August 2021 and typically takes 24 months to complete, which means achievement rate data is not currently available.

The department’s provisional T Level results publication shows data on the outcomes achieved by T Level students in the 2021/22 academic year and is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/provisional-t-level-results/2021-22. It shows that 450 students on the Education and Childcare T Level subject area received a ‘Pass’ or above, leading to a pass rate of 93.4% for those who took the assessment. Whilst the 2020 T Level Action Plan shows that approximately 650 initially started an Education and Childcare T Level in September 2020, some students moved to different courses after enrolment. This is a reflection of the novel nature of T Levels and of the impact of the pandemic on students’ learning at that time.

T Levels are being rolled out in a phased approach to ensure high quality. The number of providers will increase year on year and the department expects student numbers to grow significantly over the next few years. In September 2022, over 2,000 students started a T Level in Education and Childcare. While the majority are expected to study the Early Years occupational specialism, students do not need to make their final decision until the end of their first year of learning.

For early years initial teacher training, in the 2020/21 academic year, there were 527 final year postgraduate early years teacher trainees, of which 463 (88%) were awarded early years status. Further information is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-performance-profiles.

The department continues to explore how to best support the early years sector to recruit and retain the staff it needs. We will work closely with the sector to develop plans to grow and support the workforce. The department will share further information in due course.


Written Question
Sign Language: Education
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will provide free access to British Sign Language lessons to those who require it as their primary method of communication.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government has no plans to introduce universal free British Sign Language (BSL) courses. Funding is available through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) for qualifications in or focussing on BSL up to and including Level 2. About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners that are resident in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners that are resident in non-devolved areas. Some providers of Community Learning offer BSL courses, and those providers determine the course fees, including levels of fee remission. For qualifications at Level 3 and above, Advanced Learner Loans are available for certain BSL qualifications. BSL qualifications and the appropriate further education funding offer can be found at: https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/Search. If undertaking a BSL qualification that leads to a master’s level qualification, eligible students can access a postgraduate loan, as long as they have not previously accessed the postgraduate loan product, or they already hold a level 7 qualification. Several universities and organisations offer such qualifications.


Written Question
Pre-school Education: Qualifications
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people are training for a full and relevant qualification in early years and childcare and are due to qualify by September 2025.

Answered by Robert Halfon

During the 2021/22 academic year (the latest year of available data) there were 52,650 students studying Early Years and childcare qualifications.

This was comprised of 48,400 learners studying qualifications at English further education (FE) providers and 4,250 full-person-equivalent entrants to Early Years subject areas at English higher education (HE) providers

For HE, Early Years subjects were defined by the ‘Higher Education Classification of Subject’ (HECOS) codes ‘100457 early childhood studies’, ‘100463 early years education’ and ‘100510 early years teaching’, or any course aim leading to Early Years Teacher Status, such as H12, I12 and I73. For FE, Early Years qualifications were defined as those on the ‘Early Years qualifications achieved in the United Kingdom’ list, which is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-qualifications-achieved-in-england.

The department does not forecast the number of learners predicted to achieve these qualifications by September 2025.


Written Question
Physical Education: Finance
Monday 17th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with the National Union of Teachers on the notice provided of future levels of funding for physical activity in the last 12 months.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers amalgamated in 2017 to form the National Education Union (NEU).

Departmental Ministers and officials have had extensive engagement with the NEU and the other teacher and headteacher unions on school funding. Through the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium, the Department has devoted over £2 billion of ringfenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. On 8 March 2023, the Government announced over £600 million of funding across the next two academic years for the PE and Sport Premium and £22 million to fund the School Games Organiser network. The Department is aware of the importance for schools to have this timely confirmation of funding, which will allow them to effectively plan and implement high quality PE and school sport for pupils.


Written Question
Foster Care: Recruitment
Thursday 9th March 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2023 to Question 127698 on Foster Care: Recruitment, whether her Department monitors overall numbers of active foster carers.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department is closely monitoring the numbers of foster carers and recognises the urgency of action in placement sufficiency. The department published Stable Homes, Built on Love on 2 February 2023, this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.

The response to the independent care review can be found here: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/.

This sets out a £27 million plan to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it.

Finances are often mentioned as a reason for foster carers deregistering. To alleviate this issue, we have increased the National Minimum Allowance by more than inflation to 12.43% this year.

The data on capacity and occupancy of foster places is published annually by Ofsted, with the latest data available at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1115709%2FFostering_in_England_underlying_data_2022_-_FINAL__ODS_.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.


Written Question
Foster Care: Recruitment
Thursday 9th March 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 19 January 2023 to Question 127698 on Foster Care: Recruitment, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of retention levels for foster carers; and if she will make an assessment of the impact of retention levels on the number of foster carers in the UK.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department is closely monitoring the numbers of foster carers and recognises the urgency of action in placement sufficiency. The department published Stable Homes, Built on Love on 2 February 2023, this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.

The response to the independent care review can be found here: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/.

This sets out a £27 million plan to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme so foster care is available for more children who need it.

Finances are often mentioned as a reason for foster carers deregistering. To alleviate this issue, we have increased the National Minimum Allowance by more than inflation to 12.43% this year.

The data on capacity and occupancy of foster places is published annually by Ofsted, with the latest data available at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1115709%2FFostering_in_England_underlying_data_2022_-_FINAL__ODS_.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.