Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has received representations on the impact of marking children as absent for illness during covid-19 isolation periods where the child is not unwell and is taking part in lessons at home on the attendance records of those children.
Answered by Robin Walker
Schools are responsible for recording absence in the register using the most appropriate code in line with the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended. The attendance register is a legal record of why a pupil is not physically in school at any given time. We have advised schools throughout the COVID-19 outbreak that, where a pupil tests positive for COVID-19, they should be recorded as ill (Code I) in the register to reflect the fact that they were absent with an infectious illness. Schools should authorise absences due to illness unless they have genuine cause for concern about the veracity of an illness.
Schools may keep a record of and monitor engagement with remote education, but this does not need to be tracked in the attendance register.
Considering the disruption caused by COVID-19, last year we also amended the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005, which meant that schools were not required to include attendance data in pupil end of year reports to parents. We are considering the position again for this academic year.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to rename the Adoption Support Fund, to make it clear that it is also available to special guardianship families.
Answered by Will Quince
The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) has had a significant and positive impact on the adoptive and special guardianship families that are able to access the important support it funds. Local authorities continue to promote the availability of the ASF to eligible families.
The department has worked with local authorities and voluntary sector organisations such as the Family Rights Group and Kinship, to promote the ASF amongst special guardians and we have seen an increase in the take up by these families over the past 2 years.
The department will be able to confirm more detailed plans for the ASF in due course but remains deeply committed to these families.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what initial assessment his Department has made of the impact of the national #YouCanAdopt campaign on the number of (a) adoption enquiries and (b) adoption approvals.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage more people to adopt and (b) give prospective adopters assurance of lifetime support.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's data published on 18 November 2021, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle the declining number of adoptions and (b) ascertain the reasons for the 18 per cent decrease in adoptions in 2020-21.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for School Standards of 6 December 2021, which schools in the Sefton Central constituency are included in the New Rebuilding Programme.
Answered by Robin Walker
Earlier this year, the department announced the first 100 schools in the new School Rebuilding Programme as part of a commitment to 500 projects over the next decade. There is one school in the Sefton Central constituency: Deyes High School. We are currently in the procurement, design, and planning stage, with a planning application submission currently scheduled for spring 2022. One school in the constituency, Maghull High School, has benefited from the Priority School Building Programme.
The department will publish details of how schools will be prioritised for future places in the programme following a review of the results from our recent consultation, which closed on 8 October 2021.