Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding to help support the recruitment and retention of staff in further education colleges.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is making significant investments to support the recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. The Spending Review 2021 made an extra £1.6 billion available for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 2021/22. We are investing £125 million of available funds in the 2023/24 financial year for 16-19 education to increase the national funding rate by 2.2% from £4,542 to £4,642, and boost specific programme cost weightings by 10%, to support the additional costs of recruiting and retaining teachers in construction, manufacturing, engineering, and digital subject areas.
The department is supporting teacher recruitment in the sector through a national campaign to encourage industry professionals to become further education (FE) teachers. We have supported the creation of new, high-quality routes into FE teaching, including a revised Level 5 Learning and Skills Teacher apprenticeship for those planning to work in the FE sector. We are providing bursaries worth up to £29,000 each, tax free, to support FE teacher training in priority subject areas for the 2023/24 academic year.
Our Taking Teaching Further (TTF) programme has supported around 1,000 people to retrain as FE teachers since it launched in 2018. In addition, the department is piloting a new £6,000 financial incentive for TTF recruits teaching in some of the most hard-to-fill subject areas, including digital, construction and the built environment, engineering and manufacturing, and maths.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children who were registered at schools in England prior to the covid-19 outbreak and who are no longer registered for reasons other than having passed statutory school age.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children who were registered at schools in England before the covid-19 outbreak and who, having deregistered during that outbreak, are now once more entered on school rolls.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children living in the Isle of Wight who were registered at a school prior to the covid-19 outbreak and who are no longer registered for reasons other than having exceeded statutory school age.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will provide schools on the Isle of Wight with funding for systematic synthetic phonics programmes.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2018, the Department launched the £26.3 million English Hubs Programme, which is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The 34 English Hubs in the programme are primary schools which are outstanding at teaching early reading. A further £17 million has been allocated for this school to school improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure.
Schools on the Isle of Wight may contact their nearest English Hub, Springhill Catholic Primary, if they wish to receive funding support for phonics. The hub has, so far, recruited one partner school on the Isle of Wight and is actively reaching out to other eligible schools, including planning an Isle of Wight specific engagement event in the coming term.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department will take to support people in the UK with teaching qualifications earned in Ukraine to teach in UK schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Ukrainians can teach without Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) for an unlimited period in an academy or a free school, or for up to four years in a maintained school. They can then consider gaining QTS through the Assessment Only route whilst working in this way.
Ukrainians are also able to apply for Initial Teacher Training in England. If they have been granted leave under the Ukraine Family Scheme visa, the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, or the Ukraine Extension Scheme, and have been a resident in the UK, they will be treated the same as a UK resident for higher education funding, including for Initial Teacher Training. More guidance for Ukrainian nationals on becoming a teacher in England is available on the Get into Teaching website, which can be found here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/non-uk-teachers/ukraine.
In early 2023 the Department will open a new route for teachers who trained in a broader range of countries, including Ukraine, to apply to the Teaching Regulation Agency for QTS in England, providing they meet certain criteria. This will provide Ukrainians who meet the relevant criteria to gain QTS by recognition of their existing teaching qualification, making it more straightforward to teach in all types of school in England. More information on this can be found at: http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualified-teacher-status-to-overseas-teachers/a-fairer-approach-to-awarding-qts-to-overseas-teachers.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will introduce skilled, sustainable and vocationally appropriate courses to replace the low-quality courses he plans to remove.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The department is revitalising the technical education system by introducing T Levels that are backed and designed by employers to get people into skilled work and further training. T Levels are at the centre of our long-term reforms to technical education, building on the recommendations in the Sainsbury Report, published in 2016. Alongside the introduction of T Levels, the department is reviewing post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below. We have withdrawn funding approval for more than 5,000 qualifications that had no or low enrolments. The next phase of our reforms is to remove qualifications that overlap with T Levels for 16 to 19 year olds, which will reduce complexity for young people and employers.
The department is also reviewing the qualifications that sit alongside A levels and T Levels at level 3 and below. Our reforms will ensure that all students have confidence that every qualification is a high-quality option, and that it supports their progression to employment or further study, including higher education.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much education specific funding, in addition to the national average of school spending per pupil, the Isle of Wight has received since June 2017.
Answered by Robin Walker
Funding for schools in the Isle of Wight, through the dedicated schools grant (DSG) and the indicative figures for the schools’ supplementary grant for mainstream schools combined, is forecast to rise by £4 million in the 2022-23 financial year, an increase of 6.0% per pupil. This per pupil funding increase excludes ‘growth’ funding, which is additional funding, provided for schools seeing significant increases in pupil numbers. This takes total funding for the 2022-23 financial year in the Isle of Wight to over £83.2 million.
On top of this funding, over £100 million of funding will be made available to support Education Investment Areas, including the Isle of Wight.
The table below shows the funding per pupil in the Isle of Wight, compared to the national average:
Year | Funding per pupil in the Isle of Wight | National average funding per pupil |
2017-18 | £4,526 | £4,619 |
2018-19 | £4,542 | £4,630 |
2019-20 | £4,561 | £4,650 |
2020-21 | £4,740 | £4,845 |
2021-22 | £5,097 | £5,228 |
2022-23 | £5,401 | £5,531 |
The funding per pupil from the financial years 2017-18 to 2022-23 is through the DSG (actual funding received) but from the 2019-20 financial year onwards, excludes growth funding. To note, in the 2021-22 financial year, the funding per pupil includes the teachers’ pay and pensions grant that was rolled into the national funding formula (NFF) and for the 2022-23 financial year, additional funding from the supplementary grant is included into the funding per pupil figure.
Funding per pupil for the Isle of Wight has been lower than the national average because the NFF directs resources to schools with more pupils with additional needs, such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language, to help them meet the needs of all their pupils. In addition, schools in more expensive areas, like London, attract higher funding per pupil than other parts of the country to reflect the higher costs they face. This also affects the national average funding per pupil figures in the table above.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the average spend per pupil in schools on the Isle of Wight; how that average spending compares to the national average school spend per pupil; and what assessment his Department has made of the impact of designating the Isle of Wight an education investment area will have on school spend per pupil.
Answered by Robin Walker
Funding for schools in the Isle of Wight, through the dedicated schools grant (DSG) and the indicative figures for the schools’ supplementary grant for mainstream schools combined, is forecast to rise by £4 million in the 2022-23 financial year, an increase of 6.0% per pupil. This per pupil funding increase excludes ‘growth’ funding, which is additional funding, provided for schools seeing significant increases in pupil numbers. This takes total funding for the 2022-23 financial year in the Isle of Wight to over £83.2 million.
On top of this funding, over £100 million of funding will be made available to support Education Investment Areas, including the Isle of Wight.
The table below shows the funding per pupil in the Isle of Wight, compared to the national average:
Year | Funding per pupil in the Isle of Wight | National average funding per pupil |
2017-18 | £4,526 | £4,619 |
2018-19 | £4,542 | £4,630 |
2019-20 | £4,561 | £4,650 |
2020-21 | £4,740 | £4,845 |
2021-22 | £5,097 | £5,228 |
2022-23 | £5,401 | £5,531 |
The funding per pupil from the financial years 2017-18 to 2022-23 is through the DSG (actual funding received) but from the 2019-20 financial year onwards, excludes growth funding. To note, in the 2021-22 financial year, the funding per pupil includes the teachers’ pay and pensions grant that was rolled into the national funding formula (NFF) and for the 2022-23 financial year, additional funding from the supplementary grant is included into the funding per pupil figure.
Funding per pupil for the Isle of Wight has been lower than the national average because the NFF directs resources to schools with more pupils with additional needs, such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language, to help them meet the needs of all their pupils. In addition, schools in more expensive areas, like London, attract higher funding per pupil than other parts of the country to reflect the higher costs they face. This also affects the national average funding per pupil figures in the table above.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Centre for Social Justice’s report entitled Lost but not forgotten: the reality of severe absence in schools post-lockdown published in January 2022, what estimate he has made of the number of children who are absent from schools (a) by education authority and (b) who are eligible for schooling on the Isle of Wight as of 31 January 2022.
Answered by Robin Walker
Overall absence data is collected in the termly school census collection and figures for January 2022 are not yet available at this time. Full year figures for the 2020/21 academic year will be available from 24 March 2022, including by amount of absence.
The department currently publishes on-site attendance and COVID-19-related absence data at a national level on a fortnightly basis and at a local authority level on a half-termly basis. Data covering 31 January 2022 will be published routinely, on this basis.
The latest published local authority level data ends in Week 50 2021. During the 2021 autumn term, at a national level, on average 89.8% of pupils were in attendance on-site and 2.3% were absent for COVID-19-related reasons. Over the same period, on the Isle of Wight, 88.5% of pupils were in attendance on-site and 2.9% were absent for COVID-19-related reasons.
The full most recent national, regional and local authority data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
National level pupil data can be found in Table 1B of the underlying data files, whilst local authority data can be found in Table 1C.