Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent (a) assessment she has made of and (b) steps she has taken to help ensure the safety of school buildings in North Tyneside.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Academy trusts, local authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies are responsibile for ensuring their schools are safe, well-maintained and compliant with relevant regulations.
The department is working closely with North Tyneside Council and their structural engineers who are investigating the cause of isolated issues at a small number of schools in the area. Once investigations have been completed, the relevant bodies will be informed of any findings.
Where construction issues in schools arise, the department works closely with responsible bodies to ensure that the issue is thoroughly investigated and mitigated, and that all steps are taken to minimise disruption to pupil learning.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the expansion in government funded childcare on the cost of paid for hours.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is providing over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for eligible working parents with children aged 9 months to 3 years in England. This will remove one of the biggest barriers to working parents by vastly increasing the amount of free childcare that working families can access. Hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are already registered for a 30-hour place, saving parents up to £6,000 a year. The department is expanding this entitlement across the country, which will save parents up to £6,500 per year per child. This will help even more working parents with the cost of childcare and make a real difference to the lives of those families. By 2027/28, the Office for Budget Responsibility expects around 60,000 parents to enter employment, in addition to 1.5 million mothers of young children already in work who will increase their working hours.
In addition to the expanded entitlements, the government has also taken action to support parents on Universal Credit with childcare costs upfront when they need it, rather than in arrears. The department has increased support for these parents by increasing the childcare cost maximum amounts to £950 for one child and £1629 for two children.
Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0-11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children. This can save parents up to £2,000 per year, or up to £4,000 for eligible children with disabilities, and has the same income criteria as 30 hours free childcare.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a list of local authorities with sufficient childcare places to deliver (a) 15 hours of funded childcare for two-year-olds from April 2024 and (b) 30 hours of funded childcare for two-year-olds from September 2024.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare meets the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the 'Early education and childcare' statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. This guidance is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department will discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of the (a) construction, (b) demolition and (c) reconstruction of buildings constructed by Caledonian Modular at (i) Haygrove School, (ii) Sir Frederick Gibberd College and (iii) Buckton Fields Primary School.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes contract values when available on Contracts Finder, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. In addition, the department publishes capital costs for all free schools on GOV.UK once all works are completed and costs are finalised. Once at that point, the department will action this for these three schools and anticipates that may be some time in the future.
The department is currently progressing a range of legal and contractual mechanisms for recovering costs.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken steps to recover costs incurred to the public purse as a result of poor workmanship in cases of school buildings constructed by Caledonian Modular that were found to be structurally unsound.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes contract values when available on Contracts Finder, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. In addition, the department publishes capital costs for all free schools on GOV.UK once all works are completed and costs are finalised. Once at that point, the department will action this for these three schools and anticipates that may be some time in the future.
The department is currently progressing a range of legal and contractual mechanisms for recovering costs.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the total cost to the public purse of construction, demolition and reconstruction of school buildings constructed by Caledonian Modular and subsequently found to be structurally unsound.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes contract values when available on Contracts Finder, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. In addition, the department publishes capital costs for all free schools on GOV.UK once all works are completed and costs are finalised. Once at that point, the department will action this for these three schools and anticipates that may be some time in the future.
The department is currently progressing a range of legal and contractual mechanisms for recovering costs.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that children with emerging special educational needs and disabilities aged between nine months and two years who will be eligible for 15 hours funded childcare from September 2024 receive support for their additional needs in early years settings.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, the government announced the expansion of the free childcare entitlements offer so that eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 free hours of childcare per week, over 38 weeks of the year, from the term after their child turns 9 months old to when they start school. The expanded working parent entitlement (which will be rolled out in phases from April 2024) will be available to working parents who meet the eligibility criteria. A link to the eligibility criteria is available here: https://www.gov.uk/check-eligible-free-childcare-if-youre-working?step-by-step-nav=f517cd57-3c18-4bb9-aa8b-1b907e279bf9. These are the same as the current 30 hours offer for 3 and 4-year-olds.
As with the current 30 hours offer for 3- and 4-year-olds, children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) will be eligible for the expanded offer as long as their parent(s) meet the eligibility criteria. Further information can be found at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/. The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity for all children. The sufficiency of childcare places will also be continuously monitored.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework states that all early years providers, including those registered with an early years childminder agency, must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND. Early intervention can allow children to thrive, and the department is committed to ensuring the right support can be put in place as soon as it is needed. The department understands the importance of having qualified, trained and experienced people working with children in early years with SEND and emerging Special Educational Needs (SEN). Level 2 and early years educator level 3 qualifications include SEND content, and the department’s is funding training for up to 7,000 early years SEN Coordinators.
The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023 in response to the SEND and AP green paper of March 2022, sets out how an effective single national SEND and AP system will be delivered. Many of the proposals in the improvement plan will have an impact on early years education, including new national standards for identifying and meeting SEND. These new standards aim to make consistent the provision that should be made available across the country for every child and young person with SEND. There will also be new local SEND and AP partnerships, strengthened accountability and dashboards, and funding reforms. The department has already committed to work with local authorities, early years providers and stakeholders to consider whether changes to the SEN Improvement Funds and other associated elements of the wider current early years funding system are needed, to ensure early years SEND funding arrangements are appropriate and well-targeted to both improve outcomes for all pre-school children with SEND, and to support the introduction of a national framework for bands and tariffs. These vital changes are aimed at enabling early years settings to accept children with SEND into their settings, and provide them with the support they need to learn and grow.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the (a) postcode of and (b) number of places provided by each Ofsted registered childcare provider.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children in early years settings for whom Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding payments were being made on 31 December 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities establish Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funds (SENIFs) locally, using funding from the early years and high needs blocks of their Dedicated Schools Grant allocation.
The department does not hold information relating to the SENIF at this level.
The department requires all local authorities to submit their planned early years spending on funding for 2, 3 and 4 year olds, including on SENIFs, annually via their Section 251 budget statement returns, and publishes tools which allow analysis of that data. For the 2023/24 financial year, total planned spending on SENIFs, as reported by local authorities, is £88,316,241.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools that refused to admit (a) looked-after and (b) previously looked-after children were subsequently directed to do so by her Department in each of the last three academic years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
All schools are required to give highest priority in their admissions criteria to looked after children and previously looked after children, including those children who appear to the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
Local authorities have powers to direct maintained schools to admit a pupil, in certain prescribed circumstances. Local authorities do not have powers to direct academies, but can, where appropriate, request that the Secretary of State, directs the academy to admit.
The Secretary of State has powers under an academy’s funding agreement to direct an academy to admit a pupil if they have not been able to secure a school place using the normal in-year admissions procedures. The School Complaints Compliance Unit acts on behalf of the Secretary of State in issuing directions to admit a child to academies
The department has not issued any directions to academies in the last three academic years for looked after children. The department has issued ‘minded to direct’ outcomes where the department’s view is that an academy should be directed to admit a pupil. If an academy does not admit by a set date or provide further information to explain why the academy should not admit, then the department would proceed to issue a formal direction.
The department classifies all looked after children and previously looked after children as ‘looked after children’ (LAC) on our correspondence system and therefore does not differentiate between them.
The data the department holds is visible in the table below:
Academic Year | Number of LAC Requests | Number of LAC ‘Minded to Direct’ | Number of Live Cases |
2021/22 | 13 | 4 | 0 |
2022/23 | 31 | 13 | 0 |
2023/24 | 17 | 2 | 7 |