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Written Question
Childcare
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2024 to Question 11047 on Childcare, what measure her Department uses to establish the requirements of local authorities for childcare places.

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

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The 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.

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 discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and provides support where needed, to help the local authority with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract.


Written Question
Education: Autism
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies on education for autistic children and young people of the recommendations of the report by Ambitious about Autism entitled Written off?, published in November 2022.

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

The department is aware of the recommendations outlined in Ambitious about Autism’s ‘Written Off?’ report and engages with Ambitious about Autism regularly, including testing the reforms set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan with them and other key autism stakeholders.

The department’s ambition is for all children and young people with SEND to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. They should achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives, and to experience choice and control.

In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, the department sets out a vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for the early and accurate identification of need and for 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
Department for Education: Environment Protection
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which policies under each arms length body reporting to their Department fall within the scope of the Environmental principles policy statement, published on 31 January 2023.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The Environmental Principles were introduced in the Environment Act 2021 and came into force on 1 November 2023. The purpose of the environmental principles is to guide Ministers and policymakers towards opportunities to prevent environmental damage and enhance the environment.

The Environmental Principles Policy Statement is a statutory document. The Environment Act requires a Minister of the Crown to have ‘due regard’ to this policy statement when making policy. The duty applies to all policy across government (not just environmental policy) subject to limited exemptions laid out in section 19 (3) of the Environment Act for the armed forces, defence or national security, taxation, spending or the allocation of resources within government.

Policymaking is typically undertaken by government departments making policy on behalf of Ministers of the Crown. Some of the department’s arm’s length bodies may also develop policy for Ministers. In those instances, their policymaking would be in scope of this duty. However, in most cases these arm’s length bodies are not developing or making government policy and would therefore be out of scope of the duty. The duty does not require the department to maintain a comprehensive list of policies within scope of the duty. Each arm’s length body is responsible for determining whether the policies it develops are in scope of the duty and for providing appropriate advice to Ministers.

The environmental principles policy statement provides further information on what is considered policy in scope of the duty. Examples include strategies and frameworks.


Written Question
Childcare
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative estimate of the number of children in the age range 9 months to 4 years old with the number of childcare places in each local authority area.

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

The department does not hold this information in the form requested.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England to ensure they have sufficient places to meet their requirements.


Written Question
Natural History: GCSE
Friday 1st December 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress she has made on the implementation of plans for students to be offered a Natural History GCSE by September 2025; and when she plans to publish details of the proposed consultation on subject content for that GCSE.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department is working closely with exam boards and subject experts to develop draft subject content for the natural history GCSE. We expect to launch the consultation in early 2024, ensuring it is of the highest quality and can meet regulatory standards.


Written Question
Educational Psychology
Friday 17th November 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the value for money provided by educational psychologists; whether she has had recent discussions with the Association of Educational Psychologists’ on recruitment and retention within the profession; and if she will make it her policy to ensure local authorities are provided with sufficient funding to increase recruitment and retention rates.

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

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. This was evidenced in a recent research report on the workforce, commissioned by the department and published by Warwick Institute of Employment Research and Ecorys, in June 2023. This is why the department is investing a further £21 million to fund the training of a further 400 educational psychologists from 2024.

The department regularly engages with stakeholders, including the Association of Educational Psychologists, on issues relating to the educational psychology workforce. With regards to funding, it is the responsibility of employers to decide what is affordable within their overall resources. The majority of government funding is not ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities.


Written Question
Schools: Finance
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, what discussions she has had with (a) local authorities and (b) school leaders' representatives on the potential impact of revision to the sums allocated under the national funding formula on schools' budget planning for the next academic year; if she will make it her policy to ensure that each school is allocated at least the same value of funding as announced in July 2023; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department informed Local Authorities and academy trusts of the republished National Funding Formula (NFF) on 6 October 2023, alongside the publication of the corrected NFF allocations.

The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise. The Secretary of State has asked the Permanent Secretary to conduct an independent and external review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the NFF.

The Department has already held a series of discussions with Local Authorities and school representatives to discuss the operational implications of the error. The Department is continuing to work closely with school stakeholders to communicate this change and support schools to manage their budgets.

The Government is continuing to deliver, in full, the total level of core funding for mainstreams schools and high needs that has been promised. It will remain over £59.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This is the highest ever funding for schools in our history in real terms per pupil.

Schools have not yet received their 2024/25 funding, so the correction of this error does not mean adjusting any funding that schools have already received. The NFF allocations published by the Department are notional. These figures are subject to change based on the October census, which was collected on 5 October 2023. Local authorities’ final allocations will be published in December as part of their Dedicated Schools Grant and schools are not provided their definitive budgets until the following calendar year: typically in February for maintained schools and March for academies.


Written Question
Climate Change: Education
Tuesday 18th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2023 to Question 190556 on Climate Change: Education, what her planned timeframe is for publishing the progress report on the implementation of the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy.

Answered by Nick Gibb

As committed to in the Department’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, the Department will produce a progress report on the implementation of this strategy. The report is anticipated to be published in December this year.


Written Question
Climate Change: Education
Monday 10th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to deliver on the commitment of the former Secretary of State for Education at COP26 on the integration of sustainability and climate change in formal education systems.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department published the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for the education and children’s service systems in April 2022. The link can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems.

It sets out action to 2030 on: climate education, green skills and careers, the education estate and digital infrastructure, operations and supply chains, and international. This action will be evaluated and built on as new opportunities and evidence arise. The strategy covers each of the Department’s sectors: early years, schools, further education, higher education, and children social care. It sets out new initiatives, including extra support for teaching about nature and climate change, the introduction of a natural history GCSE and sustainability leadership and climate action plans in education.

Links for the two latter initiatives can be found at: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/national-impact/national-education-nature-park-and-climate-action-awards-scheme.html and: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sustainability-leadership-and-climate-action-plans-in-education.​


Written Question
Teachers: Pay
Friday 7th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how school leaders can set budgets for the next school year without (a) the information on pay for leaders and teachers contained in the School Teachers’ Review Body report and (b) a response from Government on funding for the report’s recommendations on pay; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department understands the timing of the national pay award announcement presents budgeting challenges for schools. The Department is continuing to work across Government to ensure announcements are made as early as possible. This year, the Department has allowed trusts more time to prepare their budgets by extending the deadline to 31 August 2023 for the Budget Forecast Return (BFR) that academies are required to provide, setting out their budget plans.

Following unions’ rejection of the Government’s 4.5% offer in March 2023, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted its recommendations to government on teacher pay for the 2023/24 academic year, as part of the normal process. The Department will be considering the recommendations and will publish our response in the usual way.

Funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including the additional funding announced at the Autumn Statement, is £3.5 billion higher in the 2023/24 financial year, compared to 2022/23. This is the highest ever level per pupil, in real terms, as measured by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The Department provides these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead, including to teacher pay. As usual, schools should plan for how teacher pay awards could be managed within this existing funding.

The Department’s position remains that a 4% teacher pay award should be affordable, nationally, from the funding increases already promised to schools, as set out in an Education Hub post published at the time, which can be found at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/28/teacher-strikes-latest-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-teacher-pay-offer/.

It would be sensible for schools to consider the range of possible scenarios on pay that might materialise, and what the implications would be for their individual school.