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 report by Magic Breakfast entitled Hidden Hunger - The State of UK Breakfast Provision 2022, published April 2022, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of that report's findings; if she will make it her policy to expand the National School Breakfast Programme to cover all disadvantaged pupils; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to continuing support for school breakfasts. In November 2022, the Department extended the National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) to the end of the summer term 2024. The Department is allocating £30 million of funding in this programme. This funding will support up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn. Schools are eligible for the programme if they have 40% or more pupils from deprived households, as measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.
Family Action estimates that 270,000 children are currently receiving a breakfast from the NSBP on an average school day. The NSBP is undertaking data collection with all participating schools and relevant data will be published in due course.
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 15 December 2022 to Question 105315 on Natural History: GCSE, if she will provide a timeline for her plans for consulting and agreeing subject content, requirements and guidelines for the proposed GCSE in Natural History; whether it is still the case that she plans for first teaching to be available in schools from September 2025; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to developing the new natural history GCSE and ensuring it is of the highest standard.
The Department continues to work closely with exam boards, subject experts, and Ofqual to develop the draft subject content for the natural history GCSE. The Department plans to consult publicly on this draft content in the coming months, before finalising the high quality subject content later this year.
The Department intends for first teaching to be available from 2025.
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 response to the Urgent Question on 24 January 2023 on Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children, Official Report column 861, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity issues referred to including the lack of (a) foster carers, (b) trained social workers and (c) local authority children’s home places; if she will quantify that assessment on a national basis; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is committed to ensuring that all Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children accommodated in hotels by the Home Office are transferred through the National Transfer Scheme to the care of a local authority as quickly as possible. The department is also committed to ensuring that capacity challenges in local authorities are addressed, including through our forthcoming response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
The department knows that the right type of foster care may not always be available at the time or in the areas it is needed, and that there is significant variability across regions of England. We also know that it is particularly difficult to find suitable foster homes for some groups of children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The department recognises the urgency of action in placement sufficiency and will work with local authorities on recruiting more foster carers and on improving the conversion rate from expressions of interest to approval. This will include local recruitment campaigns that build towards a national programme, to help ensure children have access to the right placements at the right time.
It is encouraging to note that the number of children and family social workers in the workforce is increasing every year. This number has increased by more than 14% from 28,500 in 2017, to 32,500 in 2021. The department is working closely with local authorities to recognise and understand workforce pressures. The department is also using central programmes and funding to respond to local authority needs. Over the current spending review period, we will continue to invest more than £50 million every year on recruiting, training, and developing social workers to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills, and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.
The department is supporting local authorities to meet their statutory duties through £259 million of capital funding over the next Parliament. This will help to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes, providing high-quality, safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people across England.
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 2 December 2022 to Question 98806 on Foster Care: Finance, if she will make an assessment of the financial impact on foster parents of not uprating the national minimum fostering allowance in line with September 2022 consumer prices index inflation; what mechanisms are in place to determine the adequate level of uprating necessary to ensure that no one suffers financially because of their fostering role; if she will make it her policy to uprate the national minimum fostering allowance in line with September 2022 consumer prices index inflation; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
Foster parents deserve high quality support to provide safe and loving homes for children in their care. The department is working with stakeholders to understand the impact of financial pressures on foster carers, particularly in the context of the cost of living. The department is also in the process of looking at the annual uplift to the national minimum allowance (NMA), with the next update to come into effect in April 2023. The NMA is not considered a wage or income for the foster parent but money to support the child in the family.
It is the responsibility of fostering service providers to set their own payment structures in accordance with local needs, using the NMA. This includes reviewing their rates each year and setting out a clear policy on what payments their foster carers can expect. This policy should include how other necessary expenses are covered for the care, education, and reasonable leisure interests for any child living with them in a fostering placement and any additional fees that the foster carer is entitled to. In 2021, the department wrote to any local authority that failed to provide the NMA.
Foster carers can also benefit from reformed tax and benefit allowances which ensure they receive the best support for their individual financial circumstances, in recognition of their role. As with all aspects of the tax system, the government will keep tax reliefs under review and any decisions on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on (a) plans to develop a GCSE in Natural History and (b) that GCSE being taught in schools from 2025.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department plans to introduce a GCSE in Natural History, provided that it meets the requirements that apply to all GCSEs. Officials are currently working with the four exam boards, Ofqual, and two independent advisors, to deliver the new Natural History GCSE subject content.
The Department intends to consult publicly on the draft subject content in 2023, and for first teaching to be available in schools from September 2025.
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 10 November 2022 to Question 77588 on Students: Cost of Living, if she will make it her policy to increase the maximum loans and grants for student living costs in line with the consumer price index of September 2022 for the (a) remaining period of the 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 academic year; if she will increase maintenance loan thresholds to reflect changes to the family income for students who are not eligible to apply for their entitlement to be reassessed in the 2022-23 academic year; if she will increase (i) student premium funding and (ii) hardship funds available to universities; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other government departments to provide support to students. Decisions on student finance will have to be taken alongside other spending priorities, to ensure the system remains financially sustainable.
The decisions on student support for higher education courses are taken on an annual basis and changes for the 2022/23 academic year were made through regulations laid in December 2021.
The government is currently considering options for changes to loans and grants for living and other costs for the 2023/24 academic year. An announcement will follow in due course.
There is £261 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support disadvantaged students who need additional help. The department has worked with the Office for Students to ensure universities support students in hardship, including by drawing on the student premium.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to provide free school meals to every child up to the age of 16 in state education; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Under benefits-related criteria, the department provides a free, healthy meal to around 1.9 million children, ensuring they are well-nourished and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.
This government has extended eligibility for FSM several times and to more groups of children. This includes the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.
In addition to this, the temporary extension of FSM eligibility to some groups with no recourse to public funds that had been in place since 2020 was extended to all groups and made permanent from Easter this year, subject to income thresholds.
The department thinks it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work, or on the lowest incomes. We do not have any plans to extend universal provision, but the department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.
The government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. Through the Household Support Fund, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what has been provided since October 2021. This brings the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. This helps those in most need with payments towards the rising cost of food, energy, and water.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of how the number of finally unplaced young people at the end of the 2022 university admission round will compare to years prior to the covid-19 outbreak; if she will make it her policy to (a) fund additional and specific careers guidance and pastoral support, (b) make available an additional year of full further education funding, (c) provide additional access provision in Higher Education and (d) undertake any other measures needed to support young people in that position; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) operates as an independent charity and is separate from the government. The department will continue to work closely with UCAS, schools, colleges, awarding organisations, and the higher education (HE) sector to support the 2022 intake of students, so they can go on to their next step in life, whether that is university, further training, or work.
In November 2021, my right hon. Friend, the former Minister for Higher and Further Education, wrote to Vice Chancellors to recognise the hard work and dedication that the sector has shown to students throughout the 2021 and 2022 admissions cycles. The former Minister asked that additional resilience is built into strategies for the 2022 HE admissions cycle. HE sector bodies were engaged through the HE Taskforce to commend them on their efforts to date and to ask that they continue to put students first.
In June 2022, UCAS reported that 281,500 UK 18-year-olds were holding a firm offer, up 7,000 on last year and the highest on record. UCAS expect more students than in previous years to gain a place at their firm choice institution. It expects that on A level and T Level Results Day the majority of students are likely to be confirmed at their firm choice. However, it is important to note that the exact numbers will not be known until 18 August, A level and T Level Results Day.
If students do not get the required grades, their preferred HE provider may still offer them a place. In the first instance, students are encouraged to talk to their school or college, or to their preferred university, who may be able to offer some flexibility. Students can also seek advice from the Exam Results Helpline run by the National Careers Service. UCAS will help thousands of students to find places through Clearing or explore other options once they have received their grades and predict that over 30,000 courses will be available. Last year, 56,225 students (10%) entered university via Clearing.
While HE opens many doors for those who study at this level, it is by no means the right option for everyone, including those with the highest grades. There are multiple options for students to progress, including HE but also traineeships, T Levels, apprenticeships, the Kickstart scheme, and higher technical qualifications.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether UCAS plans to analyse its data to track young people who (a) receive lower A Level grades in the 2021-22 academic year than predicted as a result of their academic performance having been adversely affected by lockdown and other restrictions introduced to prevent the spread of covid-19 during 2020 and 2021 and (b) will consequently be without any Higher Education place at the end of the 2022 admission round; what discussions she has had with UCAS on steps to take to support young people in that position; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) operates as an independent charity and is separate from the government. The department will continue to work closely with UCAS, schools, colleges, awarding organisations, and the higher education (HE) sector to support the 2022 intake of students, so they can go on to their next step in life, whether that is university, further training, or work.
In November 2021, my right hon. Friend, the former Minister for Higher and Further Education, wrote to Vice Chancellors to recognise the hard work and dedication that the sector has shown to students throughout the 2021 and 2022 admissions cycles. The former Minister asked that additional resilience is built into strategies for the 2022 HE admissions cycle. HE sector bodies were engaged through the HE Taskforce to commend them on their efforts to date and to ask that they continue to put students first.
In June 2022, UCAS reported that 281,500 UK 18-year-olds were holding a firm offer, up 7,000 on last year and the highest on record. UCAS expect more students than in previous years to gain a place at their firm choice institution. It expects that on A level and T Level Results Day the majority of students are likely to be confirmed at their firm choice. However, it is important to note that the exact numbers will not be known until 18 August, A level and T Level Results Day.
If students do not get the required grades, their preferred HE provider may still offer them a place. In the first instance, students are encouraged to talk to their school or college, or to their preferred university, who may be able to offer some flexibility. Students can also seek advice from the Exam Results Helpline run by the National Careers Service. UCAS will help thousands of students to find places through Clearing or explore other options once they have received their grades and predict that over 30,000 courses will be available. Last year, 56,225 students (10%) entered university via Clearing.
While HE opens many doors for those who study at this level, it is by no means the right option for everyone, including those with the highest grades. There are multiple options for students to progress, including HE but also traineeships, T Levels, apprenticeships, the Kickstart scheme, and higher technical qualifications.
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 May 2022 to Question 7964 on Free School Meals and Healthy Start Scheme: Universal Credit, if he will make it his policy to extend free school meals to everyone who receives Universal Credit; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Under the benefits-related criteria, the department provides a free, healthy meal to around 1.9 million children, ensuring pupils are well nourished and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.
Eligibility has been extended several times, and to more groups of children, than any other government over the past half a century. This includes the introduction of universal infant free school meals and further education free school meals.
The department has permanently extended eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds.
Schools fund benefit-related free school meals (FSM) from their core funding, which they receive through the schools block of the dedicated schools grant. This is derived from the national funding formula (NFF). For the 2022/23 financial year, the funding schools attract through the FSM factor in the NFF is increasing to £470 per eligible pupil.
The department is committed to aiming provision at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work, or those on low income. The department will continue to keep all FSM eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.