Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department has been a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) member since 2017 and has ‘DCS Leader’ status. In line with the requirements of DCS, the department has supported staff with career progression through, for example, ‘Beyond Boundaries’, which is a cross-government, development programme and has ensured that its approach to recruitment is inclusive.
The department does not have officials directly supporting the DCS. The principle of the scheme is to be embedded within the department’s internal Human Resource polices and processes.
The department’s Diversity & Inclusion Strategy 2022/2026 is driven by evidence of where to support staff, including those with disabilities. The department evaluates the impact of this strategy annually to identify areas for improvement and celebrate success.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
In the NDS, the department committed to providing an additional £730 million of ongoing revenue funding for children and young people with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and this has now been fully implemented. In the 2022/23 financial year, there have been further increases to the department’s high needs funding, which has risen by 24% in two years to over £10 billion this financial year. This goes further than our NDS commitment of £8 billion per year and represents an increase of over 50% in the four-year period since the 2019/20 financial year. In the NDS, the department committed to opening 59 new special free schools for children with complex SEND. The department has gone further than this. As of 1 April 2023, there are 93 open special free schools and 51 open Alternative Provision (AP) free schools. There are a further 48 special schools in the pipeline.
The department also committed to increasing capital investment to support the provision of high needs places. On 2 March 2023, as part of the announcement of the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, the department announced 33 new special free schools in phase 1 of the latest special free school wave.
In November 2022, the department announced funding worth £21 million to go towards training 400 more educational psychologists. Being partially implemented, this new funding from 2024 builds on the £9.3 million stated in the NDS.
The department’s Participation Contract supports the continued improvement of co-production at a national, local, and international level. As part of this, we empower children and young people with SEND and their families to influence SEND Policy. This contract is a three-year contract running from April 2022, ending in March 2025. The total cost of the contract is £18 million which includes consortium, grant, and the strategic reform partnership contract. Being partially implemented, this goes further than the department’s commitment in the NDS, where we said we would provide £8.6 million in the 2021/22 financial year to support involvement of families.
As per our commitment in the NDS to improve supported internships in England, this is being partially implemented. The government is committed to supporting pathways to employment for disabled learners, including through strengthening the Supported Internship Programme. The department is investing £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with Education, Health and Care Plans into employment. Furthermore, in the NDS, the department committed creating an Access to Work Adjustments Passport, which will help to smooth the transition into employment and support people changing jobs, including people with SEND. This is now partially implemented, as the Department for Education works with the Department for Work and Pensions to pilot this scheme.
The department remains fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the department will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation, due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, my hon. Friend, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, by what date the PE and sport premiums for schools for 2021-22 academic year are planned to be announced.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is aware of the importance of giving schools as much notice as possible of future funding. We will confirm arrangements for the Primary physical education and sport premium for the 2021/22 academic year as soon as possible.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what metrics he has used to determine the effectiveness of school sports premiums.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Primary PE and Sport Premium survey, published in July 2019, assessed the impact of the doubling of the PE and Sport Premium to £320 million from September 2017.
The findings indicated that a large majority of schools identified that, following the doubling of the premium, there had been increases in the profile of PE and sport in supporting whole school improvement, the confidence, knowledge and/or skills of all staff in teaching PE, the level of competitive sport being offered, and the range of PE and sport being offered.
The detailed findings can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-pe-and-sport-premium-survey.
In addition, local Active Partnerships conduct an annual review of a large sample of schools’ uses of their PE and Sport Premium including impact, and report the results of this review to the Department.