Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the total (a) value and (b) number of grants and funding awarded via competitive bidding processes by her Department in each of the last four years; and how many competitive bidding applications have been received by her Department in each of the last four years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department uses a competitive application process for general grants by default, wherever possible and appropriate. This is to encourage innovation, reduce reliance on incumbent organisations, drive value for money, and maximise outcomes. Competition for grant funding can be via a challenge fund, where organisations compete for a portion of the available funding, in line with application guidance, or via a more traditional competition where organisations compete against each other through the submission of a delivery proposal for a single award of funding. The value and volume of competed general grant schemes for the Department is available for the 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 financial years at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-data-and-statistics. Data relating to the 2021/22 financial year will be published in March 2023.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department’s press release of 2 April 2022, Infants, children and families to benefit from boost in support, when the 75 local authorities announced as eligible for Family Hubs funding will be contacted and provided with further details on next steps.
Answered by Will Quince
Since the announcement on 2 April 2022, the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care officials have been engaging with nominated officers from the 75 eligible local authorities. Departmental officials held a series of webinars and focus groups to provide an overview of the programme, and to respond to questions. The discussions were also used to seek information and views from the local authority officers on various elements of the detailed programme design, to ensure that the funding is used effectively.
Local authorities have been provided with a dedicated email address where they can contact departmental officials working on the programme. Local authorities will receive further detailed information once this process concludes.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on raising the eligibility threshold for free school meals in the forthcoming Food Strategy White Paper; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The department continues to work closely with other departments across government in considering eligibility for free school meals (FSM). This has included working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy. The Government Food Strategy White Paper will be published in due course.
As set out previously, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.
The department is also permanently extending FSM eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the estimate by the Child Poverty Action Group, North East Child Poverty Commission and Children North East that one in four children living in poverty in the North East do not qualify for means-tested free school meals under the current eligibility criteria; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The department continues to work closely with other departments across government in considering eligibility for free school meals (FSM). This has included working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy. The Government Food Strategy White Paper will be published in due course.
As set out previously, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.
The department is also permanently extending FSM eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate the Government has made of the proportion of children living in families with (a) very low food security and (b) low food security, according the definitions of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, who are not eligible to receive means-tested free school meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The department continues to work closely with other departments across government in considering eligibility for free school meals (FSM). This has included working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy. The Government Food Strategy White Paper will be published in due course.
As set out previously, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.
The department is also permanently extending FSM eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of experiencing (a) very low food security and (b) low food security, as defined by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on educational attainment; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Under benefits-related criteria, the department provide a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished, and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.
Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times, including through the introduction of universal infant free school meals, and further education free school meals.
The department are permanently extending free school meal eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Whilst take-up of free school meals is strong, we want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.
To support this, the department provides an eligibility checking system to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals. We continue to explore ways that the verification process can be improved.
As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason his Department does not use data held by the Department for Work and Pensions to automatically register all pupils eligible for means-tested free school meals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Under benefits-related criteria, the department provide a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished, and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.
Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times, including through the introduction of universal infant free school meals, and further education free school meals.
The department are permanently extending free school meal eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Whilst take-up of free school meals is strong, we want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.
To support this, the department provides an eligibility checking system to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals. We continue to explore ways that the verification process can be improved.
As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate that 900,000 children living below the poverty line in England do not qualify for free school meals under the current eligibility criteria, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department’s definition of disadvantaged pupils; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Under benefits-related criteria, the department provide a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished, and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.
Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times, including through the introduction of universal infant free school meals, and further education free school meals.
The department are permanently extending free school meal eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.
Whilst take-up of free school meals is strong, we want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.
To support this, the department provides an eligibility checking system to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals. We continue to explore ways that the verification process can be improved.
As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children from families with no recourse to public funds are currently receiving means-tested free school meals as a result of the temporary extension to those children in (a) England and (b) the North East.
Answered by Will Quince
The department will be extending free school meal (FSM) eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds (NRPF). More information on this can be found in written statement HCWS714, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-24/hcws714.
Information on the number of children who received a free meal, and attracted pupil premium funding under the temporary extension of FSM eligibility to some NRPF households in the 2021/22 financial year can be found in the third document here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2021-to-2022.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2021 to Question 88857 on Free School Meals: Migrants, when he expects his Department’s evaluation of access to free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds to be completed.
Answered by Will Quince
The department will be extending free school meal (FSM) eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds (NRPF). More information on this can be found in written statement HCWS714, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-24/hcws714.
Information on the number of children who received a free meal, and attracted pupil premium funding under the temporary extension of FSM eligibility to some NRPF households in the 2021/22 financial year can be found in the third document here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2021-to-2022.