Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce the risk of schools in disadvantaged areas excluding pupils from Turing Scheme-funded excursions due to the cap on funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the current academic year of the Turing Scheme, we applied a cap to the funding that schools could apply for. Schools could receive funding of up to £50,000 for a single application or, applying as a consortium, up to £50,000 per school to a maximum of £300,000. This will limit how many schools are required to replan their intended placements. Setting a limit means that we can offer schools more certainty that they can be awarded the funding they request, without concentrating the funding in the hands of too few schools.
An estimated 82% of school placements this year will be for students from a disadvantaged background. The proportion of students from a disadvantaged background in a school’s application is a key factor in deciding which applications are funded. More schools than ever before have applied for funding, with 485 applying compared to 333 last year.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what contingency plans his Department has in place to support schools during the transition period from the Turing Scheme to Erasmus+.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK and EU have agreed to work towards association to the Erasmus+ programme, on mutually agreed financial terms. Negotiations are underway and the terms of any association will be subject to further discussions. The department will have to consider the implications for other programmes, following the outcome of those discussions.
Details on the Turing Scheme for future years will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools in disadvantaged areas with applications to the Turing scheme; and what assessment she has made of the trends in the level of concern that the current design of the application process incentivises schools to outsource applications to profit-making enterprises.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In order to support schools, especially those in disadvantaged areas, the department provided guidance and webinars to enable potential applicants to find out more about the Turing Scheme, what it could offer their students and how to make their application. Since bringing management of the Turing service in-house for the 2024/25 academic year, in response to feedback from the education sector, the department introduced a streamlined digital application service that was co-designed. The service also includes simplified and shorter guidance and a grant calculator tool to help providers work out how much funding to apply for.
It is up to schools to decide whether they choose to use a third party to support them with an application or scheme administration. However, they cannot use Turing Scheme funding towards the cost of appointing an external organisation to write their application.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to simplify the process for Turing Scheme applications for schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since bringing management of the Turing Scheme in-house for the 2024/25 academic year, in response to feedback from the education sector, the department introduced a streamlined digital application service that was co-designed. The service also includes simplified and shorter guidance and a grant calculator tool to help providers work out how much funding to apply for.
We welcome feedback from providers throughout the year and make changes to the Scheme’s operation where possible to increase access to the opportunities it provides.