Education
Debate between Catherine West and Nick Gibb(5 years, 1 month ago)
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Nick Gibb
My hon. Friend should be reassured that they will be very exceptional circumstances. For example, if a child has experienced a sexual incident, perhaps with another child, or inappropriate touching, a headteacher may decide not to grant the request. The key point is, however, that it will be the circumstances of the child and not the views of the headteacher that will lead to that decision.
We could not have retained the right to withdraw as it currently stands, because an absolute parental right up to the point when the child is 18 years old is no longer compatible with English case law and the European convention on human rights. However, we have delivered on our commitment to maintain a right for parents to withdraw their children from sex education that is also compatible with the law.
We are committed to ensuring that every school will have the support that it needs to deliver these subjects to a high and consistent quality. We will therefore be investing in tools that will improve schools’ practice, such as a supplementary guide to support the delivery of the content set out in the guidance, targeted support on materials and training. As I said to the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), we have up to £6 million to invest in the development of those tools this year. We are also encouraging as many schools as possible to start teaching the subjects from September 2019, so that we can learn lessons and share good practice ahead of compulsory teaching.
Nick Gibb
I will not, because I am about to finish my speech.
We believe that our proposals are a landmark step. They will bring existing guidance into the 21st century, and will introduce new content that will help to equip children and young people with the knowledge that they need to form healthy relationships, lead healthy lives and be happy and safe in the world. I commend them to the House.
School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2018
Debate between Catherine West and Nick Gibb(6 years, 1 month ago)
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Nick Gibb
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I am pleased to be able to discuss the school and early years finance regulations at a time when local authorities are about to receive their first grant payments calculated by the national funding formula—an historic and necessary reform.
The regulations set out how local authorities should distribute between local schools the £33.7 billion of funding that they collectively receive through the schools block of the dedicated schools grant. Before I turn to the regulations, it is important to place them in the context of the historic change that the Government have made to the broader funding system. The introduction of the national funding formula means that, for the first time, this £33.7 billion of funding will be distributed between local authorities based on the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country.
The Government are determined to create an education system that offers opportunity to everyone at every stage of their lives. That is the key to raising standards for all and improving social mobility. We are making significant progress: more schools than ever before are rated good or outstanding, the attainment gap is beginning to close and we have launched 12 opportunity areas to drive improvement in parts of the country that we know can do better. However, those achievements have been made against the backdrop of the old, unfair funding system, which we have reformed. Under the old system, schools across the country with similar pupil characteristics have received markedly different levels of funding for no good reason.
Catherine West
Will the Minister explain whether more schools being rated as good or outstanding, which is happening in many of our constituencies, is linked to a higher rate of exclusions?
Nick Gibb
We have launched an exclusions review, conducted by our former colleague, Ed Timpson. He will look at precisely those issues. We actually raised the bar for Ofsted’s judgments on schools. Despite our raising the bar for academic standards, we are still seeing more schools rated as good or outstanding.
In the hon. Lady’s constituency of Hornsey and Wood Green, schools would attract 0.9% more funding if the national funding formula were implemented in full, based on the 2017-18 data. Under the national funding formula, schools in Hornsey and Wood Green will be funded at £5,671 per pupil, compared with the national average of £4,655 per pupil.
Catherine West
In that case, will he direct two schools that insist on closing at 1 pm on a Friday, which parents have raised with me as an issue, to open their gates until 3 pm?
Nick Gibb
I am coming to the hon. Lady’s question. Given that schools in Hornsey and Wood Green are being funded at significantly more than the national average, and given that the vast majority of schools are not doing the things she talks about, there is no reason for schools in her constituency to take that action.
Across the country, schools with similar pupil characteristics have received markedly different levels of funding. That is why our promise to reform this unfair, opaque and outdated school and high needs funding system and introduce a national funding formula has been so important, and I am particularly pleased that this Government were able to deliver on that.
This reform represents the biggest improvement in the school funding system for more than a decade. From April 2018, the introduction of the national funding formula will put the funding system firmly on track to deliver resources on a consistent and transparent basis, based on the individual circumstances of every school in the country. Following extensive consultation, in which we carefully considered more than 25,000 individual responses to our proposals, last September we were able to publish full details of the school and high needs national funding formulae and the impact they will have on every local authority.
Those proposals were underpinned by an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the funding confirmed at the 2015 spending review. School funding is at a record high because of the choices we have made to prioritise school funding, even as we faced difficult decisions elsewhere to restore our country’s finances.
Nick Gibb
I will come to the cost pressures that schools have faced in the last two years, particularly the increase in the employers’ contribution to teachers’ pensions—we regard teachers’ pensions as very important—and the higher level of the employers’ national insurance contribution. Again, the higher employers’ national insurance contribution is about raising more tax revenue to help close the historic deficit we inherited. Achieving the reduction of that deficit to 2% of national income, from 10% when we came into office, has enabled us to maintain a strong economy. We acknowledge that there have been cost pressures on schools in that period. Those cost pressures have now been absorbed and schools will see real-terms increases across the board in their funding, taken as a whole.
Catherine West
The Minister is extremely generous in giving way to me a second time. Will he comment on the increase to NHS staff today? Will we hear a further announcement in a few months’ time that there may be more money for teachers, given that there tends to be a knock-on effect when one public sector group gets a pay increase? Not that any arguments were won last June, I hasten to add.
Nick Gibb
The hon. Lady raises an important point. We have given evidence to the School Teachers Review Body; the Secretary of State gave oral evidence a week ago. We will receive its recommendations, I think, in May and we will respond to them then. It is important that these issues are dealt with by independent pay review bodies.
With the additional £1.3 billion that we were able to identify last summer, we have been able to ensure that all schools and all areas will attract some additional funding over the next two years while providing for up to 6% gains per pupil for the most underfunded schools. That significant extra spending in our schools demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that each child receives a world-class education. The hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East cited our manifesto; we have gone further than our manifesto commitment that no school should lose funding as a result of the national funding formula. Now, every school in every area will attract at least 0.5% more per pupil in 2018-19 than it received in 2017-18, and 1% more in 2019-20.
We also heard throughout our consultation on the formula that we could do more through our formula to support those schools that attract the lowest levels of per pupil funding. We listened to those concerns, and our formula rightly will direct significant increases towards those schools. In 2019-20, the formula will provide minimum per pupil funding of £4,800 in respect of every secondary school, and £3,500 in respect of primaries. In 2018-19, as a step towards those levels, secondary schools will attract at least £4,600, and primary schools £3,300. These new minimum levels recognise the challenges of the very lowest funded schools.
There was considerable debate during the consultation on the funding formula about how much funding it was appropriate to direct towards schools with higher numbers of pupils likely to need additional support—I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support for that element of the national funding formula—as a result of a disadvantaged background, low prior attainment, or because they speak English as an additional language. In our final formula, we have been able to protect this funding—£5.9 billion in 2018-19—while improving its targeting. Alongside that, we will continue to deliver the pupil premium— some £2.5 billion a year—to provide additional support to schools to narrow the attainment gaps and to promote social mobility. As I mentioned earlier, we have closed the attainment gap by 10% in both primary and secondary schools since 2011.
The dedicated schools grant provides local authorities with funding for their high needs provision and for early years. We are absolutely committed to supporting children who face the greatest barriers to their education. That is why we have also reformed the funding for children and young people with high needs, by introducing a high needs national funding formula. That will distribute funding for children and young people with high needs more fairly, based on accepted indicators of need in each area.
The additional spending that we have announced means that every local authority will see a minimum increase in high needs funding of 0.5% in 2018-19, and 1% in 2019-20. Underfunded local authorities will receive gains of up to 3% per head a year for the next two years. Overall, local authorities will receive £6 billion to support those with high needs in 2018-19. We are also determined to support as many families as possible with access to high-quality, affordable childcare. That is why in 2019-20 we will spend a further £6 billion on childcare support—a record amount of support. This record spending includes £1 billion a year, delivering 30 hours of free childcare for the working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds and funding the increase in rates that we introduced in April 2017.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Catherine West and Nick Gibb(6 years, 6 months ago)
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Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
The Minister mentioned children of all backgrounds. What is the funding allocation for the coming academic year for counselling services and help for transgender children, which the charity Stonewall describes as being in a seriously bad state?