Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department collects data on the amount spent by local authorities on taxis used to transport children with an education, health and care plan to and from school.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government does not collect the specific information requested. The legal responsibility for providing free home-to-school travel for eligible pupils sits with local authorities, who will hold any data available on the amount spent on taxis for children with an Education, Health and Care plan.
However, the government does publish local authority expenditure data based on Section 251 outturn returns, which includes total expenditure on home-to-school travel for children of compulsory school age where the travel is agreed for reasons of the child’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Local authorities spent a total of £1.25 billion in the 2022/23 financial year on this type of home-to-school travel. The data is available via the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will review the financial support provided to foster carers in the context of the increases to the cost of living; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards’, issued by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, under the Care Standards Act 2000, set out the expectations that are placed on foster parents and their agencies. We are clear that no one should be ‘out of pocket’ because of their fostering role and we expect all foster parents to receive at least the national minimum allowance (NMA) plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them (standard 28).
The NMA is uprated annually, most recently in April 2022.
Foster carers also receive qualifying care relief that is made up of two parts: tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household and tax relief for every week a child is in their care.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether training organisations other than Further Education colleges offering English as an additional language (EAL) and LCL accredited qualifications can deliver courses under the Lifetime Skills Guarantee; and what guidance his Department has produced explaining how eligible training organisations register as a provider of courses through that Guarantee.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Lifetime Skills Guarantee which my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced in September 2020, promises to help people across England get the skills they need at every stage of their life as we build back better from COVID-19. We know that now, more than ever, we need to invest in adult skills and training.
As part of this, the Free Courses for Jobs offer gives an estimated 11 million adults in England who are 24 and over and do not yet have A levels or equivalent qualifications the opportunity to take their first level 3 qualification for free. The courses available offer good wage outcomes and address skills needs in the economy, empowering adults with the tools they need to secure a better job.
Providers delivering to adult learners resident in areas not devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities or the Greater London Authority can deliver level 3 qualifications included in the Lifetime Skills Guarantee if they have received funding for this offer via the recent Adult Education Budget (AEB) procurement, or if they have received funding for the offer via an Education and Skills Funding Agency grant. Any providers with an AEB grant, who did not receive funding for the offer due to a lack of historic delivery, have been able to request funding for first time delivery.
Providers seeking to deliver the qualifications in areas with devolved or delegated adult education functions should contact the relevant Mayoral Combined Authority.
Further details about the performance management and funding arrangements for this policy can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1010290/AEB_2021_to_2022_funding_rules_v2_FINALAugust2021.pdf.
Also under the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer.
In January 2021, we launched a procurement process for a second wave of Skills Bootcamps to be delivered through the 2021/22 financial year. This was open until 12 February to further education providers, employers, and other sector bodies across England. We have carefully evaluated the bids submitted through this competitive process and selected the highest-quality projects to be awarded funding. The list of Skills Bootcamps is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/free-courses-for-jobs. We will continue to update it as new Skills Bootcamps become available.
For learners requiring English for Speakers of Other Languages provision, we fully fund or co-fund adults through the AEB for courses and qualifications from pre-entry through to level 2. Full funding is also available through the AEB for learners who need English and maths skills (and have not previously attained a GCSE grade 4 or higher) to undertake a range of courses from entry level to level 2; and for adult learners with no or low digital skills to undertake new Essential Digital Skills qualifications at entry level and level 1.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether FE and apprenticeship training providers are (a) required to close and (b) may open in specific circumstances during the national covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Further education (FE) providers will remain open for on-site attendance to vulnerable students and the children of critical workers.
A small number of FE students and apprentices who would otherwise be completing their courses or apprenticeships in January, February or March are able to attend where it is not possible for their training or assessment to be completed remotely.
This includes:
All other students will continue to learn remotely.
We will continue to review restrictions and will ensure that remaining students and apprentices return to face-to-face education as soon as possible.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking during the covid-19 outbreak to (a) help schools cover the additional costs incurred and (b) provide additional emergency funding to help meet exceptional costs that would otherwise have been met from schools' reserves where these have been exhausted during the covid-2019 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has provided a range of additional support to schools, on top of existing budgets, in relation the COVID-19 outbreak.
To cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July 2020, schools have been eligible to claim for funding for three specific categories of spend:
The Department has paid schools £102 million for all claims in the first claims window within the published scope of the fund, and we will shortly process claims made in the second window that was open in December.
In addition, last term the Department announced a COVID-19 Workforce Fund for schools and colleges, to help those with high staff absences and facing significant financial pressures to stay open. This has funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold between 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term. We expect the schools claims form to be launched in spring 2021.
The Department will fund school and colleges which have remained open for costs relating to testing. We will publish a replacement workforce planning tool which will illustrate the levels of funding available.
In addition, the Department has provided schools with extensive support for online education during the COVID-19 outbreak, and will spend £1 billion over the 2020/21 academic year so that schools can support pupils to catch up.
Schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of any periods of full or partial closure, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure they can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments. Schools should use these existing resources when making arrangements for this academic year.
Ministers and officials continue to engage regularly with school leaders and their representatives on a wide range of issues around COVID-19, including discussions in relation to costs faced by schools at this time.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will take into account the effect of covid-19 absences on each school teaching faculty when assessing GSCE and A-Level grades for school exam cohorts, in the context of varying regional rates of covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Government considers that exams cannot be held in a way which is fair. The Department has therefore announced that GCSE, AS and A level exams will not go ahead this summer as planned. To provide further clarity to the sector as soon as possible, Ofqual and the Department have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly ensure all young people are supported to progress to the next stage of their lives.
The Department has confirmed our proposal that, in summer 2021, pupils taking GCSE, AS and A levels regulated by Ofqual should be awarded grades based on an assessment by their teachers. To ensure that grades this year remain meaningful, we propose that they should be based on teachers’ assessments of the evidence of the standard at which their pupils are performing. Grades should indicate pupils’ demonstrated knowledge, understanding and skills.
The Department knows that there has been learning loss, and that some pupils have suffered more disruption to their learning than others. The Department wants pupils to be assessed on the content they have covered and to recognise loss of learning. We propose that there will be flexibility for teachers in what they assess students on. If externally set papers are used, we propose that teachers should also have some choice of the topics on which their students could answer questions. The same principle could apply in assessments conducted by the school or college, while ensuring sufficient breadth of content coverage so as not to limit progression.
In December 2020, the Department confirmed the launch of an expert advisory group to consider the differential impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on pupils and recommend mitigations for these impacts. In light of the decision to cancel exams, the Department is refocusing this group and is working to finalise the terms of reference and membership. We will ensure that membership is representative of the sector and is geographically diverse. Further details on membership and priorities of the group will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing people who have lost their job during the covid-19 pandemic to access Further Education foundation courses at the start of the January 2021 term; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We want to ensure that a wide range of opportunities are available to people of all ages to meet their future skills needs. We have introduced a number of additional measures this year to support that ambition, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In April, we introduced the Skills Toolkit, an online platform which is already providing free courses to help individuals build the skills that are most sought after by employers. We have recently expanded the platform so that people can now choose from over 70 courses, covering digital, adult numeracy, employability and work readiness skills, which have been identified as the skills employers need the most. These courses will help people stay in work, or take up new jobs and opportunities.
In July, the Plan for Jobs was announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which includes incentives for employers to take on new apprentices, including those over 25, and an additional £17 million to triple the number of sector-based work academy programme (SWAP) placements in 2020/21, enough funding to support an extra 40,000 job seekers with additional training opportunities and the chance of a job.
In September, the Lifetime Skills Guarantee was announced by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister. It is aimed at adults, including those that have become unemployed, and measures include fully funding adults’ first full level 3 qualification and new digital bootcamps which will be available in 6 areas across the country from January. The bootcamp training courses will provide valuable skills based on employer demand and are linked to real job opportunities, helping participants to land jobs and employers to fill much-needed vacancies. We are planning to expand the bootcamps to more of the country from spring 2021 and we want to extend this model to include other technical skills training.
These measures will be funded by the £2.5 billion investment (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations), for the National Skills Fund to help adults learn valuable skills and prepare for the economy of the future. The guarantee also includes a Lifelong Loan Entitlement to provide individuals with an entitlement to 4 years of loan funding to use over their lifetime.
Anyone who becomes unemployed for whatever reason, is able to access a range of provision to meet their future skills needs, and funding for this will depend on age and prior attainment.
Our funding rules allow for flexibility in course delivery and it is up to individual colleges to determine enrolment times for students accessing their provision.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) steps he is taking and (b) guidance he has issued to ensure that drama schools that provide training as part of a recognised qualification can open for the teaching of coursework during the November 2020 period of covid-19 lockdown restrictions; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On Saturday 31 October 2020, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced New National Restrictions from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December to control the spread of COVID-19. On 4 November, the Department for Education published guidance for education and childcare settings on the impact of these restrictions. The guidance can be found through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020.
Schools that provide a full-time education should continue to remain open for all children and young people, as they have since the start of the autumn term, for the duration of the New National Restrictions. This includes schools that specialise in in drama, music and/or performing arts, such as Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire or the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon.
Where provision is taking place outside of school, this provision should only operate where the provision is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work, or attend education or training, or where the provision is used for the purposes of respite care, including for vulnerable children. This includes provision by supplementary schools offering drama, music or performing arts activities for children and young people on a part-time basis.
Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education (which can include supplementary schools, tuition centres or private tutors) may also continue to operate.
All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes, should close for face-to-face provision but can offer remote education for the duration of the New National Restrictions.
Exams and other assessments for regulated qualifications, including regulated qualifications in the performing arts, can go ahead during the restrictions, so long as they are conducted in line with the public health guidance on autumn exams and the guidance specified by the relevant awarding organisation. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responsibility-for-autumn-gcse-as-and-a-level-exam-series/public-health-arrangements-for-autumn-exams.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of restricting the exam curriculum for (a) GCSE and (b) A-Levels taken in Summer 2021 to reflect the attendance levels during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is a priority for the Department that there is a consistent approach to what is taught and will be assessed across schools. We know schools will be making every effort, including in areas where there is a high prevalence of COVID-19, to deliver high quality teaching, including through remote education. All schools are expected to plan to ensure any pupils educated at home for some of the time are given the support they need to master the curriculum and make good progress.
Changes to assessments in certain subjects, announced by Ofqual over the summer, will give schools and colleges extra time to plan teaching, and pupils extra time to study. The outcome of Ofqual’s consultation on summer 2021 exams is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-assessment-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2021.
The Department will continue to work with Ofqual and engage widely with the education sector to identify risks to examinations at a national, local, and individual student level, and to consider measures needed to address any potential disruption. This could, for example, be a student unable to sit examinations, or schools affected by a local outbreak. More details will be published shortly.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will amend the guidance on the teaching of music in private homes during the covid-19 outbreak to ensure that it includes the private home of the (a) student and (b) teacher, and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Music teachers providing one-to-one tuition outside of a school or college setting are advised to provide tutoring online where possible. Where online lessons are not reasonably possible, face-to-face provision is permitted in specific circumstances.
As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on new national restrictions from 5 November, out of school activities such as private tuition may continue to operate during the period of national restrictions, whether in a student’s home or a teacher’s home. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss. Teachers who are operating out of their own homes or private studios should ensure they are only being accessed for face to face provision by parents if their primary purpose is registered childcare, or where they are providing other activities for children, where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work, undertake training or education, or for the purposes of respite care.
Tutoring that is primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education (which could include, for example, private tutors) may also continue to operate for face to face provision for the duration of the national restrictions.
Tutors that continue to operate face-to-face provision during this period should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in the protective measures for holiday clubs and after-school clubs and other out-of-school clubs for children during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak guidance, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. Providers operating out of other people’s homes should also implement the guidance on working safely in other people’s homes, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.