Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Government spent on encouraging (a) girls and (b) people from BAME backgrounds to pursue STEM careers in (i) 2021-22 and (ii) 2022-23.
Answered by Robert Halfon
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help encourage entrepreneurship amongst STEM higher education students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government has established a supportive framework to empower universities in equipping students with the essential skills required for success.
The department is investing in STEM education at all levels to ensure people have access to high-quality STEM teaching and can access STEM career opportunities We are investing around £750 million of additional funding over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 in high-quality teaching and facilities, including in science and engineering, in subjects that support the NHS, and in degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the higher education (HE) sector in over a decade and will support students and teaching.
The National Careers Service also provides free, up to date, impartial information, advice, and guidance on careers, skills, and the Labour Market in England. The service provides support to individuals studying STEM subjects in HE, relating to entrepreneurship and helps industry sectors, including STEM sectors, to disseminate key information and updates to ensure careers advisers in the community are up to date with the latest information when supporting customers.
The HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey showed that the number of graduate start-ups increased by 5% (from 4,528 in 2020/21 to 4,735 in 2021/22), the highest annual figure in the survey's history[1].
[1] Chart 1 - Spin-offs and start-up companies 2014/15 to 2021/22 | HESA
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of per-pupil funding on educational outcomes for pupils in areas with deprived neighbourhoods outside London.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Funding Formula (NFF) continues to distribute funding fairly based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. In 2023/24, the Department has targeted a greater proportion of schools NFF funding towards deprived pupils than ever before. Over £4 billion (9.8%) of the formula has been allocated according to deprivation, while over £7 billion (17.4%), has been allocated to additional needs overall. As a result, schools with the highest levels of deprivation, on average, attract the largest per pupil funding increases. This additional funding is provided on the same basis for disadvantaged pupils wherever they are in the country, both inside and outside of London.
On top of this core funding, Pupil Premium funding rates have increased by 5% in the 2023/24 financial year to a total of almost £2.9 billion. This increase in funding is on top of £1 billion of recovery premium funding in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, which was allocated to deliver evidence based approaches to support educational recovery for disadvantaged pupils, and over £300 million delivered in 2021/22. Both Pupil Premium and recovery premium funding is distributed at the same rates to pupils in and outside London.
Alongside the NFF, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funds schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support tutoring. From November 2020 to July 2023 nearly 4 million tutoring courses have been started. Over 1.3 million courses were started during the 2022/23 academic year up to May. Around 208,000 (16%) of those courses took place in London, while a third of those courses took place in the North of England (the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and The Humber).
In addition, at a regional level, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes. There are 55 Education Investment areas and 24 Priority Education Investment Areas, all of which are located outside of London. The Department is targeting its intensive investment at areas where there is the highest need and most entrenched barriers to school improvement. In these areas, the Department is providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, and extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of the (a) National Tutoring Programme and (b) recovery premium funding per eligible pupil went to pupils in (i) the North East and (ii) England in each year of which the funding has been available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The proportions of the total allocations for the 2021 to 2023 academic years for the Recovery Premium (RP) and National Tutoring Programme (NTP) (school led) for Local Authorities in the North East can be found in the table below, as well as the proportion of the school age population.
Allocations for the 2023/24 academic year are due to be published shortly.
| School Age Population | 2021/22 NTP | 2021/22 RP | 2022/23 NTP | 2022/23 RP |
North East proportion | 4.6% | 6.1% | 6.1% | 6.1% | 5.9% |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help schools support children in disadvantaged circumstances in the North of England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils has been a Departmental priority underpinning all the Department’s education reforms since 2010. The attainment gap narrowed by 9% at secondary school level and by 13% at primary school level between 2011 and 2019.
For over a decade, the Department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed. The Department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widened gap is not acceptable, and the Department is working to reduce this.
At a national level, the Department delivers a number of core policies to support disadvantaged pupils, such as free school meals (FSM) that support 1.9 million children, the Holiday Activities and Food Programme where the Department is investing over £200 million a year for the next 2 years and support for 2,500 breakfast clubs and family hubs. Additionally, the Department is also ensuring better targeting of deprivation factors through the National Funding Formula (over 9% of all funding), as well as record amounts of pupil premium funding, £2.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year and £2.9 billion in 2023/24.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funds schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support tutoring. From November 2020 to the 2023/24 academic year nearly 4 million tutoring courses have been started (up to July 2023). By 2024, the Department will have embedded tutoring across schools in England. The Department expects tutoring to continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using their core budgets, including the Pupil Premium, to fund targeted support for those pupils who will benefit.
At a regional level, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes, 27 of which are in the North. In these areas, the Department is providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, and extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments and to support schools with two or more Requires Improvement inspection reports.
Furthermore, 24 EIAs have been identified as Priority Education Investment Areas, 13 of which are in the North. These areas face low attainment at Key Stage 2 and entrenched disadvantage. They receive additional investment including £42 million of Local Needs Funding, £86 million for Connect the Classroom and over £2 million for attendance mentoring pilots.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle potential regional disparities in school absence rates.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government understands how important regular school attendance is for pupils' education, wellbeing and life chances. The Department has a national strategy for tackling absence and is providing targeted support to reduce regional disparities.
In 2022, the Department published stronger expectations of schools, trusts, governing bodies and Local Authorities in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance. Schools are now expected to publish an attendance policy, appoint an attendance champion, and use data to identify and then support pupils at risk of becoming persistently absent. This guidance will ensure there is greater consistency for managing attendance across all schools and different Local Authority areas. The Department has deployed 10 expert attendance advisers to work with all 155 English Local Authorities to review practices, develop plans to improve and meet expectations set out in the guidance. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of attendance support in all areas across the country.
The Secretary of State and I co chair the ‘Attendance Action Alliance’ of system leaders to work to remove barriers to attendance and reduce absence through delivering pledges of specific actions to tackle the problem. The Department has also made available £5 billion nationally for education recovery, helping pupils to recover from the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. This funding includes up to £1.5 billion on tutoring and nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so they can deliver evidence based interventions based on pupil needs.
The Department is also providing direct support and funding in specific areas. The Department announced 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) who will receive up to £42 million to fund bespoke interventions to improve attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4. Where poor attendance has been identified as a key issue in an area, specific attendance initiatives are also being funded to address this.
The Department has also launched a £2.32 million attendance mentor pilot which aims to deliver intensive one to one support to persistently and severely absent pupils in 5 PEIAs. This is alongside our 10 new attendance hubs who are sharing their effective practice for attendance with up to 600 partner schools, reaching hundreds of thousands of pupils. Schools in PEIAs also have priority access to support from hubs.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support post-18 mathematics education.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government is committed to supporting people to climb the ladder of opportunity towards better jobs, better wellbeing, and better options for the future.
To enable this, the department recognises the importance of maths skills, both in work and everyday life. Securing good levels of numeracy increases individual productivity, improves earnings and employment opportunities, supports economic growth and breaks cycles of intergenerational economic and social disadvantage. That is why we are continuing to support participation in maths provision through our ‘essential skills entitlements’ which provide the opportunity of free study for adults who do not have essential numeracy skills up to and including level 2.
Learners who have not previously attained a GCSE grade 4 or higher can undertake a range of courses fully funded through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) including GCSEs, Functional Skills and other relevant qualifications from entry level to level 2.
The department also supports training for adults in community settings through the AEB. Prioritised for disadvantaged learners, Community Learning can provide a 'stepping stone' for those adults who are not ready for formal accredited learning, or who would benefit from learning in a more informal way.
In addition, Multiply is the government’s programme for improving adult numeracy, funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the government’s flagship fund for supporting people and places across the UK. Up to £270 million is directly available for local areas in England to deliver innovative interventions to improve adult numeracy.
The Free Courses for Jobs offer, which was launched in April 2021, gives eligible adults the chance to access high value Level 3 qualification for free, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job. This offer allows eligible learners to access a high-value level 3 qualification for free, to gain higher wages and access new job opportunities. The offer includes a number of qualifications in maths for example a Level 3 Certificate in Mathematical Studies.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Skills Bootcamps are available in a variety of skill areas including digital, technical, construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy.
The department is scaling up Skills Bootcamps delivery to 64,000 starts by the 2024/25 financial year through national procurement and grant funding to 25 Mayoral Combined Authorities and local areas.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided to the (a) National Centre for Computing Education (b) Isaac Physics programme, (c) Stimulating Physics Network, (d) Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, (e) SUMS (Steps to University for Mathematical Students) Enrichment Day, (f) T-Level Ambassador Network and (g) Inclusion in Schools project in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Funding details for the National Centre for Computing Education, the Isaac Physics programme, the Stimulating Physics Network, the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP) and the Inclusion in Schools project are in the table below.
With regard to SUMS (Steps to University for Mathematical Students) Enrichment Day, this is funded as part of the AMSP programme, therefore the Department does not record a separate breakdown of funding for that.
On the T Level Ambassador Network, in the 2022/23 financial year, the Department spent £66,000 establishing and supporting the T Level Ambassador Network to promote and advocate T Levels with employers.
National Centre for Computing Education | |||||
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
a) National Centre for Computing Education | £7.6m | £17.7m | £15.6m | £17.1m | £13.4m |
Maths Programme | |||||
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
d) AMSP | £6.3m | £8.5m | £7.1m | £7.6m | £8.4m |
Science Programmes | |||||
| 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | ||
c) Stimulating Physics Network (SPN)* | £2.15m | £2.46m | £2.11m | ||
b) Isaac Physics | £0.695m | £0.62m | £0.86m | ||
g) Inclusion in Schools project |
|
| £0.59m | ||
*SPN includes Inclusion in Schools | |||||
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of schools at risk of closure due to disrepair or unsafe building materials in (a) Newcastle central constituency, (b) the North East and (c) the UK.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education is a devolved matter. This response covers the approach in England only.
Nothing is more important than the safety of pupils and teachers. This is why the Department has been putting significant funding into maintaining schools across the country. Where there are serious safety issues with a building, the Department takes immediate and swift action to ensure the safety of pupils and school staff. There are no open areas within schools or college buildings where the Department knows of an imminent risk to life.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools and who work with their schools day to day to manage the safety and maintenance of their buildings. This includes academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies. The Department provides support on a case by case basis if it is alerted to a serious safety issue which responsible bodies cannot manage independently.
The Department is currently working with responsible bodies, schools, and colleges to identify the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in their buildings. Once this work is complete, the Department will have a fuller idea of the presence of RAAC in the estate. Where RAAC is suspected, the Department’s professional surveyors carry out assessments to verify its presence. Over 200 surveys have been undertaken and by autumn 2023 we will have surveyed over 600 schools. If RAAC is confirmed, the Department provides rapid support to schools based on the advice of structural engineers. This could include funding capital works to remove any immediate risk and, where necessary, the provision of temporary buildings. Longer term remediation of RAAC is supported by capital funding provided to the sector, the Department’s rebuilding programme, and urgent capital support.
The Department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 for keeping school buildings safe and in good working order, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings at 500 schools, prioritising poor condition and potential safety issues.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of reductions to university mathematics departments budgets on the UK’s ambition to become a global science and technology superpower by 2030.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher education (HE) providers are independent, autonomous institutions, responsible for their own decisions on staffing issues, including how they structure themselves to deliver research and teaching priorities. Where it is necessary to reshape their activities, it is important that universities carefully consider the impact of job losses on staff and students, and the overall sustainability of teaching and research in this country.
The department will continue to work closely with the Office for Students (OfS) and various parties, including a variety of HE providers across the sector, mission groups and other government departments, to understand the ongoing impacts and changing landscape of financial sustainability in the HE sector.
We want to provide a ladder of opportunity for everyone to get the education and skills they need for job security and prosperity and to support levelling up across the country. Access to HE should be based on a student’s attainment and their ability to succeed, rather than background.
The government has issued guidance to the OfS, asking it to refocus the entire access and participation regime to create a system that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by ensuring students are able to make the right choices and to access and succeed on high quality courses that are valued by employers and lead to good graduate employment.
John Blake, as the Director for Fair Access and Participation, is driving forward this important change. Using his experience and expertise from the schools’ sector, he is supporting and challenging HE providers to identify what will ultimately help students progress on their course and obtain good outcomes from their degree, such as programmes of intervention in schools, summer schools, and targeted bursaries to assist with living costs.
The government is committed to cementing the UK’s status as a science and technology superpower, levelling up across the country.
To achieve this, the UK needs talented people with the right knowledge, skills, and experience. The department is investing in programmes that do this at all levels of education.
The Prime Minister has set a new mission for all young people to study maths to age 18, equipping them with the skills they need for the modern economy. Our driving principle is to ensure that all young people are equipped with the right maths knowledge and skills to thrive, whatever their chosen pathway.
On 17 April 2023, the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education set out how we will take the next steps towards delivering this mission. This includes:
The department is investing an additional £750 million over the three year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to support high quality teaching and facilities including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.
Several government strategies are in place to support our science and technology superpower ambition, in specific areas including the 2023 Science and Technology Framework , which sets out our approach to making the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030. The 2021 National AI Strategy, and the 2022 UK Digital Strategy set out how we will strengthen our reserves of talent and skills in order to drive success.