Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department conducted that resulted in the inclusion of (a) Microsoft and (b) Google and not other commonly used platforms in the Constituency framework: education and childcare setting (excluding universities) guidance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support remote education, including by providing laptops and tablets and internet access for those who need it most, ensuring every school has access to free, expert technical support to get set up on Google for Education or Microsoft’s Office 365 Education, and offering peer training and support from schools and colleges leading the way with the use of technology.
There is budget remaining to continue to provide technical support to help schools set up accounts for Google and Microsoft to access remote education during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Microsoft and Google platforms were chosen as they are free to use to the education sector and had the unified technology and support to set up and deliver effective remote education provision.
Google and Microsoft are not only free to use but offer a number of features and functionalities that are suitable for school needs.
We want to ensure all schools are set up with a remote learning platform and are keeping this under constant review.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of schools that have joined the Risk Protection Arrangement by (a) multi-academy trust and (b) local authority-maintained school and (c) financial year since 2014-15.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Table 1, attached, shows the number of academies either part of multi academy trusts or themselves single academy trusts and Local Authority Maintained Schools (LAMS) that have joined the risk protection arrangement (RPA) by financial year, accounting for opt-outs. Please note that RPA for LAMS was only made available to them to join from 1 April 2020.
Table 2 in the attachment shows the loss ratio (claims made plus adjustment expenses divided by total membership fee) for the RPA in each financial year since 2014-15. The current incomplete financial year has not been provided.
Government Actuary’s Department undertake a bi-annual review of the RPA provisions which assess the development of RPA claims over time. These reports are publicly available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/risk-protection-arrangement-rpa-summary-provisioning-analysis.
The total cost to date of COVID-19 related travel cancellation claims made by RPA members is £45,207,903.11 which equates to 5,658 of claims.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the loss ratio for the Risk Protection Arrangement in each financial year since 2014-15.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Table 1, attached, shows the number of academies either part of multi academy trusts or themselves single academy trusts and Local Authority Maintained Schools (LAMS) that have joined the risk protection arrangement (RPA) by financial year, accounting for opt-outs. Please note that RPA for LAMS was only made available to them to join from 1 April 2020.
Table 2 in the attachment shows the loss ratio (claims made plus adjustment expenses divided by total membership fee) for the RPA in each financial year since 2014-15. The current incomplete financial year has not been provided.
Government Actuary’s Department undertake a bi-annual review of the RPA provisions which assess the development of RPA claims over time. These reports are publicly available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/risk-protection-arrangement-rpa-summary-provisioning-analysis.
The total cost to date of COVID-19 related travel cancellation claims made by RPA members is £45,207,903.11 which equates to 5,658 of claims.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the financial effect on the Exchequer of long-tail liability risks from the Risk Protection Arrangement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Table 1, attached, shows the number of academies either part of multi academy trusts or themselves single academy trusts and Local Authority Maintained Schools (LAMS) that have joined the risk protection arrangement (RPA) by financial year, accounting for opt-outs. Please note that RPA for LAMS was only made available to them to join from 1 April 2020.
Table 2 in the attachment shows the loss ratio (claims made plus adjustment expenses divided by total membership fee) for the RPA in each financial year since 2014-15. The current incomplete financial year has not been provided.
Government Actuary’s Department undertake a bi-annual review of the RPA provisions which assess the development of RPA claims over time. These reports are publicly available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/risk-protection-arrangement-rpa-summary-provisioning-analysis.
The total cost to date of COVID-19 related travel cancellation claims made by RPA members is £45,207,903.11 which equates to 5,658 of claims.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the total cost of covid-19 related travel cancellation claims for schools which are covered by the Risk Protection Arrangement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Table 1, attached, shows the number of academies either part of multi academy trusts or themselves single academy trusts and Local Authority Maintained Schools (LAMS) that have joined the risk protection arrangement (RPA) by financial year, accounting for opt-outs. Please note that RPA for LAMS was only made available to them to join from 1 April 2020.
Table 2 in the attachment shows the loss ratio (claims made plus adjustment expenses divided by total membership fee) for the RPA in each financial year since 2014-15. The current incomplete financial year has not been provided.
Government Actuary’s Department undertake a bi-annual review of the RPA provisions which assess the development of RPA claims over time. These reports are publicly available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/risk-protection-arrangement-rpa-summary-provisioning-analysis.
The total cost to date of COVID-19 related travel cancellation claims made by RPA members is £45,207,903.11 which equates to 5,658 of claims.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in care have been recorded by his Department as being placed in (a) handcuffs and (b) other restraints whilst being transported in the most recent period for which figures are available; and how many of these journeys were between secure settings.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The information requested is not held centrally by the department.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding from the catch-up premium introduced by the Government in response to the covid-19 outbreak is being spent on pastoral support by schools; what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of that funding to support all pupils’ mental health and wellbeing needs during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a resilience fund for the 2020-21 academic year to enable schools to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Access to mental health support has been more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak. To ensure that staff were equipped to support wellbeing as children and young people returned to schools and colleges, we made it a central part of our guidance on the return to school. The Department supported this with a range of training and materials, such as webinars and accelerating training on how to teach about mental health as part of the new Relationships, Sex and Health curriculum, so that all pupils can benefit from this long-term requirement.
The Government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a catch-up premium worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. School leaders have discretion over how to use this funding to best support the needs of their students, but we expect them to prioritise those who need the most catch up support. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) COVID-19 Support Guide is clear that interventions, including those focused on behaviour or pupils’ social and emotional needs, are likely to be important to support those who have fallen furthest behind. The EEF guidance is available here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/.
We will not be assessing how schools use their catch-up premium, but understanding the impact of COVID-19 disruption on attainment and progress is a key research priority for the Government. We have commissioned an independent research and assessment agency to consider catch up needs and monitor progress over the course of the year.
The £1 billion catch-up package is on top of the £2.6 billion increase this year in school budgets that was announced last year, as part of a £14 billion three year funding settlement, recognising the additional work schools will need to do to help students to catch up. Additionally, the national funding formula (NFF) continues to target funding to areas which have the greatest numbers of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This year, the NFF will allocate £6.3 billion in funding for pupils with additional needs, or 18% of the formula’s total funding.
To provide further support during the autumn and spring terms the Department has worked with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Education England and Public Health England, as well as key voluntary sector organisations, to launch Wellbeing for Education Return. This project, backed by £8 million, will train local experts to provide additional training, advice and resources to schools and colleges, to help support pupil and student wellbeing, resilience, and recovery. It will give staff the confidence to support pupils and students, their parents, carers and their own colleagues, and know how and where to access appropriate specialist support where needed.
To increase support further in the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with DHSC and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches in order to provide quicker access to NHS specialist support.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the pilot Summer 2020 Holiday Activities and Food programme; and whether he plans to roll that programme out across the UK.
Answered by Vicky Ford
This summer, our £9 million Holiday Activities and Food Programme worked across 17 local authority areas, providing thousands of children with access to healthy meals and enriching activities and building on the success of the 2018 and 2019 programmes. Future policy and spending decisions will be set following completion of the current Spending Review.
Our evaluation of the 2018 and 2019 programme will be published in due course.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that schools are able to reopen safely during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has been clear that all pupils, in all year groups, should return to school full time from the beginning of the autumn term. The Department published guidance to help schools prepare for this on 2 July. The guidance can be viewed at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The above guidance sets out measures which provide a framework for school leaders to put in place proportionate protective measures for children and staff, whilst also ensuring that all pupils receive a high quality education that enables them to thrive and progress.
This includes the public health advice schools must follow to minimise the risks of COVID-19 transmission. The public health advice in the guidance makes up a PHE endorsed system of controls, building on the hierarchy of protective measures that have been in use throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. When implemented in line with a revised risk assessment, these measures create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. Measures include minimising contacts between groups and maintaining distance where possible, encouraging regular handwashing, and enhanced cleaning.
All staff, pupils and their families will continue to have access to testing if they develop COVID-19 symptoms, and every school and college that has been attended by someone who tests positive will receive direct support and advice from their local PHE health protection team. Schools and colleges are also being provided with an initial supply of home testing kits to provide to children and staff who develop symptoms while on site and who may otherwise be unable to access a test, as well as a delivery of PPE, provided free of charge by the Department of Health and Social Care for the small number of instances where this is needed.
School employers and leaders are required by law to undertake a risk assessment to identify the risks the staff and pupils face and do everything reasonably practicable to minimise them, recognising they cannot completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19. School employers must make sure that a risk assessment has been undertaken to identify the measures needed to reduce the risks so far as is reasonably practicable and make the school COVID secure. General information on how to make a workplace COVID secure, including how to approach a COVID-19 risk assessment, is provided by the Health and Safety Executive guidance on working safely. This is available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/index.htm.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance the Government has provided to local authorities on summer school provision during the covid-19 outbreak for children of (a) key-workers, (b) low-income families and (c) all children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Holiday clubs and out-of-school clubs for children will be able to restart over the summer, with safety measures in place. These clubs will be part of Step 3 of the recovery strategy (from 4 July). We have provided guidance for the sector on how to implement the protective measures necessary to minimise the risk to children, teachers and parents who attend their schools by reducing the risk of infection and transmission of COVID-19, as well as advice to parents and carers on the precautions they should be taking if they are thinking of sending their child to any provision over the summer period.
Whilst we are not asking schools to open over the summer holidays and there is not the expectation that schools should open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers over this period, we are aware that some headteachers may be considering using their catch-up premium to provide summer school activities for their pupils. Where this is the case, they have the flexibility, discretion and autonomy to decide how they want to do this. To support schools in planning how to use the catch-up premium, the Education Endowment Foundation has produced a guide which includes advice on summer schools and contains a link to a Teach First toolkit specifically focused on summer schools.
On 22 June, we also announced the 17 local authority areas that our Holiday Activities and Food programme will operate in this summer, providing thousands of disadvantaged children with access to healthy meals and holiday activities.