Written Question
Thursday 25th June 2020
Asked by:
Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 June 2020 to Question 57089 on Home Education: Sheffield South East, how many laptops were requested by Sheffield City Council for children with social workers; and how many of those laptops have been delivered.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.
We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers.
The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets and allocated devices to local authorities and academy trusts based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device. Local authorities and academy trusts are best place to identify and prioritise children and young people who need devices. The Department is working to provide these devices in the shortest possible timeframe; deliveries to schools and local authorities began in May and will continue throughout June. As of 14 June, we have shipped over 100,000 laptops and 20,000 4G routers, including 1,777 to Sheffield City Council for children with a social worker and care leavers.
The Department has published information about how many laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers we have delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts as of 14 June, which can be viewed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data.
Written Question
Monday 15th June 2020
Asked by:
Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for each of the secondary schools in Sheffield South East constituency, how many computers have been provided to date to allow disadvantaged pupils to study from home.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is providing laptops and tablets to vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children, or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged children in year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers.
Local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and distribute the laptops and tablets to children and young people who need devices. The Department invited local authorities to order devices for the most vulnerable children first - those with a social worker and care leavers.
Computer devices are being delivered to local authorities and academy trusts daily and will continue to be distributed throughout June.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 09 Jun 2020
Education Settings: Wider Opening
"At the end of May, the respected director of public health in Sheffield, Greg Fell, wrote to all Sheffield schools strongly advising against opening because, among other issues, he had concerns about the availability of personal protective equipment and was not convinced about the effectiveness of the test, track and …..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education Settings: Wider Opening
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"This may be a question more appropriately directed at the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick), who is sat next to the right hon. Gentleman on the Treasury Bench, but he mentions Grenfell and dealing with fire safety issues. …..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"The right hon. Gentleman denigrates the efforts, policies and achievements of the previous Labour Government on productivity. Will he therefore explain why productivity went up by over 2% under that Labour Government on a consistent basis? Since 2010, however, productivity has hardly risen at all...."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is good to see you in your rightful place again, in the Chair.
I make no apology for saying that I want to be a champion for local government in this Parliament. Over the past 10 years, local government has had bigger cuts than …..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"Yes, I do. People cannot sell their properties and they cannot get mortgages on them, and this whole area presents a real challenge. It is no use Ministers saying, “We don’t think this is quite as dangerous”, because the fact is that that cladding on a building means that people …..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about that, although perhaps I should call him my hon. Friend for this purpose, given how we have worked together on the Select Committee. The problem with the great and rising demand for social care is that it means that there is proportionately less …..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 14 Jan 2020
Education and Local Government
"Will that include proposals to help existing leaseholders as well as future leaseholders?..."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Education and Local Government
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 16 Jul 2019
Relationship Education in Schools
"You were meant to be...."Clive Betts - View Speech
View all Clive Betts (Lab - Sheffield South East) contributions to the debate on: Relationship Education in Schools