Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been provided for school buildings in the Folkestone and Hythe district for each year since 2010; and how much funding was received by each school in the district in each of those years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in 2023/24.
Between 2015/16, when the current condition funding system was introduced, and 2023/24, Kent local authority has been allocated a total of £170,514,468 in school condition allocations (SCA), devolved formula capital (DFC) and one-off funding allocations to improve the condition of its maintained schools, including those in Folkestone and Hythe. Larger multi-academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies (which cross local authority and parliamentary constituency boundaries) will also have been allocated condition funding in respect of the schools for which they are responsible. Funding allocations prior to 2015 are visible on the National Archives website available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations. It is for local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies to prioritise School Condition Allocations across their schools based on local knowledge of need.
In addition, 32 projects at 11 schools within the constituency have received funding through the Condition Improvement Fund and two schools were included in the Priority School Building Programme.
Funding allocations for 2023/24 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools in receipt of funding from the Turing Scheme for the 2021-22 academic year will have flexibility to schedule their projects beyond August 2022 in the context of those projects having been affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Schools have the flexibility to change both the destination and the timing of their projects within the 2021/22 academic year and should consider running placements later in the current academic year if they find their planned dates are impeded by COVID-19.
The funding period for Turing Scheme projects for the 2021/22 academic year ends on 31 August 2022. The Turing Scheme was allocated funding as part of the Spending Review 2020 to be distributed to Turing Scheme beneficiaries for the delivery of mobilities during the 2021/22 academic year. In line with government spending requirements, any government funding must be used within the period that it has been allocated for.
The Turing Scheme has had funding confirmed for the next three years as part of the Spending Review 2021, and providers that could not deliver their mobilities in academic year 2021/22 are encouraged to apply again if they wish to run their activity in academic year 2022/23.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in the Folkestone and Hythe local authority area are in receipt of school food vouchers; and what the cost to the public purse is per month of providing that scheme in that area.
Answered by Vicky Ford
During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals at home by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. Schools have continued to receive all their funding for benefits-related and universal infant free school meals. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.
Schools are best placed to make decisions about the most appropriate arrangements for eligible pupils, and this can include food parcel arrangements, alternative voucher arrangements or provision through the national voucher scheme.
Edenred has reported that over £154 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families through the national voucher scheme as of Monday 15 June. Edenred has also reported that over 17,500 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of Tuesday 26 May. We do not collect data on the scheme at pupil level.
The number and proportion of students who qualify for free school meals is published in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication and its underlying data files. We do not collect data at constituency level.
The 2019 publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2019.