Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the availability of printers in pupils’ homes by (a) phase of education, (b) free school meals eligibility, and (c) any other division of data available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not have data or estimates of the availability of printers in pupils’ homes.
Schools can provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, to structure learning. We expect schools to work to overcome any barriers experienced by pupils in accessing remote education. This could include distributing school owned laptops or supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. This should be supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work.
The Government is supporting access to remote education and online social care services, through an investment of over £400 million that includes securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people who do not have access to their own device. Over 800,000 laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 17 January.
We have also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.
Support is available for schools to get set up on Google or Microsoft platforms. These platforms bring together the school community, pool resources and give pupils the opportunity to work with their peers remotely. As of 5 January 2021, 6,900 schools have applied for a digital education platform.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish data on relative usage levels for Oak National Academy in the current covid-19 lockdown compared to previous periods.
Answered by Nick Gibb
To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, Oak National Academy was very quickly brought together by over 40 teachers, their schools and other education organisations. The Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is also available.
The number of users to have visited the Oak National Academy platform (correct as of 12 January 2021) can be found in the following table:
| Average users/ day | Total users |
April- July 2020 | 200K-250K | 4.7M |
September- December 2020 | 50-100K | 2.3M |
4 – 12 January 2021 | 950K-1M | 3.5M |
Oak will remain a free optional resource for 2020-21.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made from previous periods of remote learning of the level of use by (a) schools, (b) pupils and (c) families of (i) Oak National Academy learning, (ii) third party online virtual learning environments, (iii) schools’ own materials, (iv) broadcast TV, (v) BBC Bitesize and (vi) others.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Given the critical importance of ensuring that all children and young people continue to learn during the national lockdown, we have updated the remote education guidance for schools and colleges to clarify and strengthen expectations while on-site attendance is restricted, drawing on our evolving understanding of best practice in remote education.
Schools are expected to provide a set number of hours of remote education for pupils – increased from the government’s previous minimum expectations – that includes time for independent study and also either recorded or live direct teaching. Pupils will be set between three and five hours per day of remote education depending on their age, with daily check-ins on their engagement, and involving the effective use of digital education platforms.
To help schools and colleges meet the remote education expectations set out in guidance, the Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services. A comprehensive package of support is available to help schools meet these expectations which can be accessed through the Get Help with Remote Education page on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education.
The Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Since the start of the autumn term, 2,280,706 users have visited the Oak National Academy platform and 12,998,483 lessons have been viewed (as of 4 January 2021). For schools that do not already have a full remote education curriculum or resources in place or where staffing capacity is challenging, we strongly recommend that they consider using Oak National Academy or other high-quality resource providers. We have also published guidance on accessing and buying remote education resources, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-with-accessing-and-buying-resources-for-remote-education.
Support is also available for schools to get set up on Google or Microsoft platforms. These platforms bring together the school community, pool resources and give pupils the opportunity to work with their peers remotely. As of 5 January 2021, 6900 schools have applied to the DfE Digital Platforms programme that forms part of the Get Help With Technology programme.
In addition, the BBC has adapted their education support for the spring term 2021 and will be making educational content available on the television. Bitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on BBC Red Button as well as episodes being available on demand on BBC iPlayer. This TV offer is in addition to the BBC’s online offer, which parents, children, and teachers can access when and where they need it.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment he has made of trends in the number of people (a) expressing an interest in foster parenting and (b) completing the foster parent application process in the last five years.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Department for Education does not collect this data. This data is currently captured by Ofsted.
Ofsted have seen an increase in enquires to independent fostering agencies (IFA) between the financial year 2015-2019, but in the same period enquiries have decreased for local authorities. At the end of March 2020, we have seen an increase in applications compared to 2015. However, application rates have remained fairly static over the past 2 years.
Ofsted estimate that there were around 137,200 initial enquiries from prospective fostering households in the year ending 31 March 2020. This was an increase of around 7% compared to the financial year 2018 to 2019. The reported figure of 135,075, from the data provided by 94% of all eligible agencies, was itself an increase on the previous year (127,850).
Ofsted estimate that around 76% enquiries received were within the IFA sector, up from 72% in 2018 to 2019. This results from a 14% increase in enquiries to the IFA sector, and a 10% decrease for local authorities, compared with last year.
A breakdown of enquiries received over the past 5 years are as follows:
Year | Total number of enquiries received |
2015/16 | 101,795 |
2016/17 | 114,425 |
2017/18 | 117,335 |
2018/19 | 127,850 |
2019/20 | 135,080 |
In relation to applications approved, across the sectors, the conversion rate of applications received to applications approved was very similar. Around 1 in 4 applications were approved in both sectors. However, IFAs accounted for both more applications and approvals than local authorities.
A breakdown of applications received and approved by local authorities are as follows:
Year | Total number of applications received | Total number of applications approved |
2015/16 | 4,525 | 1,150 |
2016/17 | 4,940 | 1,140 |
2017/18 | 4,710 | 985 |
2018/19 | 4,390 | 1,020 |
2019/20 | 3,570 | 905 |
A breakdown of applications received and approved by IFAs are as follows:
Year | Total number of applications received | Total number of applications approved |
2015/16 | 4,060 | 1,140 |
2016/17 | 4,405 | 1,260 |
2017/18 | 5,830 | 1,455 |
2018/19 | 5,350 | 1,395 |
2019/20 | 5,235 | 1,230 |
Among local authorities, 43% of completed applications were approved, while 35% were approved among IFAs. The difference is mostly accounted for by a higher proportion of withdrawals by applicants among IFAs (49% compared to 36% for local authorities).