Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has plans to introduce an automatic registration process for free school meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The department provides an Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible. We continue to use and refine a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals (FSM).
The department also provides guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.
The department continues to explore the delivery feasibility of introducing auto-enrolment functionality. There are, however, complex data, systems, and legal implications to such a change.
Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century.
In setting eligibility for FSM, provision is targeted at supporting those who are out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department will continue to review FSM eligibility, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether support is available to people who are unable to access free childcare as a result of having started new employment after the term start date.
Answered by Will Quince
30 hours free childcare for three and four-year-olds is available to parents who expect to earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum or living wage, and under £100,000 per year. Parents who meet this income criteria can take up a 30 hours free childcare place from the term following a successful application. This means parents can start using their 30 hours entitlement from the 1 April, 1 September or 1 January following their application.
Parents who have secured new employment after the term start date can apply to start a 30 hours place the following term. In the meanwhile, there is other support available. Parents will be eligible for the universal 15 hours free early education entitlement for all three and four-year-olds.
Alongside the universal 15 hours free early education entitlement, parents who meet the eligibility criteria for Tax-Free Childcare can make further savings on their childcare. Tax-Free Childcare can help parents save on up to 20% of their childcare costs, worth up to £500 every 3 months for children aged 0-11, or up to £1,000 every 3 months for disabled children aged 0-16, and has the same income eligibility criteria as 30 hours free childcare. Parents can start using Tax-Free Childcare immediately following a successful application and do not need to wait until the following term.
Working parents with a lower income can receive support from the childcare element of Universal Credit. This can be used in addition to the 15 hours universal free early education entitlement. Through Universal Credit, parents can get help with up to 85% of their eligible childcare costs, reimbursed through their Universal Credit award.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Department for Health and Social Care about reducing the risk of covid-19 disruption and absences in the run up to the upcoming assessment and exams period in schools and colleges; and if he will (a) communicate to schools that they can use any stocks of lateral flow tests held locally and (b) make free testing available for all pupils, staff and exam invigilators to cover this period.
Answered by Robin Walker
Candidates and centres should adhere to the guidance on living with COVID-19.
Candidates are expected to attend their exams wherever possible, and school and college staff should encourage them to do so. However, where that is not possible, exam boards have taken measures to support students to access a grade, including spacing the exam timetable with at least ten days between the first and last exam in each subject. They have also confirmed that eligible students completing one assessment (exam or non-exam assessment) will be able to receive a grade through special consideration, provided they have an acceptable reason for missing the other assessments.
A candidate who is staying at home and avoiding contact with others, in line with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidance, would be eligible to apply for special consideration to receive a grade based on the other assessments they complete. This includes candidates with the symptoms described in the UKHSA guidance, and those with a positive COVID-19 test result.
Public health advice continues to be that testing in education and childcare settings is no longer needed. Most infectious diseases in education and childcare settings can be managed by following the advice in UKHSA’s updated health protection in education and childcare settings guidance. Students and staff should follow UKHSA’s advice for those who have symptoms.
Although schools and colleges may still have some unused test kits in stock, they should not continue to hand out test kits to staff or students. The department is working with UKHSA to explore options for removal of testing resources no longer required.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his planned timetable is for consulting on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Review.
Answered by Will Quince
The outcome of the SEND Review will be published as a green paper for full public consultation by the end of March.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is taking steps to support local authorities to improve collection and storage of children’s services data.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities record and store children’s services data in digital case management systems they procure from the market. Our Children’s Social Care Digital Programme has worked with local authorities and case management system suppliers to develop guidance, which will be published shortly. It aims to support local authority planning, procurement and implementation of case management systems.
We are also working across government on how data and technology can be used to enable better multi-agency information sharing in safeguarding, including an investigation study on the feasibility of adopting a consistent child identifier.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to guidance entitled Political Impartiality in Schools published on 17 February 2022, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of that guidance with the requirement for schools to adopt LGBTQ+ inclusive approaches, as required by his Department's statutory guidance entitled Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education.
Answered by Robin Walker
Legal duties on political impartiality do not supersede schools’ other statutory requirements. Both the ‘Political Impartiality in Schools’ guidance and the statutory guidance for Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) support schools to teach a broad and balanced curriculum that will enable all pupils to be healthy and safe and to equip them with the knowledge, skills and values that will prepare them to be informed and active citizens in modern Britain.
The ‘Political Impartiality in Schools’ guidance sets out the issues schools should be considering to determine whether an issue is political, including whether it is subject to ongoing ethical debate, without a clear consensus in public opinion. It also provides scenarios chosen in part to help build an understanding of what constitutes a political issue. Ultimately school leaders and teachers will need to use reasonable judgement to determine what is and is not a ‘political issue’. Where schools remain unsure if a topic is a ‘political issue’ it is advisable to avoid promoting a particular view to pupils, and instead give a balanced factual account of the topic, in line with the legal duties on political impartiality. The guidance is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools.
Schools should take a reasonable and proportionate approach to ensuring political impartiality, alongside their other responsibilities, including their legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 (including the Public Sector Equality Duty for state-funded schools) and the statutory requirements to teach RSHE which is clear that pupils should be taught LGBT content at a timely point in their school years. At secondary level pupils should be taught the facts and the law about sex, sexuality, sexual health, and gender identity, in an age-appropriate and inclusive way.
As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools will have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects, so they can develop an integrated approach that is sensitive to the needs and background of all pupils.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of protecting the titles of interpreters and translators in law.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Matters of professional titles and what qualifications and skills a person needs for entry to a profession are for employers and professional bodies. The Department for Education has no role in such matters.
There are a range of interpreting and translating qualifications available to learners to facilitate access to interpreting and translating professions, some of which are approved for public funding. Eligibility for funding will depend on individual circumstances and prior learning.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to engage with families with disabled children following the publication of the Green Paper on special educational needs.
Answered by Will Quince
The department will publish the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) review Green Paper in the first quarter of this year for full public consultation.
It is critical that we hear from as many people as possible during our consultation to get invaluable feedback on our proposals from a wide range of perspectives. This includes parents and carers, children, young people and sector professionals.
The department is working with a steering group and a range of other individuals and organisations to best ensure that children and young people with SEND, and parents and carers will be able to engage fully.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support local authorities to tackle backlogs in disabled children’s health and care services.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton and the hon. Member for Rother Valley to the answer I gave on 21 January 2022 to Question 106872.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to amend the Mental Health Support Teams model to ensure that it is fit for purpose in SEN schools.
Answered by Will Quince
As part of the government response to the consultation published in July 2018, a commitment was made to establish new mental health support teams (MHSTs), working in or near schools and colleges. The full consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper.
The interim report of the independent evaluation into the first 25 MHST trailblazer sites testing out new ways of supporting children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs in educational providers was published in July 2021. This can be found here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/brace/publications.aspx.
Findings included that 89% of local service models were underpinned by a clear understanding of local needs and had been designed to take all groups of children and young people into account. In some cases the ‘standard’ MHST interventions were felt to be less suitable and effective for some groups including younger age children, children who were self-harming, children with special educational needs, and vulnerable and disadvantaged children. The core functions of the MHST model are to deliver specific interventions for mild to moderate mental health needs, to support education settings including special schools to develop their holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing. It is also to facilitate access to appropriate external specialist services to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education.
The department is clear that local service providers must carefully consider health inequalities and disadvantage when deciding how an MHST is structured. It must also work with each education setting to scope out and co-design the support offer required to ensure it reflects the needs of pupils and students, the setting, and the local system.
MHSTs may, with local partners, develop thematic or specialist teams to work with specific types of settings or needs, and some have now adapted their offer to provide tailored support in special schools. The department will look to build on learning from their approach, as well as findings from the independent evaluation, to support understanding of how best to meet the needs of settings and children and young people in special schools.