Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent conversations he has had with Ministerial colleagues in the (a) Department for Transport and (b) Treasury on the potential impact on educational attainment of students if school bus services are cancelled due to school funding not matching inflation.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. The department’s priority is to reduce overall school absence and maximise the number of children who regularly attend school.
The department’s home to school transport policy aims to ensure no child is unable to access education because of a lack of transport. Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide free home to school transport for all children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and cannot walk there due to distance, route safety, or as a result of special educational needs, disability or mobility problems. There are additional rights to free transport for low-income families aimed at helping them exercise school choice.
Most central government funding for home to school transport is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) administered by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities. The LGFS is making available £54.1 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22. This is the largest cash-terms increase in grant funding provided through the settlement in the past 10 years. The funding is largely un-ringfenced, in recognition that councils are best placed to allocate funding based on their local communities’ needs, priorities and statutory duties.
The department also provides grant funding to local authorities as a contribution towards the cost of extended rights transport, £43.3 million in 2022/23, with the latest inflation rates at the time used to calculate funding.
The department recognises that inflation forecasts are higher than they were when the Autumn Budget Spending Review 2021 settlement was announced. How that interacts with the finances of local government is not straightforward. However, as not all areas of expenditure will be sensitive to inflation and local authorities may have multi-year contracts, cushioning them from this year’s inflationary increases. The department recognises that local authorities are delivering children’s services in a challenging environment and are grateful for all they are doing to support children and families.
Officials regularly meet colleagues from other departments to discuss cost of living pressures, and the department continues to work with the sector to understand the impact of inflationary increases on delivery of services.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the (a) feasibility of extending the free school meal scheme to all (i) primary school aged (ii) secondary school aged students whose parents are in receipt of Universal Credit, and (b) the potential impact on educational attainment.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department continues to monitor the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions, on support surrounding this issue. The department will continue to keep free school meal (FSM) eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with FSM.
The department has no current plans to conduct our own assessment of the effects of FSM on educational attainment, but we are aware of independent research in this area, such as that from the University of Essex, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and will note its findings.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in (a) Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council area and (b) England are (i) eligible for and (ii) in receipt of free school meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The department publishes the number of pupils eligible for free school meals in the ‘Schools, Pupils and their characteristics’ national statistics publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
The following link provides the number of pupils eligible for free school meals, and the number of pupils who were eligible and took a free school meal at census day, 20 January 2022, for Barnsley and England: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8c29da0a-7a98-4107-9302-0328ee25a40e.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the viability of automatically enrolling children who are eligible on to the free school meal scheme.
Answered by Will Quince
The department wants to ensure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.
We continue to explore the options and delivery feasibility of introducing auto-enrolment functionality. However, there are complex data, systems, and legal implications to such a change.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the provision of funding for SEND in schools in (a) Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and (b) Richmondshire District Council.
Answered by Will Quince
The total core schools budget is increasing to £56.8 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. This represents a £7 billion cash increase, compared with the 2021/22 financial year, and will benefit those pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream schools.
Within this, for those pupils with more complex needs, the department has increased high needs funding in the 2022-23 financial year by £1 billion to a total of £9.1 billion.
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council will attract an increase of 16% per head of their 2-18 population this year, compared to the previous financial year’s allocation, bringing their total high needs funding allocation in 2022/23 to £36.3 million.
Richmondshire District Council falls within North Yorkshire County Council, which will attract an increase of 15% per head of their 2-18 population this year, compared to the previous financial year’s allocation, bringing their total high needs funding allocation in the 2022/23 financial year to £71.3 million.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on allocating additional funding to local authorities to increase SEND provision in schools.
Answered by Will Quince
The total core schools budget is increasing to £56.8 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. This represents a £7 billion cash increase, compared with the 2021/22 financial year, and will benefit those pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream schools.
Within this, for those pupils with more complex needs, the department has increased high needs funding in the 2022-23 financial year by £1 billion to a total of £9.1 billion.
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council will attract an increase of 16% per head of their 2-18 population this year, compared to the previous financial year’s allocation, bringing their total high needs funding allocation in 2022/23 to £36.3 million.
Richmondshire District Council falls within North Yorkshire County Council, which will attract an increase of 15% per head of their 2-18 population this year, compared to the previous financial year’s allocation, bringing their total high needs funding allocation in the 2022/23 financial year to £71.3 million.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase SEND provision in (a) Barnsley (b) Yorkshire.
Answered by Will Quince
In March 2022, the department announced the High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA), amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. This funding is to support local authorities to deliver new places for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. It is also to improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision (AP).
This funding forms part of the £2.6 billion the department is investing between 2022 and 2025 and represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. It will support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
Barnsley received a total of just over £7.1 million through these allocations announced in March 2022 and just under £1.5 million through previous HNPCA allocations announced in April 2021 to deliver new places for the 2022/23 academic year. It is ultimately up to each local authority to determine how to best utilise their HNPCA funding to address local priorities.
Local authorities within the broader Yorkshire and the Humber region collectively received a total of just over £132 million through the HNPCA announced in April 2022. Prior to that, the region received a total of just over £21 million through the HNPCA funding announced in April 2021.
Alongside HNPCA grants, the department is also supporting local authorities to achieve our shared endeavour to secure a financially sustainable high needs system. This is through our investment of £9.1 billion high needs revenue funding in the 2022/23 financial year (a £1 billion increase from the 2021/22 financial year), our continuing work with local authorities as part of the safety valve programme, the introduction of the Delivering Better Value programme, our ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, and the recommendations outlined in the SEND and AP Green Paper.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of making financial support available to child minders where they are unable to provide childminding services as a result of someone in their household testing positive for covid-19.
Answered by Will Quince
The department has recently reviewed and updated guidance for childminders with the UK Health Security Agency. From Thursday 17 March 2022, childminders can continue to childmind in their homes if someone who lives with them has tested positive or has COVID-19 symptoms.
Childminders are advised to follow the steps below to reduce the risk of onward transmission:
Additional information on how to stay safe and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 can be found in guidance published by the Cabinet Office, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae?utm_source=17%20March%202022%20C19&utm_medium=Daily%20Email%20C19&utm_campaign=DfE%20C19.
Childminders can also consider using alternative places to operate such as other childminders’ houses, where possible.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of giving native British Sign Language users training and full accreditation as British Sign Language teachers in statutory education.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is determined that all children and young people, including those who are deaf or have a hearing impairment, receive the support they need to succeed in their education. Those teaching classes of children with sensory impairment must hold an appropriate qualification approved by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. Teachers working in an advisory role to support such pupils should also hold the appropriate qualification.
Wider decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rest with schools, headteachers, and teachers themselves, as they are in the best position to judge their own requirements, which may include further training and development relating to British Sign Language.
All teachers in local authority maintained schools or non-maintained special schools in England are required to hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), which is awarded upon successful completion of an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course.
All ITT courses must be designed to allow trainees to reach the Teachers Standards, including standard 5, which states that teachers should “adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils”. Standard 5 is clear that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. The Teachers’ Standards are available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards.