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 Ministerial colleagues in the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing on the potential impact of extending the allocation of 30 hours free childcare for children of working parents to children on Early Years Pupil Premium on regional inequality.
Answered by Will Quince
30 hours free childcare aims to help working parents with three and four year olds with the costs of childcare, helping them to take up paid work or take on additional hours. To be eligible, parents must earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum wage and less than £100,000 per year. The government currently has no plans to extend this scheme to those children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium, who would not already qualify for 30 hours free childcare.
The Early Years Pupil Premium gives providers additional funding to disadvantaged three and four year olds pupils, if the child receives the universal 15 hours entitlement and they meet the eligibility criteria. Further information on eligibility for the Early Years Pupil Premium can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/get-extra-early-years-funding.
Whilst most children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium are unlikely to be eligible for 30 hours free childcare, the government provides a range of childcare support for parents on a low income across the country.
In England, all three and four year olds, and some disadvantaged two year olds, are eligible for 15 hours of free education for 38 weeks per year, regardless of parental income or employment status. This entitlement helps children to develop social skills and prepares them for school and is distributed at a local level through local authorities.
Further help is available to working parents on a low income through Universal Credit, where up to 85% of childcare costs can be reimbursed, up to a maximum of £646 for one child or £1108 per month for two or more children and is available across the UK. Parents in England who receive help with their childcare costs through Universal Credit can claim this in addition to the free early education entitlements offered by the Department for Education.
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 financial viability of extending the allocation of 30 hours free childcare beyond the children of working parents and to children on Early Years Pupil Premium.
Answered by Will Quince
30 hours free childcare aims to help working parents with three and four year olds with the costs of childcare, helping them to take up paid work or take on additional hours. To be eligible, parents must earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum wage and less than £100,000 per year. The government currently has no plans to extend this scheme to those children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium, who would not already qualify for 30 hours free childcare.
The Early Years Pupil Premium gives providers additional funding to disadvantaged three and four year olds pupils, if the child receives the universal 15 hours entitlement and they meet the eligibility criteria. Further information on eligibility for the Early Years Pupil Premium can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/get-extra-early-years-funding.
Whilst most children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium are unlikely to be eligible for 30 hours free childcare, the government provides a range of childcare support for parents on a low income across the country.
In England, all three and four year olds, and some disadvantaged two year olds, are eligible for 15 hours of free education for 38 weeks per year, regardless of parental income or employment status. This entitlement helps children to develop social skills and prepares them for school and is distributed at a local level through local authorities.
Further help is available to working parents on a low income through Universal Credit, where up to 85% of childcare costs can be reimbursed, up to a maximum of £646 for one child or £1108 per month for two or more children and is available across the UK. Parents in England who receive help with their childcare costs through Universal Credit can claim this in addition to the free early education entitlements offered by the Department for Education.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has provided to support the 300 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for Afghan nationals at UK universities under Operation Warm Welcome; and how many of those scholarships have been awarded.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
A significant cross-government effort is underway, called ‘Operation Warm Welcome’, to ensure Afghans arriving in the UK receive the vital support they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education, and integrate into their local communities.
As part of Operation Warm Welcome, it was announced there would be further funding for up to 300 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for Afghans at UK universities. The department will update with further details of this programme in due course.
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 ensure that all (a) teaching and (b) support staff in schools are trained in handling children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Answered by Robin Walker
All teachers are teachers of special education needs and disabilities (SEND), and the high quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with SEND are given the best possible opportunity to achieve at school.
From September 2020, all new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence based professional development and support, starting with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) based on the new ITT Core Content Framework (CCF), and followed by a new two-year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF).
The CCF sets out a minimum entitlement of knowledge, skills and experiences that trainees need to enter the profession in the best position possible to teach and support all pupils to succeed, including those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the SEND code of practice.
ITT providers must design their courses to incorporate the knowledge, skills and experiences detailed in the CCF into a coherent sequence to support trainees to develop their expertise. Courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs.
The Department’s vision is that ITT based on the CCF will be the foundation on which early career training and support is built. The ECF underpins what all Early Career Teachers should learn, and learn how to do, based on expert guidance and the best available research evidence. It was designed in consultation with the education sector, including SEND specialists, and covers five core areas: behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours. It is designed to work for all Early Career Teachers regardless of subject, phase or school.
Alongside this, through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs, the department has funded the Whole School SEND consortium to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching for all children and young people with SEND. This includes providing training and resources for teaching and support staff. The funding in the 2021-22 financial year will bring the total funding for this contract to over £8 million since 2018.
High-quality professional development is important for teachers at all stages of their careers, to ensure they receive appropriate support and to enable them to consistently improve their practices. Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rightly 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 pupils and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to publish the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities review.
Answered by Will Quince
The special educational needs and disability (SEND) Review was set up to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND, with a focus on targeting and distributing resources in a way that best ensures children’s needs are met quickly and effectively.
The Department for Education is working with a range of partners including children and young people with SEND, the Children’s Commissioner, parents and carers, system leaders, SEND sector organisations, representatives from educational establishments and many others.
Proposals are being developed and we will consult publicly on them. We are not yet in a position to provide a firm date for the publication of proposals but are looking to do so as soon as 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 (a) level of reduction in funding for Higher Education arts subjects in England and (b) potential effect of that change in funding on the future (i) accessibility and (ii) viability of cultural and creative sectors.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
In January 2021, the former Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson), my right hon. Friend for South Staffordshire, asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Strategic Priorities Grant for the 2021-22 academic year[1].
The OfS consulted on the proposals and has recently published its conclusions. Following careful consideration of the issues raised in consultation responses, the former Secretary of State for Education issued Terms and Conditions of funding to the OfS (in relation to London Weighting and high-cost subject funding) to ensure the government’s priorities for the grant were implemented this year.
For the 2021-22 academic year, the high-cost subject funding rate for arts and music courses has been set at £121.50 – this is equivalent to a reduction of around 1% in combined funding (on a per-student basis) from a £9,250 tuition fee and OfS grant funding compared to 2020-21. Total funding for high-cost subjects, such as medicine and engineering, is 12% higher than last year, an increase of £81 million[2].
The government continues to value performing arts and creative subjects. High quality provision in a range of subjects is critical for our workforce and our public services, as well as being intellectually rewarding and culturally enriching for those studying them and wider society.
As part of the same reform programme, we asked the OfS to invest an additional £10 million in our world-leading specialist providers, many of which specialise in arts provision. We want to ensure that such providers receive additional support, and that grant funding is used effectively to support students, including those with an interest in the cultural and creative sectors.
The government supports the arts throughout the education system. For example, the government has invested nearly £620 million during 2016-21 in a diverse portfolio of music and cultural education programmes to ensure all school children, whatever their background, have access to a high-quality education in music and arts[3].
[2] https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/b2eaeeb4-7fed-4eda-9868-a4671f170129/recurrent-funding-2021-22.pdf Table 2: Recurrent grant budgets for academic year 2021-22 (£ millions).
[3] https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-09-06/43435.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to allocate additional local authority funding to support schools to provide (a) breakfast clubs and (b) after school clubs until the Breakfast Clubs programme procurement closes.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Earlier this year, we released an invitation to tender worth up to £24 million to continue our support for school breakfast clubs. This will enable our investment in school breakfast clubs to continue until 2023, making sure that thousands of children in disadvantaged areas have a healthy start to the day. The outcome from this procurement process will be available shortly. This builds on the investment of up to £38 million in school breakfast clubs which the government has delivered since 2018. The current contract is due to complete in July 2021, and the new procurement will enable our provision to continue seamlessly.
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 effect of supporting more universities to offer foundation year courses on the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
We recognise that foundation years can play an important role in enabling students with lower prior attainment, potentially from disadvantaged backgrounds, to access high tariff provision. We also recognise their role in allowing students to switch subjects. Some universities are already using high-quality foundation years in ways which provide good value for these students, and we are pleased to support such universities.
We are committed to ensuring that all foundation years continue to provide good value for money and provide a distinct benefit to students.
We plan to consult on further reforms to the higher education system, including the treatment of foundation years, in summer 2021, before setting out a full response to the report and final conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding alongside the next Comprehensive Spending Review.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of universities that offer foundation year provision.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
We recognise that foundation years can play an important role in enabling students with lower prior attainment, potentially from disadvantaged backgrounds, to access high tariff provision. We also recognise their role in allowing students to switch subjects. Some universities are already using high-quality foundation years in ways which provide good value for these students, and we are pleased to support such universities.
We are committed to ensuring that all foundation years continue to provide good value for money and provide a distinct benefit to students.
We plan to consult on further reforms to the higher education system, including the treatment of foundation years, in summer 2021, before setting out a full response to the report and final conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding alongside the next Comprehensive Spending Review.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to increase the number of special educational needs and disabilities places in schools in the Barnsley Central constituency.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. We are supporting local authorities to fulfil this duty by investing £300 million in the 2021-22 financial year to support local authorities to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children with SEND or who require alternative provision.
On 9 April 2021 we announced that Barnsley has been allocated almost £1.5 million of this funding via its High Needs Provision Capital Allocation. It will be for Barnsley to determine how best to use this funding to address their local priorities and local authorities are free to work with any schools in their area.
This funding is on top of the £365 million we invested nationally through the Special Provision Capital Fund between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 financial years, and our continued investment in the free schools programme. We are also providing an increase in revenue funding for those children and young people with more complex needs, of nearly a quarter (24%) over 2 years, bringing the total high needs budget to more than £8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year.
Further funding for new high needs places will be subject to the outcomes of the next government spending review, where we will have a chance to consider how we can best support the sector in the round.