Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the most deprived families of the cessation of free school meal vouchers over the 2020 summer holidays.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave on 23 June 2020 to Question 54195.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the transmission rate of covid-19 is low and manageable in (a) nurseries, (b) primary schools, (c) secondary schools and (d) sixth form colleges.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As a result of the huge efforts everyone has made to adhere to strict social distancing measures, the transmission rate of COVID-19 has decreased and the Government’s five tests have been met. Based on all the evidence, the Department asked primary schools to welcome back children in nursery, Reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside priority groups (vulnerable children and children of critical workers), from 1 June. From 15 June, secondary schools can invite year 10 and 12 pupils (years 10 and 11 for alternative provision schools) back into school for some face-to-face support with their teachers, to supplement their remote education, which will remain the predominant mode of education for these pupils this term. Priority groups can continue to attend full-time.
Ensuring the safety of children, young people, the workforce and families is our overriding priority, and we have been led by the science in determining when it is safe to bring children back. We are taking a phased approach to opening up schools and other education settings to more children, to limit the risk of increasing the rate of transmission. It is important to underline that all education and childcare settings remain safe places for children.
The Department has published extensive and detailed guidance for settings, also for parents and carers, on how to prepare. All of the Department’s COVID-19 guidance for childcare and educational settings – including that on implementing protective measures and preparing settings to reopen - can be found in one place on GOV.UK at:
The measures set out in the protective measures guidance – including the ability to access the new national test and trace programme - can be seen as a hierarchy of controls that, when implemented, creates an inherently safer system, where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.
We continue to follow the best scientific advice and believe that our cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take. We will only ask schools and further education colleges to welcome more children and young people back when the scientific advice indicates that we can. If necessary, we will ask settings to re-impose measures.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to tackle the digital divide between pupils from poorer and wealthier backgrounds.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers. The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets for vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver.
We are providing over 50,000 4G wireless routers to disadvantaged children with a social worker in secondary school, care leavers and children in Year 10 who do not have access to a suitable internet connection through other means. We are also working with the country’s major telecommunication companies to make it easier for children in vulnerable and disadvantaged families, who are relying on mobile data, to access online educational resources.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to support apprenticeships in Suffolk.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We have introduced a wide range of reforms to improve the quality of apprenticeships and to encourage employers across England to create more high-quality apprenticeship opportunities.
Since May 2010, there have been 4,392,000 apprenticeship starts in England. Of these, 55,390 apprenticeship starts have been in Suffolk.
From August 2020, all starts will be on the new apprenticeship standards which are replacing frameworks. These are designed and driven by industry to create apprenticeships that are high quality, providing employers in Suffolk and across England with the skills that they need. Over 510 apprenticeship standards have already been approved for delivery to apprentices.
We are working hard to encourage take-up of our apprenticeship programme. The third phase of the Fire it Up campaign launched in January, targeting those audience groups that contribute to widening participation in apprenticeships. Our 13th annual National Apprenticeship Week took place in February. Nearly 900 events were held across the country, aiming to change perceptions of apprenticeships.
In addition, in January 2018, we introduced a legal requirement for schools to give training providers the chance to talk to pupils about technical qualifications and apprenticeships in order for young people to hear about alternative options to academic routes. We also offer a free service to schools through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) project to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and support to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students. In the last academic year, the ASK Programme reached over 300,000 students.
This year (2019-20), funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion, which is double what was spent in 2010. This is supporting employers of all sizes, across England, to provide high quality apprenticeship opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds.
We are moving smaller employers onto our award-winning apprenticeship service to give them a greater choice of training providers. They can also benefit from transferred funds from levy payers. Levy transfers can help to support new apprenticeship starts in supply chains and address local skills needs. Suffolk County Council and New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnerships are working with local employers to take advantage of transfers in order to support more small and medium-sized employers in the area to offer apprenticeships.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to allocate additional resources for apprenticeships in the agricultural sector.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We have introduced a wide range of reforms to improve the quality of apprenticeships and to encourage employers of all sizes and in all sectors across England to create more high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds.
This year (2019-20), the funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion, which is double what was spent in 2010. To support employers in sectors such as agriculture to address their skills needs and grow their apprenticeship programmes, we are moving smaller employers onto our award-winning apprenticeship service. This will give these employers a greater choice of training providers. Smaller employers, such as those in supply chains, can also benefit from transferred funds from levy payers.
New high-quality apprenticeship standards, designed and driven by industry, are providing employers with the skills that they need. Over 510 apprenticeship standards have been approved for delivery to apprentices so far. From August 2020 all starts will be on these employer-designed standards.
Standards available in the sector include land-based service engineering, crop technician and farrier at level 3, and poultry worker and abattoir worker at level 2. Further standards are in development including agriculture / horticultural professional adviser at level 6. The agriculture sector can also benefit from standards available that support all employers, such as those in business and administration, and digital. A number of T level pathways including the agriculture, environmental and animal care T Level are also being developed.
Our apprenticeships reforms are helping agricultural technologies to transform farming, creating new types of jobs and requirements for new kinds of skills, and a sufficient and appropriately skilled workforce, which is essential to continued industry growth, productivity and safety.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to schools in Suffolk in each year since 2009-10.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The revenue funding allocated for schools for the financial years 2009-10 to 2018-19 for Suffolk local authority (LA) are shown in the table below.
Financial Year | Suffolk LA (£ millions) |
2009-10 | 420.9 |
2010-11 | 444.4 |
2011-12 | 448.2 |
2012-13 | 457.6 |
2013-14 | 483.2 |
2014-15 | 497.0 |
2015-16 | 514.8 |
2016-17 | 518.7 |
2017-18 | 529.2 |
2018-19 | 549.6 |