Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the additional £3.7 million allocated to Shropshire schools was previously allocated to another area of her Department's spending.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We have an announced an additional £1.3bn investment in core schools funding across 2018-19 and 2019-20, including an additional £3.7m for schools in Shropshire.
This additional £1.3bn investment will be funded in full from efficiencies and savings from within the Department's budget. We believe it is right to prioritise core schools funding, even as we continue the vital task of repairing the public finances. Making savings and efficiencies allows us to maximise the funding which is allocated directly to schools, which can ensure that it is spent where it will have the greatest impact. It will not be possible to attribute funding increases in specific areas to particular savings and efficiencies.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which heads of multi-academy trusts earn more than £150,000 per annum.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
A list of academy trusts paying staff more than £150,000 will be included in the 2015/16 Academy Sector Annual Report and Accounts (SARA), which is due to be published in October 2017. The information however does not contain the names of the employees, as the data is not reported through the academy accounts.
Academy trusts are responsible for setting their own remuneration for staff. It is essential that we have the best people to lead our schools if we are to raise standards, but we expect pay to be commensurate with the size of the trust and performance. Most academy leaders earn under £110k – the national maximum (excluding London) of the pay range for the leadership group.
Trusts must disclose senior staff pay annually in their audited accounts. The Education and Skills Funding Agency follows up, on a risk basis, where non-compliance is identified.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training the Government is providing for teachers on the new GCSE grades system.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The independent exams regulator Ofqual, the awarding organisations and the Department for Education (DfE) have been providing, since 2014, a full range of information including guidance to teachers on the new 9 to 1 grading scale for reformed GCSEs in England. All awarding organisations must comply with Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition, which include rules related to the provision of effective guidance to schools and colleges (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-the-general-conditions-of-recognition).
Ofqual’s information campaign on the changes to GCSEs and the new grading scale has included speaking events, regular newsletters as well as blogs, postcards, webinars and advertising on social media and catch up television. Additionally, in July 2016 and March this year all schools and colleges were sent a joint DfE/Ofqual slide pack which provides teachers with a single source of information about the changes to GCSEs, and also to AS and A levels. This can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/march-2017-ofqual-letter-to-schools.
More recently, on 20 and 21 June, we launched a new webpage (https://newgcses.campaign.gov.uk/) and fact sheets (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-new-grading-scale-factsheets) which provide information for teachers, and also for students, parents, employers, and others who work in education.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Shropshire Council secondary schools have an allocated Careers and Enterprise Company adviser.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Helping all young people to get the careers education and guidance they need to climb the ladder of opportunity is crucial to delivering real social justice. We are investing £90m over this Parliament to ensure that every young person has equal access to the life-changing advice and inspiration that they need to fulfil their potential and succeed in life. This includes funding for The Careers & Enterprise Company to continue the excellent work it has started to transform the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people.
Based on the most recent data, the Company’s Enterprise Adviser Network is now active in 37 out of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnership areas. 1,618 secondary schools and colleges across the country have signed up to the network and 1,422 Enterprise Advisers are working with them. In Shropshire, 13 secondary schools are signed up to the Enterprise Adviser Network, of which 10 are matched with an Enterprise Adviser and 3 are due to be matched.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that careers advice in schools promotes vocational learning.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This Department is committed to ensuring that technical education has the same prestige as academic education. We are simplifying the routes into technical education, and raising the standards of these routes, to ensure they are valued both by students and by employers.
Good careers education and guidance is vital in allowing every individual to climb the ladder of opportunity and find a fulfilling education or training route that is right for them, whether this is an academic route, technical route or apprenticeship. Schools have an important role to play and already have a legal duty to secure independent careers guidance for 12- to- 18- year-olds. This must include information on the full range of education and training options, including apprenticeships.
Government has established The Careers & Enterprise Company to play a lead role in transforming the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people. The Company has introduced a nationwide network of Enterprise Advisers who are working directly with over 1,500 schools and colleges to help them to develop closer links with business. The Enterprise Advisers have been briefed on technical education opportunities and will take the messages promoting technical education into schools as an essential part of a wide offer of careers information.
We want to go further and ensure that young people hear directly from the providers of technical education to inform their decisions at important transition points. The Government has accepted an amendment to the Technical and Further Education Bill that will require schools to give education and training providers the opportunity to talk to pupils in years 8-13 about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships that they may offer. This will strengthen the Bill by ensuring that young people hear much more consistently about the merits of alternatives to academic and school-based routes and are aware of all the routes to higher skills and into the workplace.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the quality of training provided through the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Quality is at the heart of our apprenticeships reforms. Employers are designing new high quality apprenticeship standards providing the valuable skills they need, overseen from 1 April by the new Institute for Apprenticeships. Rigorous end-point assessments and grading will raise the quality of apprenticeships giving employers confidence that apprentices are ‘job-ready’ because they have to demonstrate full occupational competence in order to pass.
The Apprenticeships Levy comes into effect on 6 April 2017. We are putting control of funding firmly in the hands of employers, so they can invest in quality training.
The Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers was published on 14 March 2017. Only providers listed on the Register are approved to deliver apprenticeship training to employers from May 2017 and all will be subject to enhanced monitoring and assurance.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of recent changes in local government funding on the workloads of staff in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Removing unnecessary workload for teachers is a priority for the Government. We are continuing our extensive work with the profession, teaching unions and Ofsted to challenge unhelpful practices so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and continue to inspire all young people to fulfil their potential.
We have protected the core schools budget in real terms. That means that in 2016-17, schools will have more funding than ever before for children’s education, totalling over £40 billion, the highest on record.
We have published a wide range of tools, information, and support for schools, to support them to improve their financial health and efficiency, in one collection at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/schools-financial-health-and-efficiency.
This includes School Workforce Planning Guidance to help school leaders when reviewing their staff structures.
On Friday 24 February we published the findings of the Department’s Teacher Workload Survey of 2016, and a clear action plan, including an offer of targeted support for schools to tackle workload where it is most needed.