Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department provides to primary schools seeking to achieve the goals set out for the PE and Sports Premium who wish to use that premium to buy equipment.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Education’s full guidance for the use of PE and Sport Premium can be viewed online at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools.
The guidance is clear that primary schools have considerable freedom to use the PE and Sport Premium in the way which will best meet the needs of their pupils. It cannot be used to fund capital expenditure, but the department does not set the capitalisation policy for each school. School business managers, school accountants and their auditors are best placed to advise on school’s agreed capitalisation policy, and how it relates to the purchase of sport equipment.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding the Government provides to support the siblings of children with palliative care needs who meet the definition of being young carers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government is committed to supporting young carers - to improve their health and wellbeing, and to protect them from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities. Since April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support, under Section 17 of the Children Act (1989).
The ‘carers action plan’, a two-year programme of tailored work to support unpaid carers of all ages, aims to improve the identification of young carers; improving their educational opportunities and outcomes; providing support to young carers, particularly to vulnerable children; and improving access to services. The plan can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carers-action-plan-2018-to-2020.
In December 2016 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published the guidelines ‘End of life care for infants, children and young people with life-limiting conditions: planning and management’. The guidance emphasises the need to be aware that siblings will need support to cope with: their brother's or sister's condition and death, and the effects of their parents' or carers' grieving. This may include social, practical, psychological and spiritual support. The guidance can be viewed here: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng61.
The Department for Education provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils; each eligible pupil attracts £1,320 to primary schools and £935 to secondary schools. Eligibility for the pupil premium is based largely on current or past claims for free school meals. Some research with young carers aged 14 to 16 suggested that around 60% already attract the pupil premium through their eligibility for free school meals.
We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium and do not tell them how to use it - schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant to meet pupil needs, which may include needs arising from a caring role. Schools are held to account for their pupil premium use through school inspection and information in performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details about their pupil premium strategy and its impact.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the siblings of children with life threatening and terminal conditions are identified as young carers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government is committed to supporting young carers - to improve their health and wellbeing, and to protect them from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities. Since April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support, under Section 17 of the Children Act (1989).
The ‘carers action plan’, a two-year programme of tailored work to support unpaid carers of all ages, aims to improve the identification of young carers; improving their educational opportunities and outcomes; providing support to young carers, particularly to vulnerable children; and improving access to services. The plan can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carers-action-plan-2018-to-2020.
In December 2016 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published the guidelines ‘End of life care for infants, children and young people with life-limiting conditions: planning and management’. The guidance emphasises the need to be aware that siblings will need support to cope with: their brother's or sister's condition and death, and the effects of their parents' or carers' grieving. This may include social, practical, psychological and spiritual support. The guidance can be viewed here: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng61.
The Department for Education provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils; each eligible pupil attracts £1,320 to primary schools and £935 to secondary schools. Eligibility for the pupil premium is based largely on current or past claims for free school meals. Some research with young carers aged 14 to 16 suggested that around 60% already attract the pupil premium through their eligibility for free school meals.
We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium and do not tell them how to use it - schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant to meet pupil needs, which may include needs arising from a caring role. Schools are held to account for their pupil premium use through school inspection and information in performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details about their pupil premium strategy and its impact.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) the cost to the public purse of increasing free childcare provision to all two year old and younger children, and (b) the economic effect of increasing free childcare provision.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government has no plans to extend the early learning for two-year-olds programme. However, the government does have a range of offers available to support parents with care for children under the age of 12 (or children with disabilities until the age of 17). The government is already supporting working parents of two-year-olds with middle or higher incomes. We have also introduced Tax-Free Childcare, which will be available to around 1.5 million households to help pay for childcare costs. Parents can also claim up to 85% of their childcare costs through Universal Credit.
In September 2017, the government introduced 30 hours free childcare for working parents, which gave parents who qualified an additional 15 hours a week of free childcare.
In September 2018, the department published an independent year one evaluation of 30 hours[1]. The evaluation showed that 30 hours is making a real difference to family finances with the majority of parents reporting that they had more money to spend (78%).
Over a quarter of mothers said, they had increased their hours and more than one in ten (15%) stated they would not be working without the extended hours. These effects were stronger for lower income families.
The study also showed that over half (51%) of providers increased staff hours or number of staff to deliver extended hours.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's definition is of wholly or mainly used when deciding whether a detached playing field is part of a school's premises or is a facility used by a school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s understanding of the term ‘used wholly or mainly’, in the context of determining if land forms part of a school’s premises, is whether the school has exclusive or majority use or enjoyment of the land for greater than 50% of the time.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the support of autistic spectrum children in education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local councils have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act (2014) to identify needs in their local area.
They also have a duty, together with partner agencies, to commission services to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. This includes services for children and young people with autism. These services must be included in each council’s ‘local offer’ of available services. Each local offer must be reviewed regularly in consultation with local families, which involves taking the families’ views into consideration when assessing demand and local needs.
Core funding for schools and high needs has risen from almost £41 billion in the period 2017 to 2018 to £42.4 billion in the period 2018 to 2019. £6 billion of this funding is allocated for high needs.
We have provided an additional £140 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019 and will provide an additional £120 million in the period 2019 to 2020. This supports local authorities to meet the needs of all children and young people with more complex SEND, including those with autism.
In Bristol, the local authority will receive £51 million in high needs funding in the period 2018 to 2019, which is 2.7% more than in the period 2017 to 2018. Figures for each local authority can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.
Additionally, the department has been funding the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to provide training for early years, school and further education staff. To date, the AET has provided training, through sub-contracted ‘hubs’, for more than 185,000 education staff so that they support children and young people with autism. This contract was extended from April 2018 to March 2020 with a further £1.45 million.