Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2017 to Questions 110785, 110786 and 110787, how many children diagnosed with autism have received a permanent or fixed period exclusion in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The table attached provides the number of pupils with autism as their primary need who received fixed period and permanent exclusions.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Government plans to introduce legislative proposals to remove the 50 per cent cap for Catholic schools.
Answered by Anne Milton
The proposals set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools do not require any legislative changes. The department is considering carefully the results of the consultation and plan to respond on this in due course.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the methods schools will use to raise the first £6,000 for high-needs intervention required by the new funding formula.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities in mainstream schools attract funding to their schools through the formula set by the school’s local authority. The funding formula is decided by each local authority in consultation with its schools, and local authorities are required to delegate funds through the formula to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN up to £6,000 per annum. This constitutes each school’s notional SEN budget. Local authorities use various factors to give an estimate of the number of children with SEN a school is likely to have, and consequently the notional SEN budget that the school will receive. The introduction of a national funding formula for determining schools and local authorities’ funding from April 2018 will not change this arrangement.
The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2017 state that local authorities must identify each school’s notional SEN budget from which schools are expected to meet the additional costs of their pupils with SEN, up to £6,000 per annum. Schools should therefore discuss with their local authority how much is needed for this purpose.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how his Department reached a figure of £4,800 as the assumed figure to deliver secondary education according to the new funding formula.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Following consultation on the national funding formula, the Government examined how best it can support schools with lower levels of additional needs funding. A number of consultation replies requested the Government set a minimum level of funding per pupil. A range of different minimum levels of per pupil funding were proposed, but the most commonly suggested level for secondary schools was £4,800. We believe that setting a minimum amount of £4,800 in 2019-20 strikes an appropriate, affordable balance in the formula.
The Government does not suggest that £4,800 per pupil is the minimum amount needed to run a secondary school. There is no consensus on the minimum operating cost of a school and we believe it should be for heads and governors to decide their operating model.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average rate of exclusion for children with autism as their primary need was in (a) Gloucestershire and (b) the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The attached tables provides information as requested on the number of pupils receiving permanent and fixed period exclusions by special educational needs provision in schools in Gloucestershire local authority and the number and rate of exclusions for pupils with autism as their primary need in Gloucestershire local authority and England.
Exclusions of pupils with Learning Difficulties Assessments and for schools outside of England are not collected by the department.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in Gloucestershire with autism as their primary need received a permanent or fixed period exclusion in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The attached tables provides information as requested on the number of pupils receiving permanent and fixed period exclusions by special educational needs provision in schools in Gloucestershire local authority and the number and rate of exclusions for pupils with autism as their primary need in Gloucestershire local authority and England.
Exclusions of pupils with Learning Difficulties Assessments and for schools outside of England are not collected by the department.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children with an (a) Education, Health and Care plan, (b) Statement of SEN or (c) Learning Difficulties Assessment received a permanent or fixed exclusion within Gloucestershire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The attached tables provides information as requested on the number of pupils receiving permanent and fixed period exclusions by special educational needs provision in schools in Gloucestershire local authority and the number and rate of exclusions for pupils with autism as their primary need in Gloucestershire local authority and England.
Exclusions of pupils with Learning Difficulties Assessments and for schools outside of England are not collected by the department.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the new funding formula for schools includes funding for students with high needs; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 14 September, we published our decisions on the introduction of a national funding formula for schools (which provides core funding for all mainstream schools), and a national funding formula for high needs (which provides place funding for special schools, and top-up funding for high needs pupils in both special and mainstream schools).
Under the national funding formulae, mainstream schools will be expected to contribute the first £6,000 of additional funding for any pupil on their roll with high needs from their schools block funding. When a school can demonstrate that the costs of additional support required for a pupil with high needs exceed £6,000, the local authority should allocate additional top-up funding from their high needs budget to cover the excess costs. This process is the same as under the previous funding system. This is explained in paragraph 54 of the High Needs funding 2018 to 2019 operational guide, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2018-to-2019. If a school has concerns about the level of funding they receive for their pupils with high needs, it should discuss it with their local authority in the first instance.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the use of finger printing of school children for identification purposes.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Some schools in England use fingerprinting for the purposes of administering payment for school meals. Biometric systems can have a number of advantages, including removing issues around lost money, reduced queueing times and reducing the stigma associated with free school meals. Many children are already familiar with this technology as used, for example, to unlock a smart phone. However, the government does not endorse any particular approach, and governing boards are responsible for the day to day running of schools.
Further information on “Protection of children's biometric information in schools” is available on our website at: http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/advice/f00218617/biometric-recognition-systems.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons funding that was previously directed to support specific additional needs is now to be directed towards minimum levels of per pupil funding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national funding formula protects the £5.9 billion total for funding directed towards additional needs, as proposed in our consultation. It distributes that funding in line with the best available evidence: using a broad measure of deprivation to include all those who are likely to need extra help; and increasing the proportion of additional needs spending allocated on the basis of low prior attainment, to give additional support to those who need help to catch up.
We heard throughout the consultation that we could do more through our formula to support those schools that attract the lowest levels of per pupil funding. We have listened carefully, and with the additional investment of £1.3 billion, have decided that it is appropriate both to raise the basic amount that each pupil attracts, and to target additional funding to the lowest funded. We believe that this will help ensure that every school has the resources it needs to provide appropriate support to all of its pupils. None of this additional funding has been found by reducing funding directed towards additional needs.