Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Tottenham of 2 October 2020 on school funding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I can confirm that a response to the letter dated 2 October 2020 has been sent to the hon. Member for Tottenham.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers employed by the state sector are non-UK EU nationals.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Migration Advisory Committee’s report, ‘A full review of the Shortage Occupation List (May 2019)’, estimated that around 4% of secondary school teachers and around 2% of primary and nursery school teachers were born in the EEA (excluding the UK).
The Department publishes data on the nationality of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) trainees. In 2019-20, there were 28,859 postgraduate new entrants to ITT whose nationality was known (98% of all postgraduate new entrants). Of these, 5% (1,484) were EEA nationals (excluding the UK). This is the same proportion as in academic years 2018-19, 2017-18, and 2016-17.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what effect the end of the transition period will have on UK students studying at universities in EU member states.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The UK Government has negotiated a deal which allows us to leave the EU without disruption on 31 January 2020. Under the Withdrawal Agreement, EU rules and regulations will continue to apply in the UK during the transition period until 31 December 2020. Throughout the duration of the transition period UK students studying in the EU will be able to continue their studies as they do now.
Our future relationship with the EU will be negotiated during this transition period. Protecting the rights of both UK Nationals in the EU and EU citizens in the UK is an absolute priority for this government, and it is of mutual interest to both the UK and the EU to agree a future partnership that helps to create a new generation of globally mobile, culturally agile people who can succeed in an increasingly global marketplace.
This is supported by the new Political Agreement, published in October 2019, which makes clear that the UK remains committed to exploring ongoing cooperation with the EU on education, science and innovation.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many officials in his Department have been seconded away from their normal duties to work on the UK's withdrawal from the EU; and what effect that secondment of staff has had on the effectiveness of his Department.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department constantly reviews its capabilities and allocation of resources in order to effectively deliver the government’s agenda. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU Exit implementation is carried out to high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of the government.
It is therefore only sensible that we make use of the resources and expertise we have available to make sure that the UK is prepared for all Brexit scenarios. This includes departments sharing staff and working together on joint projects.
Internal transfers and loans are agreed locally, so the department does not hold this information centrally.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were referred to children’s services on multiple occasions before receiving support from those services in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Education does not hold the information in the format requested.
The number of children that were referred to children’s services on multiple occasions before receiving support is not routinely produced.
The department publishes figures on the total number of referrals to children’s social services within one reporting year, number of referrals which were within 12 months of a previous referral and the number of children re-referred within 12 months.
These figures for the past 6 years are available in table A1 of the main tables in the ‘Characteristics of children in need: 2017 to 2018’ statistical release on gov.uk and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018/.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many disabled children received social care in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of children in need at the 31 March 2018 with a disability recorded is published in the annual ‘Characteristics of Children in need’ publication. The most recent publication is available on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018 and a table summarising the last three years is attached.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much central government funding was allocated to local authority children and young people’s services in (a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018; and what proportion of that funding was allocated to early help services in each of those years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As children’s services are delivered through local government, the vast majority of their funding comes through the local government finance settlement (LGFS).
Over the 5 year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, councils have access, through the LGFS, to over £200 billion to deliver local services. This core spending power, £43.7 billion in 2016-17, £44.3 billion in 2017-18 and £45.1 billion in 2018-19, is un-ring fenced and it is for local authorities to determine spend across different areas according to local priorities, including children’s and early help services.
In addition to this the Autumn Budget announced a further £410 million in 2019-20 for local authorities to invest in adult and children’s social care services. It also announced £84 million of extra funding, over the next 5 years, to support local authorities to invest in initiatives that improve social work practice and decision making.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assurance his Department provides to parents that data on children collected for educational purposes will not subsequently be used for immigration enforcement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes information about all of its data sharing as part of its commitment to transparency which includes the number of records shared from the Department for Education to Home Office (HO) to support HO Immigration Enforcement’s key objectives of preventing abuse of immigration control. This publication (last updated on 13 December 2018) can be found on GOV.UK at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares
This information is also included within the suggested wording for privacy notices that the Department makes available for schools to support them with communicating appropriate messages about how an individual’s personal data will be used.
The HO can only request information from the Department for Education for immigration enforcement purposes in circumstances where they have clear evidence a child may be at risk or there is evidence of illegal activity, including illegal immigration. In such cases limited data including a pupil’s address and school details may be requested from the National Pupil Database. It is right that this data is shared if it helps to keep a child safe from harm or to disrupt a crime.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, by what process may schools retract nationality data submitted to his Department between October 2016 and June 2018.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collected data on the nationality, country of birth and proficiency in English of pupils via the school census between autumn 2016 and summer 2018. The data was collected for the purposes of educational research to help us understand the impact of migration on the school system. Understanding trends in migration, and the associated needs in the school system, helps us ensure that all children, wherever they are from, have the best possible education.
The requirement for parents or guardians to provide information on their children’s nationality and country of birth was always optional and the school census guidance expected schools to ensure that they were made aware of their right to decline to provide this data. Guidance also advised schools to inform parents that if they wished to retract any nationality or country of birth information returned in a previous census, they should inform their school of this decision. This would then be transferred to the department and the department would remove from its systems any information previously returned. As this data is no longer collected, the last opportunity for parents to retract this information was via the last collection in summer 2018.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department shares national pupil data with the Home Office for purposes related to immigration; and how many records have been shared by his Department since May 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Where the police or Home Office have clear evidence that a child may be at risk or evidence of criminal activity, including illegal immigration, limited data including a pupil’s address and school details may be requested from the National Pupil Database. It is right that we share this data if it helps to keep a child safe from harm or to disrupt a crime.
The basis for sharing information is set out in a Memorandum of Understanding between the two departments. This sharing does not include the pupil nationality and country of birth data previously collected by the Department for research purposes.
The department publishes information about all of its data sharing as part of its commitment to transparency. This publication (last updated on 13 December 2018) can be found on GOV.UK at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares.