Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to Russell Group universities for students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to widening participation to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups. Figures from UCAS figures show that the entry rate for disadvantaged young people to the most selective institutions –such as those from the Russell Group - has increased 52% proportionally between 2009 and 2016.
The latest guidance from Government to the Director of Fair Access (February 2016) acknowledges that, whilst selective institutions have made progress in widening access to higher education, more could and should be done. As such we have asked the Director to challenge institutions to see that more progress is made. Through the access agreement process there are regular discussions with each higher education institution about their plans and progress in widening participation.
In its strategic plan the Office for Fair Access has set the sector an objective, to be achieved by 2019-20, to make faster progress to increase the entry rate of students from under-represented and disadvantaged groups entering more selective institutions and narrow the participation gap between people from the most and least advantaged backgrounds at such institutions.
From January 2018, the Office for Students (OfS), with a new Director for Fair Access and Participation appointed by the Secretary of State, will take on responsibility for widening participation in higher education. The OfS will have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity across the whole lifecycle for disadvantaged students, not just access. As a result, widening access and participation will be at the core of the OfS’ functions. In addition, our reforms will introduce a Transparency Duty requiring higher education providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, dropout and attainment rates of students broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the level of teacher shortages in (a) the London Borough of Haringey and (b) London.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The latest available information is published as part of the underlying data for the Statistical First Release, School Workforce in England 2016. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2016.
The published data shows that in 2016, Haringey had a vacancy rate of 0.3%. For Inner London, the vacancy rate was 0.2%.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to increase the number of apprentices undertaking apprenticeships at level 3 or above.
Answered by Anne Milton
We are implementing employer led apprenticeship reforms to continue to improve the quality of apprenticeships for all and to reach our commitment of 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020.
Supported by the Institute for Apprenticeships, employers are designing new high quality apprenticeship standards to ensure apprenticeships are more responsive to their needs.
By 2020 there will be one new standard for each occupation identified by employers as requiring an apprenticeship, standards currently available range from levels 2 to 7: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/apprenticeship-standards.
The availability of apprenticeships at level 3 or above will be determined by employer groups choosing to develop new standards and employers choosing to offer apprenticeship opportunities.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications on individual testing entitlement for her policy of the recommendations of Professor Alison Wolf's report, Remaking Tertiary Education, published in November 2016.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
We welcome contributions to our thinking from experts on, and from within, the education sector. We are committed to delivering high performing further, technical and higher education, which represents good value for people throughout their lives.
For example, we have legislated to remove the barriers to the provision of two-year degrees. We are also introducing a new maintenance loan for part-time undergraduate study for academic year 2018/19 and intend to offer maintenance loans to support students on further education courses at Levels 4 and 5 in National Colleges and Institutes of Technology. This year’s Spring Budget committed £40million to fund pilots that will test ambitious, new approaches to removing barriers adults might face when considering re-entering education.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of lifelong learning on (a) economic growth and productivity, (b) unemployment and (c) the health and wellbeing of people involved in lifelong learning.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government recognises the importance of lifelong learning as a way for individuals to upskill and reskill throughout their lives, letting them access and stay in secure employment in response to labour market shifts such as increasing automation. Allowing workers to respond to these shifts contributes to the country’s economic resilience and productivity. Continuing to learn can also play a role in wellbeing later in life.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to increase the number of individuals aged 24 and over in part-time and full-time education.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to ensuring all individuals have the opportunity to make the most of their potential. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper, published in January, outlined some of the challenges that adults face when considering re-entering education. This year’s Budget therefore committed £40million to fund pilots to test ambitious, new approaches to remove these barriers.
We want to increase participation in higher education by older and part-time students, and we have taken action to support those who choose to study part-time. These measures include:
In addition, we are extending undergraduate maintenance loans to distance learners from academic year 2019/20, subject to the development of a robust control regime.
We are also removing barriers to accelerated courses. Evidence shows that accelerated courses appeal particularly to mature students who want to retrain and enter the workplace more quickly than a traditional course would permit. We have already made provisions in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 to remove a key barrier to the growth of these courses, and will now consult on implementation and setting a new fee cap specifically for accelerated courses in secondary legislation.
The Office for Fair Access has also asked universities to consider the different barriers mature learners may face in accessing, succeeding in, and progressing from higher education, and to consider what more they can do to attract and support part-time learners across the whole student lifecycle as part of their Access Agreements.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships on the new Trailblazer apprenticeship standards have been commenced in (a) Borough of Haringey, (b) London and (c) England in the last 12 months.
Answered by Anne Milton
A number of apprenticeship standards have been developed by trailblazer groups.
The number of starts on standards is published in the further education and skills statistical first release. This contains starts on standards since their introduction in September 2014, but geographical breakdowns have not been published to date.
The latest publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-july-2017.
Previous and future editions can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education-and-skills-statistical-first-release-sfr.
The data below is based on a breakdown of academic years between May 2015 to July 2016, and from August 2016 to April 2017 reported to date.
| Last 12 months reported |
Borough of Haringey | 60 |
London | 1,800 |
England | 12,150 |
Grand total | 12,500 |
Note: The England total is based on starts for learners with home postcodes in English regions, whereas the Grand Total will include some learners outside English regions but undertaking apprenticeships in England, and also learners where the home postcode is not known.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fathers on (a) the development of children in the early years and (b) life chances.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Fathers play a fundamental role in their children’s development and future. The recently published study of early education and development (SEED) impact at age 3 report (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627108/SEED_Impact_at_age_3_Research_Brief.pdf) demonstrated the important role parents play, particularly through the impact of the home learning environment (HLE). These findings are underpinned by findings from the effective pre-school, primary and secondary education (EPPSE) study (available here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/research/featured-research/effective-pre-school-primary-secondary-education-project/publications/#), which showed that the quality of the early HLE impacts on educational attainment through to GCSE and A-Level. The father’s level of educational qualifications specifically is also important for a range of cognitive, social emotional and other outcomes.
Early years providers are required, through the early years foundation stage framework (EYFS), to engage with parents and carers on their child’s development at home. Children’s centres, as set out in their core purpose, provide local services to parents to narrow inequalities in parenting aspirations and parenting skills. And in 2017, the department also put in place voluntary and charity sector grants worth almost £1.7m to improve the quality of the HLE for disadvantaged families and improve access to the disadvantaged two year-old offer.