Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the new family hubs are able to meet the specific needs of disabled children, young people and their families.
Answered by Will Quince
The government announced £82 million to create a network of family hubs. This is part of a wider £300 million package to transform services for parents and babies, carers and children in half of the local authorities across England. The family hubs investment is in addition to the £34 million we had already committed to champion family hubs.
Family hubs are a way of joining up locally and bringing existing family help services together to improve access to services, connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and putting relationships at the heart of family help. Family hubs bring together services for families with children of all ages (0 to 19 years old) or those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from 0 to 25 years old, with a great Start for Life offer at their core. How services are delivered varies from place to place, but they can include services for disabled children, young people and their families. The decision on how best to meet the needs of the local population will be for the local council concerned. The SEND Review is looking at ways in which to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Proposals for consultation will be published in the first three months of next year.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with Ministerial colleagues in the Treasury on increasing the annual net earned income threshold for Free School Meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The department supports over 1.7 million pupils from the lowest income families to concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom through the provision of free school meals. An additional 1.3 million infants receive a free meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals policy.
In 2018, the government introduced new eligibility criteria for families on Universal Credit, following a consultation in 2017. It was estimated that this will be more generous in its reach by 2022, in comparison to the legacy benefit system. Further to this, we included generous protections which mean any family eligible for free school meals transitioning to Universal Credit from a legacy benefit will continue to have access to free school meals even if they move above the earnings threshold.
The government will fully consider the recommendations of the National Food Strategy, which included recommendations around free school meal eligibility, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children whose parents are in receipt of Universal Credit who do not receive a free school meal.
Answered by Will Quince
The department supports over 1.7 million pupils from the lowest income families to concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom through the provision of free school meals. An additional 1.3 million infants receive a free meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals policy.
In 2018, the government introduced new eligibility criteria for families on Universal Credit, following a consultation in 2017. It was estimated that this will be more generous in its reach by 2022, in comparison to the legacy benefit system. Further to this, we included generous protections which mean any family eligible for free school meals transitioning to Universal Credit from a legacy benefit will continue to have access to free school meals even if they move above the earnings threshold.
The government will fully consider the recommendations of the National Food Strategy, which included recommendations around free school meal eligibility, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to increase the threshold for Free School Meals in line with the National Food Strategy recommendations.
Answered by Will Quince
The department supports over 1.7 million pupils from the lowest income families to concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom through the provision of free school meals. An additional 1.3 million infants receive a free meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals policy.
In 2018, the government introduced new eligibility criteria for families on Universal Credit, following a consultation in 2017. It was estimated that this will be more generous in its reach by 2022, in comparison to the legacy benefit system. Further to this, we included generous protections which mean any family eligible for free school meals transitioning to Universal Credit from a legacy benefit will continue to have access to free school meals even if they move above the earnings threshold.
The government will fully consider the recommendations of the National Food Strategy, which included recommendations around free school meal eligibility, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with HM Treasury on increasing funding for Free School Meals, in response to the recent increase in the National Living Wage.
Answered by Will Quince
The department supports over 1.7 million pupils from the lowest income families to concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom through the provision of free school meals.
The National Funding Formula (NNF) includes a free school meal factor value of £460 per eligible pupil. This factor value will increase to £470 per eligible pupil as part of the overall increase to the core schools budget for financial year 2022-23. Local authorities distribute this money to schools through their local funding formula, which must include additional funding for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those eligible for free school meals.
The department is investing a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in 2022-23.
The £4.7 billion investment includes a further £1.6 billion in financial year 2022-23, on top of the year on year increase already announced as part of the 2019 spending round. This additional funding will help the school sector respond to the pressures we know they are facing.
The NNF continues to distribute this fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. The department will make announcements on the breakdown of the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 core school budgets in due course, as well as the distribution of the additional £1.6 billion of funding confirmed for 2022-23.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential implications of (a) funding and (b) supply chain pressures in the school meals industry.
Answered by Will Quince
Department officials hold regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the School Food Standards.
There is no evidence to suggest widespread disruption to education as a result of issues with food supply but in the event of any disruption to supply, we will work with councils and the sector to ensure nutritious meals can continue to be provided.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has contingencies in place in the event that school meal providers go out of business as a result of increasing funding pressures.
Answered by Will Quince
Department officials hold regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the School Food Standards.
There is no evidence to suggest widespread disruption to education as a result of issues with food supply but in the event of any disruption to supply, we will work with councils and the sector to ensure nutritious meals can continue to be provided.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues in the Treasury on funding challenges in the school meals industry.
Answered by Will Quince
Department officials hold regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the School Food Standards.
There is no evidence to suggest widespread disruption to education as a result of issues with food supply but in the event of any disruption to supply, we will work with councils and the sector to ensure nutritious meals can continue to be provided.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, what steps his Department is taking to measure the progress of the restoration of disabled children’s social care services to pre-pandemic levels.
Answered by Will Quince
From day one of the COVID-19 outbreak, the government’s priority for vulnerable children has been to keep them safe, protect their welfare and put their best interests at the heart of every decision.
This is why we kept schools open for children with a social worker and children with special educational needs and disabilities, ensured that social workers observe those that do not attend, and that children needing social care support have continued to be identified. The government also provided more than £6 billion in non-ringfenced funding directly to councils during COVID-19 to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including children’s social care, further to their core spending power.
Local authorities set their own children’s services budget from this core spending power, based on local need and priorities. This year, councils have access to £51.3 billion for their services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care.
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced at Spending Review 2021 that the government will provide local authorities with £4.8 billion of new grant funding over the next Spending Review period, which is intended to help meet the costs of delivering care for our most vulnerable children. This will enable the sector to maintain vital frontline services, including disabled children’s social care services.