Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in the Walsall North constituency will receive a cash increase in their budget per pupil for 2019-20.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities continue to be responsible for distributing funding to schools in their local area in 2019-20. School allocations for 2019-20 are yet to be confirmed by local authorities. They will be published in due course.
The table attached shows notional allocations through the national funding formula (NFF) for schools in Walsall North in 2019-20, and compares these to the 2017-18 baselines. The notional NFF figures are based on 2018-19 pupil data.
Total funding per pupil, which includes both pupil-led and school-led funding, may decrease when the number of pupils increases because school-led funding, which does not vary with pupil numbers, is divided by a greater number of pupils. The attached table shows both changes in total funding per pupil and changes in pupil-led funding per pupil.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated to Walsall Council to support children with SEND needs in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local authorities are required to provide schools with sufficient funds to enable mainstream schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, up to the value of £6,000. This funding comes from the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). While authorities will identify a notional SEN budget for each school within the school’s overall budget, that notional budget is not ring-fenced, and schools are expected to manage their overall budget to best meet the need of all their pupils, including pupils with SEN.
When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This top-up funding, and all funding for special schools comes from the local authority’s high needs budget. In December 2018, we announced an additional £250 million in high needs funding across the current financial year and the next, bringing Walsall’s total high needs funding to £31.5 million in 2018-19.
In 2013, the schools and high needs budgets within the DSG were created. As the DSG includes other budgets such as the early years budget, the department is unable to provide comparable figures before 2013-14.
The schools and high needs allocations for Solihull since 2013-14 are as follows:
Year | Schools | High Needs |
2013-14 | £181.5 million | £27.3 million |
2014-15 | £183.4 million | £28.3 million |
2015-16 | £191.0 million | £28.4 million |
2016-17 | £195.0 million | £28.8 million |
2017-18 | £199.5 million | £29.9 million |
2018-19 | £204.8 million | £31.5 million |
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £100 million investment through the social mobility action plan, entitled Unlocking talent, fulfilling potential (a) will be and (b) has been allocated to Walsall North to support social mobility in early years education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on funding at constituency level is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Walsall local authority currently receives funding for the 2-year-old offer, and take-up is currently at 62%. Walsall has bid for the schools nursery capital fund and is a partner to Wolverhampton’s bid to the early outcomes fund, both of which are currently being assessed. The outcomes will be announced in due course.
In addition, the department has commissioned an early years special educational needs and disability (SEND) partnership led by the National Children's Bureau. This project aims to improve the quality of provision for children with SEND in the early years by building the confidence, knowledge and ability of the workforce to identify and support children with SEND. The West Midlands is one of the regions that the National Children’s Bureau will be working with.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeships.
Answered by Anne Milton
The best promoters of apprenticeships are apprentices themselves and young apprentice ambassadors network play an important role is this. I would also like to commend the work of Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network who’s work makes sure that we reach the widest possible number of people.
The National Apprenticeship Service promotes apprenticeships by working with schools and works with the largest levy-paying employers to help them grow their programme. We have a number of campaigns including Get in Go far, targeting specific sectors and telemarketing.