Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his Answer of 7 December 2018 to Question 117413 on Schools: Finance, how many disapplication requests for the ring-fenced dedicated schools grant his Department received from local authorities for the financial year 2018-19.
Answered by Nick Gibb
To date, for the 2018/19 funding year, there have been forty-eight requests to disapply the Dedicated Schools Grant conditions of grant in relation to the movement of funding out of the schools block. Nineteen of these requests have since been withdrawn.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to make a decision on whether to grant the requests he has received from councils to disapply guidelines on the ring-fenced dedicated schools grant for the 2018-18 financial year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already made decisions on some cases and the relevant local authorities (LA) have been informed. We are still reviewing the other cases received, and will give LA's a decision shortly. Each request requires detailed review against the criteria issued in August 2017 and in some cases further information has been needed, on matters such as school forum decisions and local consultation, before a decision can be taken.
LA's are required to issue budgets to all their maintained schools by 28 February, and we have committed to ensuring that all decisions on disapplications are communicated in time for LA's to meet that deadline.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress is being made on the review of parents’ right to retract nationality and country of birth data submitted through the school census; and whether parents will still be able to retract this data by responding that they refused in the Spring census.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Parents will remain able to retract nationality and country of birth information previously submitted through the school census for the remainder of the current academic year.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Memorandum of Understanding between her Department and the Home Office published in December 2015, whether nationality data is used in the data-matching process that matches her Department's records with Home Office records submitted to it.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Nationality data is not used in the data matching process that matches Department for Education data with the Home Office.
The current Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and the Home Office, which was revised in October 2016, is in the House Library.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps she is taking to support local authorities to meet the cost of providing school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are providing high needs funding of £5.84 billion to local authorities this year, rising to £5.97 billion next year, to help local councils support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Earlier this year we gave local councils £23 million to support a strategic review of their special provision, and have allocated £215 million of capital funding to enable local councils to create more places for those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities (a) submitted a request to disapply regulations (b) had a request to disapply regulations granted and (c) disapplied regulations relating to the ring-fenced dedicated schools grant in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are still in the process of collating and categorising requests from local authorities for disapplication from the school finance regulations for the 2018-19 financial year. The information requested by the Rt hon. member for Kingston and Surbiton will not be available until approximately mid-December.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities have requested permission to disapply guidelines on the ring-fenced dedicated schools grant for the financial year 2018-19; and what is the disapplication each wishes to make.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are still in the process of collating and categorising requests from local authorities for disapplication from the school finance regulations for the 2018-19 financial year. The information requested by the Rt hon. member for Kingston and Surbiton will not be available until approximately mid-December.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the finding in the London Councils' Ask the Parents: the Fifth Year Survey, published in November 2017, that 35 per cent of parents in London have been asked to make financial contributions to their school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In July 2017 we announced an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, in addition to the schools budget set at Spending Review 2015. This means funding per pupil for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms for the next two years.
Nothing in legislation prevents a school from asking for voluntary contributions for the benefit of the school or any school activities and this is a matter for schools. However, no parent is required to make a contribution to their child’s education. The rules are clear and no policies have been introduced by this government to allow schools to charge for education provided during school hours and this includes the supply of any materials or equipment.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much schools have spent on advertising for teacher posts in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not have the specific data requested but it is committed to helping schools recruit teachers as efficiently as possible. We have therefore begun to develop a teacher vacancy site that will enable schools to recruit teachers without paying for advertising.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much (a) schools and (b) colleges have spent on private sector recruitment and search agencies for teacher recruitment in each in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not have the specific data requested but it is committed to helping schools recruit teachers as efficiently as possible. We have therefore begun to develop a teacher vacancy site that will enable schools to recruit teachers without paying for advertising.