Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his revised timetable is for the delivery of a special educational needs school at the Rose Hill site in Sutton.
Answered by Will Quince
The forecast opening date for the special educational needs school in Rosehill, Sutton, is September 2024, subject to planning approval. The academy trust and local authority are aware that the department is working towards this date.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Archdiocese of Southwark on the diocese's decision to (a) remove foundational governors from the Governing Board of The John Fisher School in Purley and (b) to cancel the visit of an LGBT+ author from visiting that school; and what discussion he has had with the diocese to encourage it to engage with meditation with that school.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is working with the Archdiocese, the Catholic Education Service, and the local authority to agree a way forward to ensure continuing stable governance and pupil education at John Fisher School in Purley.
The governing body and the National Education Union entered talks mediated by the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service with the aim of halting further disruption to pupils’ education. Agreement was reached and there is no further planned industrial action at the school.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish his revised timetable for the (a) delivery of The Futures Academy school on the Sheen Way site and (b) decamp of staff and pupils from the Carew Manor site.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is working closely with the Orchard Hill College and Academy Trust and the local authority to build the new special free school, Carew Academy (formerly known as The Futures Academy). The school will provide high quality, modern facilities that will give young people with special needs in Sutton the best possible start to their lives.
The department will be able to provide greater certainty on the delivery of the school and proposed opening date once the outstanding planning conditions have been satisfactorily resolved with the local authority.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to revisit the decision on funding for Sutton Free School 1 in the event that data demonstrates a need for further secondary school places in the London Borough of Sutton.
Answered by Robin Walker
Sutton Free School 1 was cancelled because opening the school would have resulted in a large surplus of secondary places over the medium to long term, undermining the viability of other good schools in the area. Once a project has been formally cancelled by ministers, that decision cannot be revisited.
However, should pupil forecasts change and demonstrate the need for a new school there is still the opportunity for a new secondary free school to be established in Sutton. Indeed, where a local authority thinks there is a demographic need for a new school in its area, it must seek proposals to establish an academy. This is known as the free school presumption process. The department also approves new academies through a central free school application route. The Schools White Paper set out our intention to seek proposals for new mainstream free schools in the areas of greatest need for additional places, prioritising proposals located in Education Investment Areas. This process will take account of the latest data on the need for additional school places. We will set out more details on this process in due course.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps he is taking to build new schools.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
Through the free schools programme, this government has funded thousands of high quality new school places across the country.
We have approved 225 applications from groups that we are now working with to establish new free schools. This includes 73 special and 9 alternative provision free schools.
The Priority Schools Building Programme is replacing or refurbishing buildings at 537 schools.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled, Build build build: Prime Minister announces New Deal for Britain, how much funding he plans to allocate to school building upgrade projects in Carshalton and Wallington constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has announced a transformative, ten-year programme to rebuild school buildings. This will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.
We have committed over £1 billion to fund the first 50 projects of the ten-year programme. These projects will be confirmed in the autumn, and construction on the first sites is expected to begin in autumn 2021. Further details of the new ten-year rebuilding programme, including additional funding, will be set out following the Spending Review.
We are also providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to support essential maintenance projects. This comes on top of over £1.4 billion capital funding already provided for school maintenance in the financial year 2020-21. We will set out details of how the additional capital funding will be allocated shortly.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to issue guidance to special educational needs co-ordinators on (a) the services they are expected to provide from the mainstream budget, (b) when an Education, Health and Care Plan is required and (c) other aspects of the Children and Families Act 2014.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We recognise the important role that Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) play in schools in supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We do not currently have plans to issue specific guidance to SENCOs as the role and responsibilities of SENCOs are set out in the SEND Code of Practice, which is the statutory guidance that schools must have due regard to.
In addition, we have provided funding to the Whole School SEND Consortium (WSS) to develop resources specifically to support SENCOs. This includes a SENCO Induction Pack to help new SENCOs in their role, which can be accessed at: www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/sencos-area. The induction pack includes further information on the statutory framework; Education, Health and Care Plans; and managing SEND provision.
The WSS is also developing an ‘Effective SENCO Deployment Guide’ to help school leaders consider how they can best support the SENCO in their school. Furthermore, we are reviewing the learning outcomes for the National Award in SEN Co-ordination to ensure it best prepares SENCOs for their role.