Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school students receive free school meals in (i) Enfield North constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Over a third of pupils in England now receive FSM in schools and colleges, compared with 1 in 6 in 2010. The Government has extended eligibility several times to more groups of children than any other Government over the past half a century. This includes introducing new eligibility criteria for families receiving Universal Credit, to ensure even more children are eligible FSM.
The Department publishes annual data on free school meal (FSM) eligibility for pupils at schools in England. The most recently published data is for January 2023, and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23. Data for primary and secondary schools in London and Enfield Local Authority can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/7b574105-ac0c-4c93-311f-08db81f158b1.
In Enfield North, 23.3% (1,724) of pupils in state funded primary schools, and 19.6% (1,168) of pupils in state funded secondary schools were eligible for FSM.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) Enfield North constituency and (ii) Enfield.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 2,800 (less than 1%) since last year, and an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.
The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.
The Government remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching.
To support retention across all areas, the Department has worked with the education sector and published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the published workload reduction toolkit, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit, and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. More than 2,600 schools have signed up to the Charter so far.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure the availability of high-quality childcare in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) Enfield.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is determined to support as many families as possible with access to high-quality, affordable childcare. This is why the Spring Budget 2023 announced significant new investments to expand the free early education entitlements from 2024/25, together with uplifts in 2023/24 and 2024/25 for the existing entitlement offers.
Eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.
The government is committed to ensuring that every child in an early years setting, regardless of their background or any additional needs they may have, receives high-quality education and care.
Access to high-quality childcare ensures children and families can fulfil their potential, helping children to learn in their earliest years, and supporting a functioning economy by enabling parents to work.
The department knows that children are accessing high-quality childcare. As of August 2022, 96% of providers on the Early Years Register were rated Good or Outstanding, up from 74% in 2012.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Mental Health Support Teams there were in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London in each year since 2010.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are now in place in approximately 6,800 schools and colleges across the country, with 398 expert teams offering support to children experiencing mental health issues. Further information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1156762/Transforming_CYPMH_implementation_programme__data_release_May_2023.pdf. MHSTs have achieved their NHS Long Term Plan coverage ambition a year early and over 500 MHSTs will be up and running by April 2024.
Data on the roll out of MHSTs is available from 2018/19, when the first wave of ‘Trailblazer’ teams was commissioned.
Data from NHS England shows that as of March 2023, 76 MHSTs are currently up and running in the NHS England London region, rising to 87 teams by April 2024. This has steadily increased from 15 teams in the Trailblazer wave in 2018/19. A link to the data and more information can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/#_Mental_Health_Support. Data on the number of MHSTs is currently only available at Integrated Care System level and not at local authority or constituency level. The London Borough of Enfield sits within the North Central London Integrated Care System, which has 16 MHSTs. A full breakdown of the growth in MHSTs across London is below and further information can be found here: https://nclhealthandcare.org.uk/about/your-area/enfield/.
Integrated Care System | North Central | Total in London |
2018/19 Trailblazer | 4 | 15 |
2019/20 Wave 1 & 2 | 8 | 26 |
2020/21 Wave 3 & 4 | 1 | 19 |
2021/22 Wave 5 & 6 | 1 | 16 |
2022/23 Wave 7 & 8 | 2 | 11 |
Total | 16 | 87 |
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department made available to Enfield Council through the School Condition Allocation in each of the last ten years in real terms.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Over £15 billion has been allocated since 2015 to improve the condition of the estate. In 2023/24, the Department has announced £1.8 billion for improving school buildings, including £1.1 billion in school condition allocations for Local Authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large Voluntary Aided bodies. This is informed by consistent data on the condition of the school estate.
As part of this, Enfield Local Authority has been allocated a School Condition Allocation of £4,937,946 for the 2023/24 financial year to spend in maintained schools. Large multi-academy trusts and large Voluntary Aided school bodies with schools in Enfield will also have been allocated a School Condition Allocation to spend on their school buildings, whilst smaller and single academy trusts were invited to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund, with outcomes now published on GOV.UK including four schools in the Enfield Local Authority area.
Schools maintained by Enfield Local Authority have also been allocated £435,674 in devolved formula capital to spend on their own capital priorities, whilst schools in the Local Authority across all types of responsible body have been allocated £1,227,483.
As well as allocating condition funding, the Department also delivers major rebuilding programmes to improve or replace school buildings. Five schools have been announced in the School Rebuilding Programme, which will transform buildings at those schools by rebuilding or refurbishing poor condition blocks, providing modern designs which are net zero carbon in operation. In addition, four schools within the Enfield Local Authority were included in the Priority School Building Programme.
It is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between annual allocations over time as the methodology used, number of pupils/schools funded and data on the condition of those schools changes over time. It is worth noting that Enfield has seen a significant drop of approximately 40% in the number of schools for which it is responsible over the last ten years.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department allocated to Enfield Council for the Priority school building programme in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There were four schools from Enfield Council included in the Priority School Building Programme, the predecessor to the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP), with a total funding of over £14 million. The projects at Eldon Primary School, Walker Primary School, Durants School and Brimsdown Primary School have all been completed and the schools are able to teach in modern facilities that will inspire generations of pupils.
The SRP was announced in 2020 and will transform buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the next decade. It will rebuild or refurbish poor condition buildings, providing modern designs, with new buildings being net zero carbon in operation. Five schools from within Enfield Council area have been selected for SRP, announced in 2022. These schools are being scheduled for delivery, and the funding for each project will depend on the works at each school. This will be determined when the scope and delivery plans for each project are developed.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Enfield Council through the 16 to 19 Education Grant in each of the last ten years in real terms.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department allocates 16-19 funding, through a national funding formula to individual institutions who can use their funds, as appropriate, to support students in line with the funding rules we set each year. The department publishes allocations by institution. Allocations covering the last 10 academic years can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations.
The 16 to 19 funding is allocated to Enfield London Borough Council as a training provider. The council are also allocated funding to pay maintained school sixth forms and maintained special schools (bursary funding).
The government publishes GDP deflators that can be used to understand the impact of inflation over time. These are available at: GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP March 2023 (Quarterly National Accounts) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Enfield Council through the Summer Schools Grant in each of the last ten years in real terms.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department has made available almost £5 billion for education recovery packages to support children and young people of all ages in catching up on missed education and development. Funding was made available for demand-led summer schools in summer 2021 so that children, particularly in transition years between primary and secondary, could access some of the fundamental teaching and enrichment activities that are so vitally important to development.
The allocations made available to each eligible secondary school, by local authority in England, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-summer-schools-programme-funding.
Enfield London Borough Council was allocated a maximum of £232,830 for its maintained schools. This funding was demand-led and, overall, claims for actual costs were less than that allocated.
Maintained schools received their funding via the local authority and academies received their funding directly in the October/November 2021 funding round.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated to Enfield Council through the Secure Accommodation Grant in each of the last ten years in real terms.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
Enfield Council does not have any secure children’s homes (SCH) and therefore has not been in receipt of a grant for secure accommodation.
The 2021 Spending Review announced a total of £259 million of funding to undertake a programme of work aimed at maintaining sufficiency and expanding provision of both secure and open residential children’s homes estates. A new SCH is proposed for London as part of this. The Pan-London SCH project is at the construction feasibility stage. The project is following a Gateway approach which enables the department to review proposed project costs and progress at key delivery points to ensure value for money and ensure that the project is on track as it progresses.
Once operational, the new facility will provide an additional 24 beds, with plans for four step-down beds for young people with complex needs who require this care.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many social workers are (a) permanent and (b) agency staff; and what the cost is of employing each group in (i) Enfield North Constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department does not collect the number of permanent and agency staff at constituency level, and does not collect data on the cost of employing permanent or agency social workers.
In 2022 there were a total of 5,392.8 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) child and family social workers employed by local authorities in London. In addition there were 1,700 child and family social workers in London that were hired as agency staff. This gives a total of 7,092.8 FTE child and family social workers in London.
In 2022 there were a total of 201.2 FTE child and family social workers employed in the London Borough of Enfield. In addition there were 31.3 child and family social workers in the London Borough of Enfield that were hired as agency staff. This gives a total of 232.5 FTE child and family social workers in the London Borough of Enfield.