Fiona Bruce

Details of how the online harms legislation will apply to pornography sites, will be published later this year in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation.

Details of how the online harms legislation will apply to pornography sites, will be published later this year in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation.

Details of how the online harms legislation will apply to pornography sites, will be published later this year in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

Our Online Harms proposals will go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites and provide a higher level of protection for children. Our new approach will include social media companies and all sites on which there is user-generated content, including major pornography sites.

We published the Online Harms Initial Consultation Response in February this year. It was clear that the duty of care would ‘apply to companies that provide services or use functionality on their websites which facilitate the sharing of user generated content or user interactions’. Where pornography sites have such functionalities (including video and image sharing, commenting and live streaming) they will be subject to the duty of care. Our analysis indicates that where commercial pornography sites do not enable user-generated functionalities, they instead usually require payment, providing a deterrent for children from accessing them.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. As we announced on 16 October last year, the government has decided that the policy objective of protecting children online from age inappropriate content can be best delivered through our wider online harms proposals. Our Online Harms proposals will deliver a higher level of protection for children and we expect companies to use a proportionate range of tools, including age assurance and age verification technologies, to prevent children accessing age-inappropriate content such as online pornography. This approach will achieve a more consistent and comprehensive approach to harmful content across different sites and go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites.

We will publish a Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation later this year. We will follow the full Government Response with legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.

As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including children’s charities, on a variety of issues. We engaged with a number of children’s charities on our proposals to protect children through the new online harms regulatory framework, as part of our wider public consultation on the Online Harms White Paper last year. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.

Football clubs form an integral part of this country and it is important they are given as much support as possible during these difficult times.

In light of this, the Government announced a comprehensive and sizable package of direct fiscal support for business through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support. Clubs can apply to the Football Foundation’s “Club Preparation Fund” for a grant as well to make the necessary changes and modifications to allow them to reopen.

It is also vital that the football community comes together at this time, and I welcomed the Premier League announcement to advance funds of £125 million to the EFL and National League to help clubs throughout the football pyramid.

The Government will continue to liaise closely with all the football authorities to further understand the difficulties clubs are experiencing.

The Connecting Cheshire programme, which covers Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington Borough Councils, have launched a new procurement
exercise at the end of June, under the BDUK Superfast Programme banner. The available funding through this procurement is £4.5m targeting the remaining premises within the area that are currently without a superfast broadband connection. Until the procurement activity is concluded in the Autumn it isn't possible to confirm which supplier could be awarded a contract or which premises will benefit from this activity.

Hassall Parish Council and other rural areas can benefit from the Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme. The Government wants to ensure nationwide coverage of gigabit capable broadband as soon as possible. Many addresses in the Hassall Parish Council may be eligible for the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, which is delivered by many suppliers in the area, including Openreach.

The Government has also announced that it will invest a further £5 billion to provide gigabit-capable networks in the hardest to parts of the UK. This funding will focus on connecting more rural and remote areas but, alongside this, the Government is also taking action to reduce the barriers to deployment, and make it cheaper and easier for operators, including BT Openreach, to roll out broadband commercially.

Finally, some addresses may be eligible to request an improved connection under the Universal Service Obligation. BT is the designated Universal Service Provider for all areas
the UK, apart from Hull. The USO provides every UK household with the legal right to request a broadband connection that provides download speeds of at least 10Mbps and an upload speed of at least 1Mbps, where this is not already available or is not due to be made available within a year through a publicly funded intervention.

This Government recognises how severely regional theatres, and the wider Arts sector, have been hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

In order to support the Arts sector through the pandemic, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England (ACE) to provide a tailored package of financial support. In March, ACE announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and to ensure immediate resilience of this vital sector.

This package includes £140 million of support for artistic organisations including regional theatres, and £20 million for individuals, including self-employed theatre practitioners, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. More than 9000 individuals and organisations have been successful in applying for this emergency funding.

The Secretary of State, myself and officials continue to consult the arts sectors extensively to ensure we fully understand the impacts of Covid-19 and remain well placed to respond as the landscape develops. On the basis of that engagement, DCMS and ACE are continuing to work closely to consider the additional measures that are needed to ensure the long-term recovery and growth of the cultural sector, including regional theatres and theatre practitioners.

The government welcomes the National Audit Office’s report on Gambling Regulation: Problem Gambling and Protecting Vulnerable People and is considering its recommendations carefully, including the recommendation to review whether arrangements for consumers when things go wrong are working effectively.

The government has also committed to review the Gambling Act 2005 to make sure it is fit for the digital age. Further details will be announced in due course.

Advertising in the UK is overseen by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the industry’s independent regulator, which for online advertising enforces the Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) through a system of self-regulation. The CAP Code incorporates all relevant legislation and sets standards for accuracy and honesty to which advertisers must adhere, including specific conditions on advertising to children, causing offence and social responsibility. This system operates independently of government.

The Code recognises the social imperative of ensuring alcohol advertising is responsible, and requires that it not be targeted at people under 18 and should not imply, condone or encourage immoderate, irresponsible or anti-social drinking.

The government is reviewing how online advertising is regulated in the UK, looking at how well the current regime is equipped to tackle the challenges posed by developments in online advertising. Although this work will not directly address issues specific only to the advertising of alcohol, it will consider cross-cutting challenges - including exploring measures with potential to impact the wider sector. A call for evidence on online advertising was published last month.

Families play a critical role in caring for and educating their children; and the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for cross-government collaboration to provide support to families. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is driving forward this government’s focus on improving outcomes for families’ and has appointed a Departmental Policy Adviser on families.

On family hubs, the department is investing over £14 million and is taking steps to champion this approach. We expect to have completed the procurement of a National Centre for family hubs by March 2021 and for the centre to be up and running by spring 2021. We are also investing in an evaluation innovation fund, and work to develop data and digital products to help professionals collaborate and plan with families in the early years.

To support and strengthen families, and to ensure children have the best start, the department has:

• launched an Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, on 15 January 2021;
• announced that the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) will continue for a further year up to March 2022 (£185 million has been made available through the core ASF to help pay for essential therapeutic services for over 65,000 adoptive and eligible special guardianship families since 2015);
• launched the cross government special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) review to strengthen the support available to children and young people, and their families;
• continued to deliver 30 hours childcare places to nearly 350,000 children in January 2020, with over one million disadvantaged two-year-olds having benefitted from 15 hours free childcare since the entitlement began in 2013;
• commenced reform of the early years foundation stage to improve outcomes for all children at age five, especially disadvantaged children, and to reduce the workload so practitioners and teachers can spend more time teaching children;
• introduced the Nuffield Early Language Intervention to 40% of primary schools in the 2020-21 academic year to address the education recovery needs of reception-age children;
• continued to work with voluntary and community sector partners and deliver online resources to help parents engage in home learning activities with under-fives to support early language, literacy and numeracy development, and parent and child mental health and wellbeing, and to support children with SEND;
• worked in partnership with Public Health England, the Local Government Association and the Early Intervention Foundation to secure improved early language outcomes for disadvantaged children through effective integration of local services;
• spent more than £18 billion since 2011 – and another £2.4 billion this year – through the pupil premium to tackle educational inequality;
• supported families through free school meals (FSM) - under the benefits-related criteria there are currently around 1.4 million pupils eligible for and claiming FSM, saving families around £400 a year for each child. In addition, the Holiday Activity and Food programme will expand in 2021 so that disadvantaged children across England will be offered free healthy meals and enriching activities over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays through a £220 million investment.

Families play a critical role in caring for and educating their children; and the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for cross-government collaboration to provide support to families. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is driving forward this government’s focus on improving outcomes for families’ and has appointed a Departmental Policy Adviser on families.

On family hubs, the department is investing over £14 million and is taking steps to champion this approach. We expect to have completed the procurement of a National Centre for family hubs by March 2021 and for the centre to be up and running by spring 2021. We are also investing in an evaluation innovation fund, and work to develop data and digital products to help professionals collaborate and plan with families in the early years.

To support and strengthen families, and to ensure children have the best start, the department has:

• launched an Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, on 15 January 2021;
• announced that the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) will continue for a further year up to March 2022 (£185 million has been made available through the core ASF to help pay for essential therapeutic services for over 65,000 adoptive and eligible special guardianship families since 2015);
• launched the cross government special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) review to strengthen the support available to children and young people, and their families;
• continued to deliver 30 hours childcare places to nearly 350,000 children in January 2020, with over one million disadvantaged two-year-olds having benefitted from 15 hours free childcare since the entitlement began in 2013;
• commenced reform of the early years foundation stage to improve outcomes for all children at age five, especially disadvantaged children, and to reduce the workload so practitioners and teachers can spend more time teaching children;
• introduced the Nuffield Early Language Intervention to 40% of primary schools in the 2020-21 academic year to address the education recovery needs of reception-age children;
• continued to work with voluntary and community sector partners and deliver online resources to help parents engage in home learning activities with under-fives to support early language, literacy and numeracy development, and parent and child mental health and wellbeing, and to support children with SEND;
• worked in partnership with Public Health England, the Local Government Association and the Early Intervention Foundation to secure improved early language outcomes for disadvantaged children through effective integration of local services;
• spent more than £18 billion since 2011 – and another £2.4 billion this year – through the pupil premium to tackle educational inequality;
• supported families through free school meals (FSM) - under the benefits-related criteria there are currently around 1.4 million pupils eligible for and claiming FSM, saving families around £400 a year for each child. In addition, the Holiday Activity and Food programme will expand in 2021 so that disadvantaged children across England will be offered free healthy meals and enriching activities over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays through a £220 million investment.

The Department announced further remote education support on 1 October, which will be available over the coming months to schools or colleges seeking additional support. This can be found on the ‘Get help with remote education’ page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

This support was announced alongside the Temporary Continuity Direction, which makes it clear that schools have a duty to provide remote education for school-age children in state-funded education who are unable to attend school due to COVID-19: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/remote-education-temporary-continuity-direction-explanatory-note.

The purpose of the Temporary Continuity Direction is to ensure that there is no doubt about the roles and responsibilities within the system for providing remote education. This will come into effect from 22 October 2020. The Temporary Continuity Direction poses no additional expectations on the quality of remote education expected of schools beyond those set out in this guidance.

The support for schools includes 250,000 laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and development resources for staff, including a good practice guide and school-led webinars. We are also investing £1.5 million of additional funding to expand the EdTech Demonstrator programme, which provides peer-to-peer support for schools and colleges.

This support package will include 80 grants of £1,000 to colleges across England, providing additional training and support for mentors and coaches specialising in assisting teachers with remote education.

The package is designed to help schools and colleges build on and deliver their existing plans in the event that individuals or groups of pupils are unable to attend school because of COVID-19 in line with guidance and the law. This adds to existing support, including resources available from Oak National Academy.

During the lockdown, most children were educated at home. This ‘home-schooling’ is not the same as elective home education (EHE), and children remained on their school roll and received a combination of support from schools, online learning resources such as Oak Academy, and other resources parents may have provided themselves. EHE is where a parent chooses not to send their child to school full-time but assumes responsibility for making sure their child otherwise receives a full-time education.

The Government supports the right of parents to educate children at home through EHE when they wish to do so and can provide a suitable education. EHE works well when it is a positive choice and carried out with a proper regard for the needs of the child.

For parents who wish to educate children at home by EHE, they must be prepared to assume full financial responsibility for their child’s education, including bearing the cost of any public examinations, which would have to be entered via an external examinations centre. Some local authorities may provide financial or other assistance to home-educating families for public examinations, but this is discretionary.

There are already many family hubs across the country up and running. We want to ensure that innovations such as family hubs are recognised and shared, and successful approaches can spread. Local areas are using their existing funding pots to move to a family hub model.

There are already many family hubs across the country up and running. We want to ensure that innovations such as family hubs are recognised and shared, and successful approaches can spread. Local areas are using their existing funding pots to move to a family hub model.

The 2020 Budget allocated £2.5 million for research and developing best practice around the integration of services for families, including family hubs. We will be launching the procurement process for this work shortly.

The government has committed to invest more than £23 billon in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21. This includes a combination of formula and bid-based allocations to schools, local authorities and academy trusts as well as centrally delivered programmes.

As part of this, the Priority School Building Programme is rebuilding or refurbishing buildings in the worst condition at over 500 schools.

The government has provided £560 million in additional condition funding this year for repairs and upgrades in schools - on top of £1.4 billion already committed in 2020-21.

The Prime Minister announced plans in June for a transformative ten-year school rebuilding programme. This will replace poor condition school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.

We will start with 50 schools in the most need of repair, supported by over £1 billion in capital funding, with full details of these projects and further funding for the programme to be set out later in the autumn at the Spending Review.

This is a difficult and uncertain time for students, but the government is working with the higher education sector to make sure that all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. We have seen some fantastic and innovative examples of high-quality online learning being delivered by providers.

The government expects universities to continue delivering a high-quality academic experience and to help students to achieve qualifications that they and employers value. We expect that higher education providers will be open for the autumn term, with a blend of online teaching and in-person tuition that they consider to be appropriate and in line with public health advice. To help providers make informed decisions about their provision in ways which minimise the risk to staff and students, the government has issued guidance for providers on reopening campuses and buildings: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses.

The government is working with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, professional bodies and the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, to ensure that students continue to leave university with qualifications that have real value. The OfS has produced guidance on practical ways in which students can complete their studies whilst ensuring that quality and standards are upheld. The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/guidance-for-providers-about-quality-and-standards-during-coronavirus-pandemic/.

It is an OfS registration condition that providers must deliver well-designed courses that provide a high-quality academic experience for all students and that enable a student’s achievement to be reliably assessed. If providers are unable to facilitate good online tuition, they should seek to avoid charging students for any additional terms that they may need to undergo as a consequence, avoiding effectively charging them twice. Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund of fees will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student.

If a student is concerned about their education, they should speak to their higher education provider in the first instance. The government expects student complaints and appeals processes to be operated flexibly, accessibly and sympathetically by higher education institutions to resolve any concerns. Students who are not satisfied with their provider’s final response can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to consider their complaint if their institution is based in England or Wales.

Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a COVID-19 Summer Food Fund which will enable families with children who are eligible for free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the 6-week holiday period.

Families are free to select the most appropriate food for their child. When selecting products, we encourage families to consider health and nutrition. The School Food Standards and the NHS Eat Well website may act as a useful guide for families. These can be found at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-school-food-in-england and;
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/?tabname=recipes-and-tips.

The vouchers should be used for food and must not be redeemed for any age-restricted items, such as alcohol, cigarettes or lottery tickets. I have recently written to participating supermarkets to ensure their ongoing support in relation to these restrictions.

The Early Intervention Foundation is due to report findings from its review of effective local practice in spring 2020. A publication date is yet to be agreed.

The response in Hansard has been updated to reflect the below information.

We will invest approximately £17 million in the Supporting Families Investing in Practice programme to roll out 3 innovation models that have evidence of successfully keeping families together in a further 46 local authorities. These programme models are Family Group Conferencing, Family Drug and Alcohol Courts and the Mockingbird Family Model.

Up to £84 million will be spent on the Strengthening Families Protecting Children programme to roll out a further 3 innovation programme models that have the most promising evidence of safely reducing the number of children being taken into care. Leeds Family Valued, Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding and North Yorkshire’s No Wrong Door models will be rolled out in 18 local authorities.

Preparation for adulthood, including employment, is a key aspect of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. The SEND Code of Practice sets out that all children and young people with SEND should be prepared for adulthood, including employment, and that this preparation should start early. Schools and colleges should work with children, young people and their families to agree clear outcomes including sustainable paid work and should provide careers guidance and supported work experience.

Work-based learning, including traineeships, is available for all young people aged 16 to 19, and up to age 25 if the young person has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

Supported internships are open to young people with EHC plans aged 16 to 25 who need more help to make the transition into employment.

In December 2017 the Department for Education provided £9.7 million to local authorities to train job coaches and establish supported internship forums. The number of young people undertaking a supported internship has been rising annually. The most recent report was in January 2019 and showed that 1,646 children and young people with EHC plans were undertaking supported internships, an increase from 1,214 from the same time in 2018, 715 in 2017 and 65 in 2016.

Our delivery partner, The National Development Team for Inclusion is funded to provide flexible support across regions, working with Local Authorities and learning providers to ensure quality preparation for adulthood provision, including preparation for employment. We have funded a range of materials which can be found at the following link: https://www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk/downloads/employment. We have also funded Mencap to help colleges arrange work experience placements for learners with SEND.

The government is also committed to ensuring that apprenticeships are available to all young people, including those with SEND. To increase accessibility, we have adjusted the minimum English and maths requirements for apprentices with SEND who have an EHC plan or legacy statement, but who are otherwise able to meet all the occupational standards of their apprenticeship. We are working with local partners to test new policies and deliver more apprenticeships for individuals with SEND. The Department for Education have already begun taking forward the recommendations from Mencap’s July 2019 report on ways to make apprenticeships more accessible for people with SEND.

When an apprentice does need additional support, our funding system helps training providers to put this in place. Currently £150 a month can be claimed to fund a range of support for apprentices with additional educational needs. Additional funding is available if the actual cost of support is greater, up to a maximum of £19,000 per year. Apprenticeship starts by apprentices with a SEND are now at their highest proportion for the last 9 years. In 2018/19 they accounted for 12% of apprenticeships starts, compared to 11.6% in 2017/18.