Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 12 September 2023 to Question 196441 on Children: Social Services, how the £259 million capital funding for residential children’s homes will be allocated.
Answered by David Johnston
The 2021 Spending Review (SR) announced £259 million over the 2021 SR period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes.
Following this announcement, the department launched several waves of bidding rounds for local authorities to submit applications for this funding for both open and secure children’s homes.
A total of £80 million has been allocated to open children’s homes over two bidding rounds. The remaining £179 million is being allocated to secure children’s homes over two bidding rounds. This includes funding the development of two new Secure Children’s Homes in London and the West Midlands and a rebuild of an existing Secure Children’s Home in Lincolnshire, as well as a number of smaller projects to improve sufficiency in existing secure homes. The department is currently in the process of allocating further funds over the remaining SR period for existing secure homes following the conclusion of a review of the secure estate.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by Become entitled Gone Too Far, published in April 2023, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the proportion of local authorities that do not have a published sufficiency plan for children's social care.
Answered by David Johnston
Local authorities have a statutory duty set out in Section 22(3) of the Children’s Act 1989 to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care. Ofsted currently inspect local authorities’ children’s services and how they are meeting their range of statutory duties.
The department recognises that there are not enough of the right homes in the right places for children in care. The department wants to reduce out of area placements, but in some circumstances, it is the right decision for a child to be placed outside their home authority.
This Government is working to drive forward improvements at a national, regional, and local level to increase sufficiency and improve standards of care and regulations.
By 2027, there will be an increase in the availability of high-quality, stable, and loving homes for every child in care, close to where they are from. To achieve this, the department is supporting local authorities to increase care placements and ensure they meet children’s needs. The department has allocated £259 million of capital funding for secure and open children’s homes and over £27 million to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme.
In the longer-term, Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) will plan, commission and deliver children’s social care placements. Through operating on a larger scale and developing specialist capabilities, the RCCs will be able to develop a wide range of places to better meet children’s needs. This, in turn, should lead to improved placement stability and fewer out of area placements. The department is investing in two pathfinders to test the RCC model in collaboration with local authorities.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the International Education Strategy outlined in 2019 remains his Department's policy objective, including the target for the UK to (a) host 600,000 international students and (b) receive £35 billion export income per year by 2030.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department remains committed and continues to work towards the two ambitions in the International Education Strategy published in 2019 and updated in 2021 and 2022. These ambitions are to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year and to continue to host at least 600,000 international students in the UK per year, both by 2030. With 605,130 international students in the UK hosted in the 2020/21 academic year, the government has met its International Students ambition for the first time, nearly ten years early.
Education exports make an important contribution to the UK economy as well as helping us build global relationships and international students enrich the university experience for all students, including those from the UK themselves. For both international and domestic students, this cultural exchange helps build life-long friendships, future networks, and important business, political and diplomatic bridges.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on the number of children claiming free school meals.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. That includes the introduction of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) and further education free meals, and a permanent extension to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to specified income thresholds.
The latest published statistics, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics, show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming a free meal in school at lunch time. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021.
Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the UIFSM policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with a free meal at lunchtime, at a cost of over £1 billion a year.
The department continues to monitor the situation surrounding the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. The department thinks it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department does not have any plans to extend universal provision, but it will continue to keep free school meal eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. Extending free school meal eligibility to all pupils would carry a significant financial cost.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the analysis of Child Poverty Action Group, published on 9 June 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings relating to the number of children living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. That includes the introduction of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) and further education free meals, and a permanent extension to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to specified income thresholds.
The latest published statistics, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics, show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming a free meal in school at lunch time. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021.
Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the UIFSM policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with a free meal at lunchtime, at a cost of over £1 billion a year.
The department continues to monitor the situation surrounding the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. The department thinks it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department does not have any plans to extend universal provision, but it will continue to keep free school meal eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. Extending free school meal eligibility to all pupils would carry a significant financial cost.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will review the eligibility criteria for free school meals before the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. That includes the introduction of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) and further education free meals, and a permanent extension to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to specified income thresholds.
The latest published statistics, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics, show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming a free meal in school at lunch time. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021.
Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the UIFSM policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with a free meal at lunchtime, at a cost of over £1 billion a year.
The department continues to monitor the situation surrounding the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. The department thinks it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department does not have any plans to extend universal provision, but it will continue to keep free school meal eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. Extending free school meal eligibility to all pupils would carry a significant financial cost.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the findings of Child Poverty Action Group, published on 9 June 2022, on the number of children living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals, whether he is taking steps to ensure that all children living in poverty have access to healthy meals.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. That includes the introduction of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) and further education free meals, and a permanent extension to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to specified income thresholds.
The latest published statistics, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics, show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming a free meal in school at lunch time. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021.
Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the UIFSM policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with a free meal at lunchtime, at a cost of over £1 billion a year.
The department continues to monitor the situation surrounding the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. The department thinks it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department does not have any plans to extend universal provision, but it will continue to keep free school meal eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. Extending free school meal eligibility to all pupils would carry a significant financial cost.