Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on achieving the ambition in the Child Obesity Plan to update the Schools Food Standards to reduce children's sugar consumption.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department is working with Public Health England (PHE) to update the School Food Standards in relation to sugar and fibre. On 7 May and 6 November 2019, we brought together an advisory group comprising of key stakeholders in the food, nutrition and health sectors who hold a wide breadth of knowledge and expertise in relation to school food to discuss the proposed updates to the standards.
PHE has launched an invitation to tender for organisations interested in testing the detail of the proposed updates to ensure these are practical and can be easily implemented by schools and caterers. Further information will be announced as this develops.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the financial sustainability of local government children’s services.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Funding for children’s services is made available through the Local Government Finance Settlement. We are in the final year of a multi-year settlement deal and have made £46.4 billion available this year for local services including those for children’s services. The government has also made £410 million available to local authorities this year specifically for adult and children social care.
My department is working with the sector, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and with HM Treasury, as part of our preparation for the next Spending Review, to understand the level of funding local government needs to meet demand and deliver statutory duties.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that children that attend Early Years settings, from newborn to five years old, have access to a graduate workforce led by specialist Early Years teachers that (a) understand children's development and (b) can offer (i) advice, (ii) encouragement and (iii) support to (A) parents and (B) carers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The early years foundation stage (EYFS) framework is mandatory for all early years providers in England. It sets out the staffing requirements for early years settings, including ratios and qualifications. There are no plans to change the staffing requirements under the EYFS framework.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he take steps to ensure his Department works with the Department for Health and Social Care to develop a children’s mental health workforce.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education has a joint programme of work with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and Health Education England to deliver the proposals set out in the green paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’. It covers action to incentivise all schools and colleges to identify and train senior mental health leads, to introduce and fund new Mental Health Support Teams linked to schools and colleges, and to pilot a four week waiting time for access to specialist NHS children and young people’s mental health services.
Mental Health Support Teams will be established in 20-25% of England by 2023. The teams will be made up of additional trained mental health workers, supervised by suitable NHS staff and will work closely with other professionals such as educational psychologists, school nurses, counsellors and social workers. The impact of the new teams will be evaluated, including the effect they have on wider provision. The new teams will make up part of the wider increase in NHS children and young people’s mental health services and workforce set out in the NHS Ten-Year Plan. The joint delivery programme is linked to the management of the Ten-Year plan to ensure that the increase in workforce is delivered in a coherent way.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what changes he will make to the National Curriculum to ensure that an understanding of emotional wellbeing and the principles of good mental health are embedded within it at every developmental stage.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises the importance of supporting children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. That is why from September 2020, teaching about mental health will be part of compulsory health education in all state-funded schools in England. The draft guidance sets out that pupils will be taught about the importance of good physical and mental health including the steps pupils can take to protect and support their own health and mental wellbeing. The content will also cover understanding emotions; identifying where someone is experiencing signs of poor mental health; simple self-care; and how and when to seek support. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/relationships-and-sex-education-and-health-education.
Health education is being introduced as part of the basic curriculum alongside Relationships Education in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in all secondary schools. To support schools to enable them to deliver high quality teaching in these subjects, the Department recently announced an additional £6m funding in 2019/20 to support schools to design and develop the training and resources that schools need. The Department has also invited schools to become ‘early adopters’ of the new curriculum and begin teaching the new subjects from September 2019 and to assist the department to shape the support package.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the effect of testing upon children of primary age; and what steps he is taking to research different methods of measuring achievement that benefits children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Statutory tests have been an important part of the education system under different governments since the 1990s. They help teachers to identify the areas where children need additional support in order to master the fundamentals of English and mathematics, and in doing so ensure that every child is given the best chance to go on to succeed at secondary school. The core purpose of these tests is not to measure pupils, but rather to enable the Government to hold schools to account for the education they provide, and as such they should not be stressful for the children that take them.
Assessments in primary school also enable the Department to measure education standards over time, for example improvements in children’s reading and a declining attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. Removing tests would risk jeopardising these gains.
As well as being an established feature of the education system in England, testing is also common practice across European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, with 28 out of 35 countries assessing primary school pupils through national, standardised assessments.
All assessments produced by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) are developed to a high standard. The test development process is rigorous, and includes trialling with pupils in a classroom setting to ensure they are suitable. The STA’s test handbook sets out this approach in more detail, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2018-national-curriculum-test-handbook.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he will take to ensure that every child between the ages of five and fourteen years has access (a) in school and (b) close to home to play equipment to improve the mental wellbeing and emotional development of children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2018-19, £100 million was made available for schools through the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund for improving access to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing – including playgrounds and sports facilities.
The Department allocates approximately £200 million in capital funding each year directly to schools in England to invest in small capital projects to meet the needs of their pupils and school. This could, for example, include investing in improving the provision of playgrounds and equipment to support health and well-being. On top of this, at Budget 2018, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer allocated an additional £400 million in capital funding for schools to spend on their own priorities.
Local authorities continue to be the biggest investors in community sport and leisure infrastructure in England, which is important for delivering wider community and health benefits. In addition, Sport England is investing over £194 million (between 2016-21) into projects focusing on improving children’s capability and enjoyment of physical activity as well as providing opportunities for talented athletes to develop their potential. It is important that all children have access to high-quality facilities and spaces in their local areas, so that they can be active in safe and well-designed places. In order to support this, Sport England are investing £40 million through their strategic facilities and £15 million per year on improving Community Sport facilities for the benefit of local communities.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care on a new cross-government action plan, to get children active both in and out of school.