Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students will be given information on what will be in their (a) GCSE and (b) A-level exams in England in summer 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 29 September, the Department and Ofqual confirmed exams will largely return to well-established, pre-pandemic arrangements in summer 2023.
The Department confirmed that advance information will not be provided for any exams taken in summer 2023. The Department has, however, decided that formulae and equation sheets for GCSE mathematics, physics and combined sciences exams should be provided in summer 2023, as was the case for exams in 2022. Ofqual has also confirmed a return to pre-pandemic grading in 2023. To protect pupils against the disruption of recent years, and in case pupils’ performance is slightly lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, senior examiners will use the grades achieved by previous cohorts of pupils, along with prior attainment data, to inform their decisions on where to set grade boundaries.
These decisions reflect that while the 2023 cohort may have experienced some disruption due to the pandemic over the course of their qualifications, it has not been as significant as that experienced by pupils who received qualifications in 2022. Pupils will, for example, have had more time to cover the curriculum, practise assessments and understand education recovery programmes and interventions.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he will take steps to increase financial support to foster carers.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Local fostering service providers are responsible for setting the allowances paid to foster carers and should review their rates each year and to set out a clear policy on what their foster carers can expect. Whilst these will vary in accordance with local need, they should cover the costs for caring for the child. The Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards, issued by the Secretary of State under the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA), sets out the expectations that are placed on foster carers and their agencies: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192705/NMS_Fostering_Services.pdf. This includes that all foster carers receive at least the national minimum allowance (NMA) plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them (standard 28). The National Minimum Allowance is uprated annually, most recently in April 2022.
Foster carers also receive Qualifying Care Relief that is made up of two parts: tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household, and tax relief for every week a child is in their care.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his planned timetable is for making a decision on funding for Leeds City College to replace the Enfield site and College House with a new building in Mabgate.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Leeds City College and the project to replace the Enfield site and College House, with a new building in Mabgate, was announced as ‘approved in principle’ following the college’s successful application to the Further Education Capital Transformation Fund. Department officials have met with the college to seek further assurance on some elements of their plans to help ensure the investment is value for money and will provide appropriately sized facilities to support local demand for further education and vocational training.
A decision will be made in due course and notified to the college. We expect this to be in the next two weeks.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish High Needs Block funding per pupil for every local education authority in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
High needs funding is the money the department distributes, mainly to local authorities, for children and young people with the most complex needs. The department announced in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase nationally by £780 million, or 9.6%, in 2022-23 compared to the 2021-22 financial year; this follows the increase of more than £1.5 billion over the previous two years. This will bring the total high needs funding we allocate to £8.9 billion, an increase of over a third since 2019-20.
On top of this, the 2021 Spending Review settlement includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in the 2022-23 financial year, on top of the funding we previously announced. The department will confirm in due course how we will allocate this additional funding for 2022-23, and what local authorities’ high needs allocations for 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be.
The increase next year that we announced in the summer means that every local authority will attract an increase of at least 8% per head of 2-18 population, with some local authorities seeing increases of up to 11%. Leeds Council will be receiving a maximum increase of 11% per head on the amount of high needs funding allocated in the 2021-22 financial year. This amounts to a provisional high needs funding allocation of over £108 million in 2022-23, and that does not yet include an allocation of the additional funding the department has available from the 2021 Spending Review.
In setting the limit on gains, the department considers the distribution of funding across all local authorities, including how many are on the minimum percentage increase. This distribution balances improving fairness according to the high needs national funding formula (NFF), with ensuring that every local authority attracts a significant increase to help with the cost pressures they are facing. The table below shows the significant year-on-year increases that Leeds Council has been receiving since 2018-19 and the reducing impact of the limit on their NFF gains, as well as how the £20.8 million adds the differences each year between the provisional NFF allocations with and without the formula gains capped.
See note 1 below [1] | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
A. Limit (cap) on per head gains (year-on-year) |
| 6% | 17% | 12% | 11% |
B. NFF provisional allocation before gains cap | £73.4m | £75.0m | £90.0m | £101.3m | £110.4m |
C. NFF provisional allocation after gains cap | £66.3m | £69.8m | £85.3m | £97.4m | £108.5m |
D. Difference between allocations with and without gains capped [2] (B-C) | £7.1m | £5.1m | £4.7m | £3.9m | £1.9m |
Total difference between allocations with and without gains capped 2018-19 to 2020-21 | = £20.8m |
| |||
Notes to table:
Finally, the department are unable to publish the high needs block funding per pupil for every local authority in England in each of the last five years. This is because the department does not collect information on the number of pupils who attract to their school the different types of high needs funding, or the level of funding that an individual pupil attracts. In addition, there is a wide range of practice in the proportion of children awarded an Education, Health and Care Plan, for example, across different local authorities, which make such comparisons difficult. It is possible to make a range of other local authority comparisons using the data in the department’s published high needs benchmarking tool. That tool is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-benchmarking-tool.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will remove the cap on gains under the High Needs Block within the National Funding Formula.
Answered by Will Quince
High needs funding is the money the department distributes, mainly to local authorities, for children and young people with the most complex needs. The department announced in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase nationally by £780 million, or 9.6%, in 2022-23 compared to the 2021-22 financial year; this follows the increase of more than £1.5 billion over the previous two years. This will bring the total high needs funding we allocate to £8.9 billion, an increase of over a third since 2019-20.
On top of this, the 2021 Spending Review settlement includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in the 2022-23 financial year, on top of the funding we previously announced. The department will confirm in due course how we will allocate this additional funding for 2022-23, and what local authorities’ high needs allocations for 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be.
The increase next year that we announced in the summer means that every local authority will attract an increase of at least 8% per head of 2-18 population, with some local authorities seeing increases of up to 11%. Leeds Council will be receiving a maximum increase of 11% per head on the amount of high needs funding allocated in the 2021-22 financial year. This amounts to a provisional high needs funding allocation of over £108 million in 2022-23, and that does not yet include an allocation of the additional funding the department has available from the 2021 Spending Review.
In setting the limit on gains, the department considers the distribution of funding across all local authorities, including how many are on the minimum percentage increase. This distribution balances improving fairness according to the high needs national funding formula (NFF), with ensuring that every local authority attracts a significant increase to help with the cost pressures they are facing. The table below shows the significant year-on-year increases that Leeds Council has been receiving since 2018-19 and the reducing impact of the limit on their NFF gains, as well as how the £20.8 million adds the differences each year between the provisional NFF allocations with and without the formula gains capped.
See note 1 below [1] | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
A. Limit (cap) on per head gains (year-on-year) |
| 6% | 17% | 12% | 11% |
B. NFF provisional allocation before gains cap | £73.4m | £75.0m | £90.0m | £101.3m | £110.4m |
C. NFF provisional allocation after gains cap | £66.3m | £69.8m | £85.3m | £97.4m | £108.5m |
D. Difference between allocations with and without gains capped [2] (B-C) | £7.1m | £5.1m | £4.7m | £3.9m | £1.9m |
Total difference between allocations with and without gains capped 2018-19 to 2020-21 | = £20.8m |
| |||
Notes to table:
Finally, the department are unable to publish the high needs block funding per pupil for every local authority in England in each of the last five years. This is because the department does not collect information on the number of pupils who attract to their school the different types of high needs funding, or the level of funding that an individual pupil attracts. In addition, there is a wide range of practice in the proportion of children awarded an Education, Health and Care Plan, for example, across different local authorities, which make such comparisons difficult. It is possible to make a range of other local authority comparisons using the data in the department’s published high needs benchmarking tool. That tool is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-benchmarking-tool.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason Leeds local authority received £20.8 million less for High Needs between 2018-19 and 2021-22 than indicated by the National Funding Formula.
Answered by Will Quince
High needs funding is the money the department distributes, mainly to local authorities, for children and young people with the most complex needs. The department announced in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase nationally by £780 million, or 9.6%, in 2022-23 compared to the 2021-22 financial year; this follows the increase of more than £1.5 billion over the previous two years. This will bring the total high needs funding we allocate to £8.9 billion, an increase of over a third since 2019-20.
On top of this, the 2021 Spending Review settlement includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in the 2022-23 financial year, on top of the funding we previously announced. The department will confirm in due course how we will allocate this additional funding for 2022-23, and what local authorities’ high needs allocations for 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be.
The increase next year that we announced in the summer means that every local authority will attract an increase of at least 8% per head of 2-18 population, with some local authorities seeing increases of up to 11%. Leeds Council will be receiving a maximum increase of 11% per head on the amount of high needs funding allocated in the 2021-22 financial year. This amounts to a provisional high needs funding allocation of over £108 million in 2022-23, and that does not yet include an allocation of the additional funding the department has available from the 2021 Spending Review.
In setting the limit on gains, the department considers the distribution of funding across all local authorities, including how many are on the minimum percentage increase. This distribution balances improving fairness according to the high needs national funding formula (NFF), with ensuring that every local authority attracts a significant increase to help with the cost pressures they are facing. The table below shows the significant year-on-year increases that Leeds Council has been receiving since 2018-19 and the reducing impact of the limit on their NFF gains, as well as how the £20.8 million adds the differences each year between the provisional NFF allocations with and without the formula gains capped.
See note 1 below [1] | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
A. Limit (cap) on per head gains (year-on-year) |
| 6% | 17% | 12% | 11% |
B. NFF provisional allocation before gains cap | £73.4m | £75.0m | £90.0m | £101.3m | £110.4m |
C. NFF provisional allocation after gains cap | £66.3m | £69.8m | £85.3m | £97.4m | £108.5m |
D. Difference between allocations with and without gains capped [2] (B-C) | £7.1m | £5.1m | £4.7m | £3.9m | £1.9m |
Total difference between allocations with and without gains capped 2018-19 to 2020-21 | = £20.8m |
| |||
Notes to table:
Finally, the department are unable to publish the high needs block funding per pupil for every local authority in England in each of the last five years. This is because the department does not collect information on the number of pupils who attract to their school the different types of high needs funding, or the level of funding that an individual pupil attracts. In addition, there is a wide range of practice in the proportion of children awarded an Education, Health and Care Plan, for example, across different local authorities, which make such comparisons difficult. It is possible to make a range of other local authority comparisons using the data in the department’s published high needs benchmarking tool. That tool is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-benchmarking-tool.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what advice he received from Public Health England prior to his decision that from 17 May face coverings for pupils and students in classrooms or communal areas will no longer be recommended.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Following the Step 3 announcement on 10 May, the Department published updated guidance for schools, which included updated advice on face coverings. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.
As the guidance outlines, from 17 May face coverings are no longer recommended for pupils and students in classrooms or communal areas in schools. Face coverings are also no longer recommended for staff in classrooms. The Department recommends that in all schools face coverings should be worn by staff and visitors in situations outside of classrooms where social distancing is not possible.
Ahead of Step 3, the Department worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) and the Cabinet Office to consider a range of evidence, balancing both health and educational considerations. This included the latest available education data, latest data analysis on case rates in secondary school age children and the broader COVID-19 epidemiological position, as well as stakeholder intelligence from schools and further education (FE) colleges on their experiences of wearing face coverings in classrooms and any perceived effect on teaching, education, and communication.
The epidemiological picture overall has continued to improve since the full reopening of schools and FE colleges on 8 March and cases overall have continued to decline in the UK. As the four tests have been met it was appropriate to remove the recommendation to wear face coverings in schools. This was supported by PHE.
The reintroduction of face coverings for pupils, students or staff may be advised for a temporary period in response to particular localised outbreaks, including variants of concern. In all cases, any educational drawbacks should be balanced with the benefits of managing transmission.
Where head teachers have concerns on the use of face coverings in response to a particular local outbreak or variant of concern, they should seek the advice of their local Director of Public Health who will advise on whether the reintroduction of face coverings for pupils, students or staff may be needed for a temporary period.
Our policy on face coverings and the system of controls is kept under review and is informed by the latest scientific and medical advice from PHE.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when schools will be able to start taking pupils on residential trips as covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are advised against all educational visits at this time. The Department has updated its advice to schools on the planning and booking of educational day and residential visits: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#educational-visits.
It is in line with the Government’s roadmap to recovery, as set out in: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-response-spring-2021.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many English universities have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism; and if he will list the universities that have not yet done so.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The government has asked all English higher education (HE) providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) to adopt the working definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The IHRA definition is an important tool in tackling antisemitism. Adopting this widely recognised definition sends a strong signal that HE providers take these issues seriously. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote to HE leaders most recently in October 2020 to reiterate the importance of the definition and to urge all providers to consider adopting it.
The government is pleased to report that at least 91 providers have now adopted the definition, with many more preparing to adopt it. We know that other providers are in the process of considering adoption.
The decision on adoption of the definition rests with individual providers, but the government will continue to urge them to adopt the definition and ensure that HE is a genuinely fulfilling and welcoming experience for everyone.
I am proud that so many providers have taken a positive step towards eradicating antisemitism by adopting the definition since the Secretary of State for Education’s letter, but further progress is still needed to stamp it out. This is why, in the Secretary of State for Education’s most recent strategic guidance letter, the government asked the OfS to undertake a scoping exercise, to identify providers which are reluctant to adopt the definition. The letter asked them to consider introducing mandatory reporting of antisemitic incident numbers by providers, with the aim of ensuring a robust evidence base, which the OfS can then use to effectively regulate in this area.
The Secretary of State for Education also asked the OfS to ensure that, if antisemitic incidents do occur at a provider, they should consider if it is relevant in a particular case whether the provider has adopted the IHRA definition when considering what sanctions, including monetary penalties, would be appropriate to apply.
We will continue to work across the government to ensure that racism and religious hatred of any kind is not tolerated anywhere, including in our world-leading universities.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to follow the Northern Ireland Executive in giving students a £500 payment due to the disruption caused to their education by the current lockdown.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The government is aware of the disruption caused to education due to the current lockdown but we will not be providing cash payments to individual students, instead we created a wider support package to aid students during this difficult time. We are making available an additional £50 million of hardship funding this financial year. In total we have made £70 million of funding available for student hardship given the £20 million made available to higher education providers in December 2020.
This is a difficult and uncertain time for students, but we are working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies and to ensure students are able to access the support they need. The new student hardship support will really benefit those students most in need by putting money into their pockets.
The £70 million of student hardship funding will be distributed by the Office for Students to higher education providers in the approved (fee cap) category of registration, who will have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to students, including international and self-funded students, in a way that will best prioritise those in greatest need. We would encourage all students who need assistance to reach out to their university as soon as possible.