Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the education workforce, including staff in alternative provision, understand their role in working with other public bodies to help tackle serious youth violence, particularly in light of the proposed introduction of a new statutory duty.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The legal duty aims to ensure key organisations in a local area collaborate in a multi-agency approach to tackle serious violence. The Department for Education is working with the Home Office to ensure that the education sector is a key part of the multi-agency partnership. We will be engaging with schools and colleges, including alternative provision institutions, and aim to publish guidance to help support education providers to understand the level of commitment the duty may place on them.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the implementation of the new Relationship and Sex Education curriculum at the early adopter sites.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education is working closely with over 1600 schools across the country who are acting, on a voluntary basis, as early adopters of relationships education; relationships and sex education (RSE); and health education. As early adopters, these schools have indicated their intention to start teaching the new requirements: relationships education (for primary aged pupils), RSE (for secondary aged pupils) and health education (all pupils in state-funded schools), during the academic year 2019/20, ahead of the subjects being compulsory from September 2020.
The Department is working closely with these early adopter schools to develop a programme of support. Recently four national conferences took place, to help early adopters plan for delivery of the new subjects, and to enable the Department to learn about their current practices and assess support needs. Following feedback from the conferences, consideration is being given to what further regional support may be required.
This engagement with early adopter schools is helping the Department develop its programme of support for the new subjects, which will be available to all teachers from spring 2020. The programme will focus on tools that improve schools’ practice and will offer opportunities for teachers to improve subject knowledge, build confidence and share best practice. This support will be accessed through a new online service and will include an implementation guide, which will accompany the statutory guidance, case studies from early adopter schools, and innovative materials to support staff training. We will continue to test this package with early adopter schools.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the mental health support teams in schools established by the trailblazer programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The first 25 Mental Health Support Team (MHST) trailblazer sites, delivering 59 MHSTs were announced in December 2018. These MHSTs are all expected to have completed their training by the end of 2019/early 2020 and will be fully operational following this. As a result, it is too early to assess their effectiveness in schools and colleges.
The national, early evaluation of the trailblazer programme formally commenced on 1 October 2019. The protocol for the first phase of the evaluation is available at https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/16/138/31, and findings are expected to be published in Spring/Summer 2021.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Timpson review of school exclusion: Government response, published in May 2019, what the timetable is for the steps his Department plans to take to make schools accountable for the children they exclude.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of action on behaviour, exclusion and alternative provision (AP) which will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion when they need to, enable schools to support children at risk of exclusion, and ensure that excluded children continue to receive a good education. We will expand AP and improve the quality of the sector so that pupils in AP receive an education on a par with that received by their mainstream peers and receive the support they need in other areas. Further information on the timeframes for this work will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mental health assessments for looked after children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Healthcare and social care are devolved matters.
The Department jointly commissioned with Department for Health and Social Care an Expert Working Group to look at how the mental health needs of looked-after children, previously looked-after children and care leavers in England could be better met. In November 2017, the group made a set of recommendations including on improving assessment of the mental health needs of looked-after children.
The Department is taking forward a number of these recommendations through our £1 million mental health assessment pilot programme, which is testing improved approaches to the mental health and wellbeing element of the health assessment on entry to care.
The Department has appointed SQW Limited to carry out an evaluation of the pilot and fieldwork is currently underway. This will help inform our assessment of the changes needed to the mental health assessments of looked-after children.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of good school places in England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Delivering good quality school places is a top priority for this Government. The Department has committed £7 billion between 2015 and 2021 to deliver new school places, which is on top of investment in the free schools programme. The Department is on track to create one million places this decade, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations.
As of March 2019, there are 1.9 million more children in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools compared to 2010. This represents 85% of children compared to just 66% in 2010 - and that is in part down to the Department’s reforms.
As of 14 June 2019, there are 446 open free schools, 50 University Technical Colleges and 27 studio schools. These will provide over 290,000 places when at capacity. The Department has approved a further 286 applications (including one UTC) from groups it is now working with to establish schools. In addition, in March 2019, the Department announced that it will run competitions in successful local authority areas to open and run 37 new special and two new alternative provision free schools.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on the conclusions in relation to reading in (a) print and (b) digital formats of the report entitled, Children and young people's reading in 2017-18, published in June 2019 by the National Literacy Trust.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department welcomes the National Literacy Trust’s research on reading in both print and digital forms.
The Department encourages children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, whatever the format. Research suggests that reading for pleasure is more important for children’s educational development than their parents’ level of education.
There is sound evidence that systematic synthetic phonics is a highly effective method of teaching reading to children. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, there were 163,000 more 6 year olds on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.
Building on the success of our phonics partnerships and phonics roadshows programmes, in 2018 we launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. Hub schools are taking a leading role in improving the teaching of early reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-semitism on university campuses.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
This government takes anti-Semitism extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism, including anti-Semitism.
Higher education providers are autonomous organisations, independent from government. They have a clear responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive environment.
In September 2015, the government asked Universities UK (UUK) to set up a Harassment Taskforce to consider what more can be done to address harassment and hate crime on campus, including antisemitism. The taskforce’s report, ‘Changing the Culture’, published in October 2016, recommended a zero-tolerance approach to harassment and hate crime.
On 27 July 2017, UUK published a directory of case studies detailing the innovative projects universities have developed to address the taskforce’s recommendations. These include Goldsmith’s hate crime reporting centre (case study 11) which is a joint initiative with the local authority in Lewisham and the Metropolitan Police, which provides students and staff with a safe space to report incidents. These are published on UUK’s website: http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/changing-the-culture-case-studies.aspx. In addition, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has provided £1.8 million for projects to improve responses to hate crime and online harassment on campus.
HEFCE is currently working with UUK to test the sector’s response to the Taskforce’s recommendations and the results of this will be published early this year.
On the 16 January, the government announced a partnership between the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and the Department for Education. These departments are providing £144,261 of joint funding for a new programme to support universities in tackling antisemitism on campus. The programme will be delivered by the Holocaust Educational Trust and will involve 200 students and university leaders from across the country visiting the former Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon their return, they will take part in a seminar, which will deal explicitly with campus issues and how to identify and tackle antisemitism.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support the outreach work of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 2010, the Department for Education has provided over £14 million to support students and teachers from state-funded schools and colleges in England to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, through the Lessons from Auschwitz programme. The aim of these visits is to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
We are continuing to support the Holocaust Education Trust, ensuring more students have the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau and that they share the knowledge they have gained from their visit and lead projects to increase awareness of the Holocaust in their schools and local communities.
The Department also funds the University College London centre for Holocaust Education to provide continuing professional development for teachers. On 16 January 2018, the Government announced a partnership between the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education. These departments are providing £144,261 of joint funding for a new programme to support universities in tackling antisemitism on campus. The programme will be delivered by the Holocaust Educational Trust and will involve 200 students and university leaders from across the country visiting the former Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon their return, they will take part in a seminar, which will deal explicitly with campus issues and how to identify and tackle antisemitism.
Every year the Department for Education holds a Holocaust Memorial Day event. This year it will fall on 31 January 2018 and be hosted by The Holocaust Educational Trust. A Holocaust survivor will attend as guest speaker, with their testimony being the central focus of the event; and young ambassadors will share their reflections on their Department for Education funded ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ experience.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to support the Holocaust Educational Trust's Lessons From Auschwitz project.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 2010, the Department for Education has provided over £14 million to support students and teachers from state-funded schools and colleges in England to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, through the Lessons from Auschwitz programme. The aim of these visits is to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
We are continuing to support the Holocaust Education Trust, ensuring more students have the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau and that they share the knowledge they have gained from their visit and lead projects to increase awareness of the Holocaust in their schools and local communities.
The Department also funds the University College London centre for Holocaust Education to provide continuing professional development for teachers. On 16 January 2018, the Government announced a partnership between the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education. These departments are providing £144,261 of joint funding for a new programme to support universities in tackling antisemitism on campus. The programme will be delivered by the Holocaust Educational Trust and will involve 200 students and university leaders from across the country visiting the former Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon their return, they will take part in a seminar, which will deal explicitly with campus issues and how to identify and tackle antisemitism.
Every year the Department for Education holds a Holocaust Memorial Day event. This year it will fall on 31 January 2018 and be hosted by The Holocaust Educational Trust. A Holocaust survivor will attend as guest speaker, with their testimony being the central focus of the event; and young ambassadors will share their reflections on their Department for Education funded ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ experience.