Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to encourage schools in North West Norfolk constituency to participate in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department has invested £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the language skills of reception-age children who need it most following the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make around three months of additional progress. An estimated 90,000 reception-age children will get extra support with their speech and language development from this proven programme.
All state-funded schools in North West Norfolk with a reception class were invited to apply for the programme. To encourage participation, every primary school in North West Norfolk and nationwide has been directly contacted at least twice by a dedicated contact centre team. Additional written communication has been undertaken by the department and its delivery partners to encourage all primary schools to apply.
In total, over 11,100 schools (two thirds of all primary schools) have signed up for the programme. Registered schools are eligible to continue to receive the funded programme during the 2022/23 academic year.
The full list of registered schools is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neli-nuffield-early-language-intervention-programme.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on the number of hours of extra curricular activity that will be provided following the advice issued by his Department that such activities can only take pace in order to support parents to work, seek work, or to undertake education or training, and for the purposes of respite care for vulnerable children.
Answered by Vicky Ford
As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on the new national restrictions from 5 November 2020, providers of out-of-school activities, including wraparound care, can continue to operate for the duration of the period of national restrictions. However, these providers should ensure that parents using them for face-to-face provision are only doing so where such is reasonably necessary, in order to: enable them to work or search for work; undertake training or education; or for the purposes of respite care. Additional information on this guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss.
Schools and colleges can, and should, also continue to offer before and after school or college clubs and activities for their pupils, for the same reasons listed above. This includes activities and clubs related to PE and sport, music, dance and drama.
The department does not hold a central register of all wraparound or extracurricular provision, and so does not routinely collect data on attendance at these settings. However, the department has been in close communication with various stakeholders, including several wraparound childcare providers and extra-curricular providers, since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. We will continue this communication during the period of national restrictions, to understand the impact on attendance and number of hours children and young people are spending at these settings.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the proportion of secondary school pupils that attend before and after school activities (a) in order to support parents to (i) work, (ii) seek work and (iii) undertake education or training and (b) for the purposes of respite care for vulnerable children.
Answered by Vicky Ford
As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on the new national restrictions from 5 November 2020, providers of out-of-school activities, including wraparound care, can continue to operate for the duration of the period of national restrictions. However, these providers should ensure that parents using them for face-to-face provision are only doing so where such is reasonably necessary, in order to: enable them to work or search for work; undertake training or education; or for the purposes of respite care. Additional information on this guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss.
Schools and colleges can, and should, also continue to offer before and after school or college clubs and activities for their pupils, for the same reasons listed above. This includes activities and clubs related to PE and sport, music, dance and drama.
The department does not hold a central register of all wraparound or extracurricular provision, and so does not routinely collect data on attendance at these settings. However, the department has been in close communication with various stakeholders, including several wraparound childcare providers and extra-curricular providers, since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. We will continue this communication during the period of national restrictions, to understand the impact on attendance and number of hours children and young people are spending at these settings.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will list the level of funding provided to schools in (a) Norfolk and (b) the North West Norfolk constituency for each year since 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The revenue funding allocated for schools for financial years 2015-16 to 2019-20 for Norfolk local authority are shown in the table below. Schools funding is not allocated by parliamentary constituencies.
Financial Year | Norfolk local authority (£ millions) |
2015-16 | 605.6 |
2016-17 | 610.9 |
2017-18 | 629.8 |
2018-19 | 652.2 |
2019-20 | 677.8 |
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his oral contribution of 9 June 2020, Official Report, column 180, how many laptops have been distributed to children in Norfolk.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.
We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers.
The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets and allocated devices to local authorities and academy trusts based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device. Local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and prioritise children and young people who need devices. The Department is working to provide these devices in the shortest possible timeframe; deliveries to schools and local authorities began in May and will continue throughout June. So far we have shipped over 100,000 laptops and 20,000 4G routers, including 1,803 to Norfolk local authority for children with a social worker and care leavers.
As a priority we will be delivering devices and connectivity to children with a social worker and care leavers. Social distancing presents a risk to the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children since Children’s Social Care services have reduced face-to-face contact with families. This creates a need for remote safeguarding measures, but these are reliant on digital infrastructure which is not available in every household. Families that require Children’s Social Care services are put at a greater risk if they cannot be seen virtually and monitored by safeguarding services online. Vulnerable care leavers also risk social isolation and associated mental health problems.
The Department has published information about how many laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers we have delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts as of 14 June, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data.