Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools in England operating on reduced hours by (a) closing schools on one day a week and (b) shortening the normal school day.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All maintained schools are required to educate pupils for at least 380 sessions each school year. They cannot reduce the length of the school week if this would take the total number of sessions below that.
The information requested is not held centrally. All schools have the autonomy to decide the structure and duration of their school day, which includes the flexibility to decide what time their school day should start and finish. Where schools use this flexibility, they should take into account local circumstances and the needs of their students and staff. The Department trusts schools to decide how best to structure their school day to support their pupils’ education.
In the event that a school decides to make changes to its school day the Department would encourage them to do this in consultation with parents. It is the Department’s expectation that the school should act reasonably when making such decisions; giving parents notice and considering the impacts on those affected.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools in England (a) have or (b) are planning to close their resource base provision for children with special educational needs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect data on changes made to local authority maintained schools, as local authorities are responsible for making such changes.
Since September 2016, three academies have removed provision reserved for children with special educational needs (SEN); this includes “resourced provision” and “designated SEN units”. A further academy has proposed to close its SEN provision.
Although one of these academies closed its provision due to financial unviability; in the main, SEN provision is removed from a particular school because of reorganisation, so the provision is retained but delivered elsewhere.
Within the same timeframe seven academies have added new SEN provision, one academy is due to add provision in September this year and a further two have proposed to do so.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of care leavers went into full-time (a) education and (b) work in each of the last five years for which information is available; and what plans the Government has to improve those figures.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The available information on the activity of care leavers is published in Tables F1 (19-21 year olds) and F3 (17 and 18 year olds) of the statistical release ‘children looked after including adoption', which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children. Individual-level data for 17 and 18 year old care leavers was collected for the first time in 2016 so only 3 years of data is available.
A cross-government care leaver strategy (Keep on Caring) was published in July 2016, it can be reviewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535899/Care-Leaver-Strategy.pdf
The publication set out five outcomes it wanted all care leavers to achieve, including improved access to education, employment or training opportunities.
Since publication, the department has:
Local Authorities are required to provide a £2,000 bursary for care leavers who go to university; and care leavers receive a bursary of up to £1,200 a year if they are in Further Education.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled, Staying Put: An Unfulfilled Promise, published in November 2018 by the Fostering Nework, what steps his Department is taking to prevent foster carers losing their approval as a foster carer through Staying Put arrangements.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government keeps the Staying Put policy under constant review, including through monitoring data from local authorities on take-up by young people, engagement with the sector, and reviewing information from Ofsted inspections of local authorities. Staying Put was also considered as part of the independent fostering review undertaken by Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers, published in February 2018. Staying Put has helped thousands of care leavers to transition more smoothly from care to independence, and provides continuity of relationships and care arrangements. The latest data shows that increasing numbers of care leavers are living in Staying Put arrangements. In the year ending March 2018, 55% of 18 year olds chose to Stay Put, which is an increase of 4% compared to 2017.
The government does not believe that introducing a national minimum allowance for Staying Put carers is the right way forward. Unlike children in foster care, young people in Staying Put arrangements are adults and may be in work, or claiming benefits. These financial sources can be used to contribute to the cost of providing the Staying Put arrangement, in a similar way that young people who are still living at home with their parents may contribute to the cost of running the household.
The amount of funding the government has provided to local authorities in 2018/19 to implement Staying Put is £23.30 million, with a further £23.77 million committed for 2019/20. Decisions on funding beyond March 2020 will be subject to the outcome of the next Spending Review.
The level of financial support local authorities provide for each Staying Put arrangement depends on individual needs and circumstances, with the amount that the carer receives negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Statutory guidance makes clear that local authorities must give careful consideration to the impact of the Staying Put arrangement on the family’s financial position. Local authorities must consider all the factors relating to each local Staying Put arrangement, with the current arrangements allowing local authorities to cover all reasonable costs that may support the care leaver to remain living with their former foster carer.
The government does not believe that a foster carer’s approval should automatically lapse after 12 months if they are a Staying Put carer and will communicate this message to the sector.