Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Cantle Report on education and cohesion in Oldham, published in 2006, how many independent schools have opened since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 1 January 2010, 573 independent schools have opened in England, of which 151 have subsequently closed. Since 1 January 2010, five independent schools have opened in Oldham, all of which are still open.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints her Department has received on related-party transactions in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but we are unable to provide this information other than at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers were in post in Oldham schools in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The following table provides the full time equivalent number[1] of teachers in service in state funded schools in Oldham local authority and England in November each year between 2012 and 2016.
| Oldham | England |
2012 | 2,300 | 445,400 |
2013 | 2,300 | 449,700 |
2014[2] | 2,200 | 454,900 |
2015[3] | 2,100 | 456,900 |
2016[4] | 2,200 | 457,300 |
Source: School Workforce Census |
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100 teachers.
[2] Excludes figures for one school in Oldham local authority that did not supply teacher data in 2014.
[3] Excludes figures for five schools in Oldham local authority that did not supply teacher data in 2015.
[4] Excludes figures for two schools in Oldham local authority that did not supply teacher data in 2016.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teaching assistants were in post in Oldham schools in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The following table provides the full time equivalent number[1] of teaching assistants in service in state funded schools in Oldham local authority and England in November each year between 2012 and 2016.
| Oldham | England |
2012 | 1,500 | 232,300 |
2013 | 1,500 | 243,700 |
2014[2] | 1,600 | 255,100 |
2015[3] | 1,300 | 263,000 |
2016[4] | 1,600 | 265,600 |
Source: School Workforce Census |
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100 teaching assistants.
[2] Excludes figures for one school in Oldham local authority that did not supply teaching assistant data in 2014.
[3] Excludes figures for five schools in Oldham local authority that did not supply teaching assistant data in 2015.
[4] Excludes figures for two schools in Oldham local authority that did not supply teaching assistant data in 2016.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school places in Oldham following the closure of Collective Spirit Free School.
Answered by Nick Gibb
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, considered the impact on school places in Oldham as part of the decision making process for the closure of the Collective Spirit Free School.
For future years, Oldham has been allocated £44.2 million by the department for Education for the new school places the local authority reported were needed from 2017 to 2020. Any change in available capacity will be accounted for in future funding allocations.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total capital and revenue cost to the public purse was of the Greater Manchester University Technical College was in each year since it opened in 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The department publishes final capital costs for all open free schools once projects are completed and are no longer commercially sensitive.
The total capital costs for Greater Manchester Sustainable Engineering University Technical College (GMUTC), including construction and acquisition costs, are £9,316,815.
The revenue costs are broken down into several elements on the attached table.
Information for 2017/18 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to increase funding for (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) further education in each of the next three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This Government will continue to work to ensure that every pupil has the opportunity to attend a good school and that all schools are fairly funded. The core schools budget has been protected in real terms since 2010 and is set to rise from £41 billion in 2017-18 to over £42 billion in 2019-20 with increasing pupil numbers.
With regard to further education, the Chancellor announced, in the 2017 spring budget, a substantial investment in technical education for 16-19 year olds, rising eventually to an additional £500 million a year. At the same time, we will continue to protect the national funding rate for full time 16 and 17-year-olds in all types of institutions at £4,000. Schools and colleges also receive additional funding to reflect increased costs, including for disadvantaged students, higher cost technical courses, and large academic programmes.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of core school funding in each year from 2015 to 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We want to ensure every primary and secondary school has the resources it needs to deliver a high quality education for every pupil. That is why the core schools budget has been protected in real terms since 2010.
Core school funding was at £39.6 billion in 2015-16 rising to £40.2 billion in 2016-17. It is set to rise from £41.0 billion in 2017-18 to £42.6 billion in 2019-20 with increasing pupil numbers.
We know that how schools use their money is also important in delivering the best outcomes for pupils and we will continue to provide support to help them use their funding in cost effective ways. The Government has produced tools, information and guidance to support improved financial health and efficiency in schools, which can be found at: tinyurl.com/HUTWG36.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide an update on the Opportunity Areas programme.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Education is working alongside local partners including local authorities, schools, universities and businesses in 12 Opportunity Areas to develop and agree plans in due course. These plans, which will build on effective local initiatives to improve outcomes, will outline how we will ensure that children and young in each area can access high quality education and opportunities, at every stage of their life from early years to employment, and fulfil their potential.
We are taking an evidence-based approach that recognises the need to address long-standing challenges and barriers to social mobility, which will allow us to identify what works and spread this to other parts of the country that face similar challenges.
The work led by the Careers and Enterprise Company is one example of how we are increasing opportunity. We have committed to ensuring that young people between 11 and 18 benefit from high quality careers advice and at least four work placements through the course of their education. To deliver this commitment they have recruited Enterprise Advisers, to work with schools and colleges in all 12 areas and have the support of a number of a growing number of businesses.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy, published on 23 November 2016, what estimate she has made of the level of underfunding of schools in the north of England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is determined to build a country that works for everyone. We welcome Sir Nick Weller’s independent report which identifies the need to increase the supply of high-quality teachers and senior leaders in the North, the limited capacity of multi-academy trusts (MATs), and the need for more schools to offer a stretching curriculum, as key challenges in the north.
The report highlights the need for all schools to be funded fairly and according to their circumstances. That is why we are introducing a national funding formula, which will allocate funding to schools according to actual measures of schools’ and pupils’ needs.
Earlier this year we held the first stage of consultation on our proposals to introduce national funding formulae for schools and high needs. The first stage of consultation invited responses on the principles, architecture and the building blocks we proposed to include in the national funding formulae.
We will issue our response to the first stage consultation on the national funding formula, confirming which factors will be included, and launch the second stage of the consultation, later this year. The second stage will invite responses on the weightings we propose to give each of the factors in the formulae, and provide illustrative allocations for schools and local areas.