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 her Department has made of the effect of reductions in local authority funding to children's centres in Greater Manchester on educational attainment of children since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Due to the wide range of services that affect educational outcomes for young children, it is not possible to draw a causal link between children’s centre services and a child’s educational attainment.
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) results show that the proportion of young children achieving a good level of development at age 5 has increased across all local authorities in Greater Manchester since 2010. EYFSP results from 2009-10 to 2015-16 are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-early-years-foundation-stage-profile.
Local authorities have the freedom to determine how to fund other services delivered via their networks of children’s centres, including via the Business Rate Retention Scheme. Local authorities have the freedom to decide what children’s centre services are appropriate to meet local needs and statutory duties.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2016 to Question 52486, what estimate she has made of the number of independent faith schools in Oldham; and what steps her Department is taking to encourage community cohesion and integration in such schools.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There are four independent faith schools in Oldham.
In relation to encouraging community cohesion and integration in such schools, I refer to my previous Answer (52486); the position is the same for all independent schools.
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 estimate her Department has made of the number of new independent faith schools that have opened in Oldham since 2010; and what steps her Department has taken to encourage community cohesion and integration in those schools.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Four independent faith schools have opened in Oldham since 2010.
All independent schools, not just new ones and not just faith ones, have to comply with the independent school standards which are prescribed in regulations. Since 2010 the standards have been strengthened to encourage schools to do more work in encouraging community cohesion and integration. In 2010 the standards simply required that pupils should understand how they could contribute to community life, but from 2013, schools have had to ensure pupils understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality in which the school is situated, and to society more widely.
Other standards which schools must comply with - such as those requiring schools to actively promote tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs, and to further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions, by enabling pupils to acquire an appreciation of, and respect for, their own and other cultures - are also relevant in this context.
Independent schools are also subject to the Prevent duty, and a failure to comply with this is a breach of the independent school standards.
Any independent school which does not meet these standards is subject to regulatory action to ensure that it improves as rapidly as possible.
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 (a) funding, (b) land, (c) property and (d) other investment her Department has provided to the Collective Spirit Free School in Oldham.
Answered by Edward Timpson
As with all free schools, Collective Spirit received a project development grant before the school was open and a post-opening grant after the school had opened. The details of these grants are published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-expenditure-for-free-schools
Since the school opened in 2013, the revenue funding of the school has been on a per-pupil basis equivalent to other schools in the local authority area.
We are currently in the process of confirming both the site acquisition and construction costs for this school. Costs will be published in due course on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools
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 improvement plan is in place for the Collective Spirit Free School in Oldham.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Underperformance at any school is unacceptable. The Regional Schools Commissioner, Vicky Beer, has requested an action plan from the trust and will be working with them to identify appropriate and sustained improvements.
If the trust’s plans fail to convince the department that they are able to make the necessary improvements, we will not hesitate to consider more formal intervention.
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, whether her Department plans to publish post-occupancy evaluations of primary and secondary schools built under wave 1 of the Priority Schools Building Programme.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is collecting a range of post-occupancy data on schools built under wave 1 of the Priority Schools Building Programme. This data considers all potential benefits realised including user satisfaction and building performance. The results of this exercise will be published once it is complete.
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 children's social worker vacancies remained unfilled in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Information on the number of children’s social work vacancies in English local authorities is collected annually.
The most recent data, from 30 September 2015, was published by the Department for Education on 25 February 2016 and can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-work-workforce-2015
More data is also found on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-work-workforce-2013-to-2014
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 Prime Minister's announcement of 14 December 2015, We will not stand by - failing children's services will be taken over, how the Government plans to spend the £100 million to be invested in attracting more high-calibre graduates into social work.
Answered by Edward Timpson
This Government is investing in Step Up to Social Work and Frontline, our fast-track graduate entry programmes, to attract future high-calibre graduates into social work. We aim to train over 3,000 new social workers through fast-track schemes over the Spending Review period.
The cost for the continuation of the Frontline pilot from April 2016 – end March 2019 is estimated at around £10m.
In October 2015, Government issued a tender for a national fast-track social work programme to succeed the Frontline pilot. Funds will be allocated for delivery once the contract is confirmed. Costs will vary according to actual numbers recruited.
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 take steps to prevent the E-ACT Academy chain from dismissing community governors from its school governing bodies.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), individual academies are all under the control of the trust board, as the legal entity. A trust is allowed to exercise its choice about whether and how to construct its local governing bodies for each academy. The composition of those boards and the range of functions delegated to any such boards, are all a matter for the board to determine. In all cases the board remains accountable for all of the academies in the MAT. We expect Government bodies to drive strong governance so that standards remain high. We trust these boards to decide on the most appropriate arrangements for their trust. They may choose to delegate duties to local governing bodies, but trustees maintain overall responsibility. E-ACT has reviewed its governance arrangements and is planning to change its regional and local governance structure.
The Secretary of State can intervene where a trust is in breach of its funding agreement due to a serious breakdown in governance.
Fewer, higher quality and more highly skilled boards overseeing groups of schools is central to the Government’s strategy for improving the quality of school governance. It is also the key to schools realising a wide range of other educational and financial benefits.