Written Question
Tuesday 9th April 2019
Asked by:
Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of further education provision in Leigh constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
The quality of further education (FE) provision is assessed by Ofsted under their published inspection framework. Currently the 3 major FE colleges in Wigan local authority area, including Leigh, are rated by Ofsted as Outstanding or Good for Overall Effectiveness.
In July 2015, the government announced a rolling programme of around 40 local area reviews, to be completed by March 2017, covering all FE colleges in England. The reviews were designed to ensure that colleges are financially stable into the long term, that they are run efficiently, and are well-positioned to meet the present and future needs of individual students and the demands of employers. In November 2016, the Greater Manchester Area Review report was published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greater-manchester-further-education-area-review-report. This review did not recommend the need for any significant structural changes for further education provision in the Wigan area.
The new ‘College Oversight: Support and Intervention’ document, which was published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/college-oversight-support-and-intervention on 1 April 2019, sets out how we will work with FE colleges to identify financial and quality issues early. It sets out the support and advice available to colleges when they need it from the FE Commissioner and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), who assess financial and quality issues on an ongoing basis. This support includes the potential for FE Commissioner-led local provision reviews, the need for which may arise from a number of challenges that affect a college and/or further education provision in a local area, such as:
- Weakness or failure of existing providers (including risk of insolvency)
- Increased competition
- Declining learner recruitment
- Inadequate quality
- Significant financial challenges
- Changes in local demographics and/or local skills needs
The ESFA works with local authorities where there are concerns about gaps in suitable and accessible local FE provision for young people. Local authorities have broad duties to encourage, enable and assist young people to participate in education or training, including to secure sufficient suitable education and training provision for all young people in their area who are over compulsory school age but under 19 or aged 19 to 25 and for whom an Education, Health and Care plan is maintained, as set out at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/participation-of-young-people-education-employment-and-training. A concern has not been formally raised to ESFA by Wigan local authority in respect of adequacy of further education provision in Leigh.
From August 2019, responsibility for the funding and adequacy of adult FE provision for residents in Wigan (including Leigh) will pass to Greater Manchester Combined Authority under devolution arrangements.
Written Question
Monday 1st April 2019
Asked by:
Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question
to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measure of performance his Department uses to monitor the outcomes of early years spending from the public purse in (a) Leigh constituency (b) Greater Manchester and (c) the North West.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Public Health Outcomes Framework is a comprehensive source of data at local authority unitary, county and district level on the extent to which local strategies are successful and effective in improving outcomes for children in the early years. It is available at the following link: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/public-health-outcomes-framework.
The framework includes data on outcomes for children aged 5 from the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). Further information on the EYFSP is broken down by local authority and available to view at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results-2017-to-2018. We do not publish this data at constituency or combined authority level.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 04 Feb 2019
Oral Answers to Questions
"T2. During a Westminster Hall debate on social mobility last month, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi), boasted of the Government’s early-years pilots. He even visited the local pilot in Wigan. However, Leigh—part of the Wigan borough—has recently been ranked 533rd out of …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"I beg to move,
That this House has considered social mobility in the North West.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bailey. Social mobility is a term that we frequently use, but what do we really mean by it? At its core, we are discussing the …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I thank him for all the work he does on the APPG on social mobility. I think he is referring to the 2017 “State of the nation” report, which stated that it is no longer inner cities, but remote rural and coastal …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"I thank my constituency neighbour for that contribution. He is absolutely right. Particularly in places such as Leigh, we see that if people become qualified, get a good education and go on to university, they do not bring their skills back...."Jo Platt - View Speech
View all Jo Platt (LAB - Leigh and Atherton) contributions to the debate on: Social Mobility: North-west
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution and, again, for all the work he is doing in the APPG.
It pained me to read in a recent House of Commons Library analysis that the constituency of Leigh is ranked 501 out of 533 on the social mobility league …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"I thank my hon. Friend for making that really important point. He is absolutely right about the support that is out there for communities such as ours. Later, I will talk about what we can do to come together to make this issue work for places such as Leigh and …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 09 Jan 2019
Social Mobility: North-west
"I thank my hon. Friend for making that really important point. Again, that is something that I will talk about later in my speech. This is not just about education, but about a whole-system approach, which includes transport. We need to bring it all together.
Let me talk about the …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 13 Nov 2018
Education Funding
"It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bolton West (Chris Green), although I do not share his view that local government should be blamed for school cuts. It is an even greater pleasure to speak in today’s debate, and I want to give a special mention to …..."Jo Platt - View Speech
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