Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will benefit from the Multiply scheme in Scotland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.
We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to launch the Multiply scheme in Scotland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.
We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to increase the level of funding for schools in England to a minimum of £5,000 per pupil.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of (a) how widespread social exclusion is in rural areas and (b) the effect of his Department’s policies on social exclusion in rural areas.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department aims to provide every child and young person with world-class education, training and care regardless of their background or where they come from.
Opportunity Areas (OAs) in England are at the heart of our work to learn what works best in areas with entrenched social mobility barriers so that we can roll out successful approaches across the country. We chose these 12 areas to make sure that there was a geographical spread, allowing us to test approaches in a rural context as well as in urban and coastal locations.
Outside of the work undertaken in OAs, the department has made no assessment of social exclusion in rural areas. However, we are aware of the contribution that schools make to rural communities, which is why we support the presumption against the closure of rural schools in England.