Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres are (a) open and (b) operational as at 25 November 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Based on information supplied by local authorities, there were 2302 Sure Start children’s centres and 699 linked sites open as at 25 November 2020.[1]
The decision to keep children’s centres operational in response to the COVID-19 outbreak is one for local authorities. Data on the number of children’s centres that are currently operational is held at a local level.[2]
[1] Source: Downloaded from ‘Get Information about Schools’ (GIAS) database: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk on 26 November 2020.
[2] Local authorities are required to update their children’s centre records on a regular basis to reflect any permanent changes that they make to their children’s centre provision. However, the GIAS does not provide a facility to report temporary closures.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve social mobility for children from working class backgrounds.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Social mobility is a top priority across the department. Every child should have the same opportunity to express their talents and make the most of their lives.
Evidence shows that what happens in children’s earliest years, before they start school, can have a huge influence on later outcomes. That is why the department has committed over £60 million to programmes to improve early language and literacy. Over 1 million disadvantaged two-year olds have taken up an early education place since the entitlement began in September 2013. Results show that the proportion of children achieving a ‘good level of development’ at age 5 is improving year on year. The percentage of children receiving free school meals (FSM) and achieving a good level of development was 57% in 2019, compared 36% in 2013.
A world-class education system that works for everyone is the surest way to spread opportunity across the country. That is why we are investing over £7 billion more in our schools by the 2022-23 financial year, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. This means schools around the country can continue to raise standards to give all children the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion again this year, to enable them to arrange extra personalised support for disadvantaged pupils.
Our technical education reforms will also offer a real choice of high-quality training that has parity of esteem with traditional academic routes, so that all young people can follow the path that’s right for them and benefit from more choice in their education journey. The new T Levels will offer young people a high-quality alternative to A Levels. We are providing extensive support for their implementation, particularly around building capacity for industry placements and capital funding for high quality facilities and equipment.
We are making progress on spreading opportunity, with disadvantaged 18-year-olds entering full time higher education at record rates. The latest data shows that there were 24,900 placed English 18-year-old applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds, constituting an entry rate of 23.1%. Both are the highest on record.
Opportunity Areas (OAs) are working to improve outcomes for children and young people in 12 areas with low social mobility. This is at the heart of our work to level up and learn what works best in areas with entrenched social mobility barriers, so that we can roll out successful approaches across the country.
We are investing £90 million in the 12 OAs to tackle barriers preventing children and young people from achieving their potential. The OAs have also benefitted from £22 million through the “Essential Life Skills” programme, focused on developing resilience, wellbeing, and employability.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to provide continued support to children leaving care upon turning 18 years of age.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I am committed to doing all I can to support our young people leaving care and ensure that turning 18 years old isn’t the ‘cliff edge’ it can be seen as.
Since 2014, local authorities have been under a duty to provide financial support to enable young people in foster care to remain living with their former foster family to age 21 in a Staying Put arrangement. The department is providing funding of over £33 million in the 2020/21 financial year to support implementation, an increase of approximately £10 million (40%) on the 2019/20 financial year.
Since 2018, we have funded 8 Staying Close pilots (£5.8 million over two years) to test an enhanced offer of support, with accommodation and well-being, for young people leaving residential care. In the 2020/21 financial year we are continuing the pilots and have announced our intention to begin national roll-out.
During National Care Leavers’ Week in October 2020, my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, and I contributed to sector-led events, including the ‘Empathy Summit’ staged by Spectra and the Care Leaver Covenant. We now have 155 organisations signed up to the Care Leaver Covenant, businesses, charities, public bodies, and 85 in the process of developing their offer of practical help. I urge others to follow suit and identify what opportunities they can offer to care leavers.
Policies across government impact on care leavers’ lives, such as housing, employment and health. That is why my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has set up a cross-government ministerial care leavers board, to focus on issues facing care leavers.
In summer this year, I launched the latest intake to the Civil Service care leaver internship scheme, which this year has received over 700 applicants to work in a range of paid roles across government. We are now working, with the cross-government ministerial care leavers’ board, to identify similar opportunities in other large public sector employers, such as the NHS, police and the fire service.
Since 2018/19, as part the government’s rough sleeping strategy, we have provided nearly £6 million funding to 47 local authorities with the highest number of care leavers at risk of homelessness/rough sleeping. The funding allows them to employ specialist Personal Advisers to provide intensive support to small caseloads of care leavers most at risk.
During National Care Leavers Week 2020, this department and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published joint guidance to local authorities on establishing positive accommodation pathways for care leavers, including developing joint protocols between local authorities Children’s and Housing Services.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to provide young care leavers with educational opportunities.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Providing care leavers with the support they need to access educational opportunities that will allow them to reach their potential is one of my main priorities. We have already:
At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, my hon. Friend, the Minister of state for Universities, wrote to universities and other HE providers, to highlight the vulnerability of care leavers and estranged students, and asked them to prioritise these groups for additional support. In addition:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the financial support available to the 900,000 children eligible for Free School Meal vouchers living in areas of the UK under enhanced covid-19 lockdown restrictions throughout the school holidays.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. The most recent statistical publication shows that there are around 1.4 million children eligible for and claiming a nutritious FSM, based on the January school census, saving families more than £400 per year. The 2020 publication is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2020. Take-up may currently be higher due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and current economic circumstances.
We are grateful for the hard work that school staff undertake throughout the school year to deliver this provision locally for the families that are eligible for FSM. During the COVID-19 outbreak, we are especially appreciative of the actions that schools have taken to continue FSM provisions during such challenging circumstances. We want to make sure that as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their FSM, and schools continue to accept applications from pupils who are newly eligible. To support this, the department provides an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.
We have put additional guidance in place to ensure we support pupils eligible for FSM who are having to self-isolate during term-time, asking schools to work with their caterers to provide food parcels. Given the increased uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak we are taking steps to make sure that children and families get the extra support they need over the winter. Building on the significant financial support given throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, a new £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme will be run by councils in England. The funding will be ring-fenced, with at least 80% earmarked to support with food and bills, and will cover the period to the end of March.
We are also investing up to £220 million in the Holiday Activities and Food programme which will be expanded across England next year. Children eligible for FSM will have the option to join a holiday-time programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities during the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays, giving disadvantaged young people opportunities they might otherwise lose out on.
Additionally, we are increasing the value of Healthy Start Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 from next April. This scheme supports pregnant women or those with children under four who have a low income and are in receipt of benefits to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. This will help those on lower incomes to boost the long-term health of their children.
Finally, we have also pledged additional funding of £16 million for food distribution charities, conversations are ongoing as to how this is allocated. This is further to the £16 million distributed to food aid charities earlier in the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the monthly cost to the public purse of the provision of £15 weekly food vouchers for pupils eligible for Free School Meals.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Our national voucher scheme supplier, Edenred, has reported that over £380 million worth of voucher codes have been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by families through the scheme as of 19 August 2020. The scheme was launched on 31 March 2020. Over 20,350 schools have placed orders for the scheme as of 28 July. The free school meal (FSM) voucher scheme has now closed. Now schools and their kitchens are open, normal free school meal provision has resumed, enabling children to have a nutritious healthy meal at school.
Our latest FSM guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were eligible for Free School Meals in (a) Wakefield, (b) Leeds, (c) Kirklees, (d) Bradford and (e) Calderdale Local Authority areas on 1 January 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The number of children that were eligible for Free School Meals in England and (a) Wakefield, (b) Leeds, (c) Kirklees, (d) Bradford and (e) Calderdale Local Authority areas in January 2020 is given in the table below.
Area | Headcount | Per cent |
England | 1,440,788 | 17.3 |
Wakefield | 9,285 | 17.2 |
Leeds | 25,488 | 20.1 |
Kirklees | 14,215 | 21.0 |
Bradford | 20,938 | 20.7 |
Calderdale | 7,014 | 19.1 |
Source: School census, January 2020 - https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/96abea42-23cf-4412-910b-85d104f9be9d.
Data for October 2020 is currently being collected through the autumn term school census and is not yet available.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were eligible for Free School Meals in (a) Wakefield, (b) Leeds, (c) Kirklees, (d) Bradford and (e) Calderdale Local Authority areas on 1 October 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The number of children that were eligible for Free School Meals in England and (a) Wakefield, (b) Leeds, (c) Kirklees, (d) Bradford and (e) Calderdale Local Authority areas in January 2020 is given in the table below.
Area | Headcount | Per cent |
England | 1,440,788 | 17.3 |
Wakefield | 9,285 | 17.2 |
Leeds | 25,488 | 20.1 |
Kirklees | 14,215 | 21.0 |
Bradford | 20,938 | 20.7 |
Calderdale | 7,014 | 19.1 |
Source: School census, January 2020 - https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/96abea42-23cf-4412-910b-85d104f9be9d.
Data for October 2020 is currently being collected through the autumn term school census and is not yet available.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were eligible for Free School Meals on (a) 1 January 2020 and (b) 1 October 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The number of children that were eligible for Free School Meals in England and (a) Wakefield, (b) Leeds, (c) Kirklees, (d) Bradford and (e) Calderdale Local Authority areas in January 2020 is given in the table below.
Area | Headcount | Per cent |
England | 1,440,788 | 17.3 |
Wakefield | 9,285 | 17.2 |
Leeds | 25,488 | 20.1 |
Kirklees | 14,215 | 21.0 |
Bradford | 20,938 | 20.7 |
Calderdale | 7,014 | 19.1 |
Source: School census, January 2020 - https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/96abea42-23cf-4412-910b-85d104f9be9d.
Data for October 2020 is currently being collected through the autumn term school census and is not yet available.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the finding of research by Outwood Academy in Hemsworth constituency that states that between September 2019 and September 2020 the number of pupils requiring mental health safeguarding in that Academy had increased by 85 per cent as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We know that, across society, the COVID-19 outbreak has had an impact on wellbeing and mental health, but it has had a particular impact on children and young people. Due to this, the government has made children’s wellbeing and mental health a central part of our response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The department has taken action to ensure schools and colleges are equipped to support children and young people.
To ensure that staff were equipped to support the wellbeing of children and young people as they returned to school, we made available a range of training and materials, including webinars which have been accessed by thousands of education staff and by accelerating training on how to teach about mental health as part of the new relationships, sex and health curriculum.
We have worked hard to ensure that all pupils and learners were able to return to a full high-quality education programme in September. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package, with £650 million shared across schools over the 2020-21 academic year, is supporting education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place. We are also?investing £8 million in the new Wellbeing for Education Return programme which is funding expert advisers who will be able to train and support schools and colleges in every area of England and can make links to available local authority provision.
Of course, schools and colleges are not mental health professionals, so access to specialist mental health support is more important than ever during the COVID-19 outbreak. All NHS mental health trusts have ensured that there are 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages. We have also provided £9.2 million of additional funding for mental health charities, including charities such as Young Minds, to support adults and children struggling with their mental wellbeing during this time.
The government published its second annual ‘State of the Nation: Children and Young People’s Wellbeing’ report on 10 October 2020. This year, the report focuses on publicly available data on children and young people’s experiences associated with wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings in the report show that many elements of wellbeing have remained stable. However, there have been impacts in a range of areas, including friendships, worries about the future and personal finance, as well as differential impacts for some groups.
To increase support further in the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. This includes introducing new mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.
The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, set out an ambition that all children and young people who need specialist support are able to access it within a decade, with a commitment to follow up the green paper 4-week waiting time pilots with a new national waiting time for specialist services. Mental health services will continue to receive an increased share of the NHS budget, growing by at least £2.3 billion a year by the 2023-24 financial year. Funding for children and young people's mental health services will grow faster than both overall NHS funding and total mental health spending. More details on the NHS Long Term Plan are available here:
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-long-term-plan/.