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 prevalence of state schools paying for externally provided mental health support for students.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not collect central information on the details of school expenditure, including whether they pay for externally provided mental health support for students. Schools and colleges have the freedom to decide what support to offer pupils based on their particular needs, drawing on evidence available on effective practice.
We are currently providing the biggest increase to schools funding in a decade. School budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year and £7.1 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. We recognise that local authorities’ costs in providing for those with the most complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have increased. We have increased high needs funding for children and young people with the most complex SEND, from £5 billion in 2013 to over £7 billion in 2020-21 financial year, and it will continue to rise to £8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. This increase means that in the 2021-22 financial year, every local authority will attract an increase of at least 8% per head of population, with some authorities seeing increases of up to 12%.
Schools are best placed to make decisions on how best to spend their funding to support their pupils, and we do not set restrictions on how much is spent on mental health provision. We know that there has been an increased need to focus on mental health and wellbeing as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Getting children and young people back into school and college is key to their wellbeing. 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.
To ensure that staff were equipped to support wellbeing as children and young people returned to schools and colleges, we made it a central part of our guidance both on remote education and on the return to school. We supported this with a range of training and materials, including webinars which have been accessed by thousands of education staff and accelerating training on how to teach about mental health as part of the new relationships, sex and health curriculum, so that all pupils can benefit from this long-term requirement.
To continue this support we have invested in £8 million in the Wellbeing for Education Return programme, which will provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and practical skills they need to support teachers, students and parents, to help improve how they respond to the emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The programme is funding expert advisers in every area of England to train and support schools and colleges during the autumn and spring terms. More information about the programme is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.
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.
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, including 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.
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 capacity of schools to meet demand for students mental health support through internal resources.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not collect central information on the details of school expenditure, including whether they pay for externally provided mental health support for students. Schools and colleges have the freedom to decide what support to offer pupils based on their particular needs, drawing on evidence available on effective practice.
We are currently providing the biggest increase to schools funding in a decade. School budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year and £7.1 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, compared to the 2019-20 financial year. We recognise that local authorities’ costs in providing for those with the most complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have increased. We have increased high needs funding for children and young people with the most complex SEND, from £5 billion in 2013 to over £7 billion in 2020-21 financial year, and it will continue to rise to £8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. This increase means that in the 2021-22 financial year, every local authority will attract an increase of at least 8% per head of population, with some authorities seeing increases of up to 12%.
Schools are best placed to make decisions on how best to spend their funding to support their pupils, and we do not set restrictions on how much is spent on mental health provision. We know that there has been an increased need to focus on mental health and wellbeing as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Getting children and young people back into school and college is key to their wellbeing. 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.
To ensure that staff were equipped to support wellbeing as children and young people returned to schools and colleges, we made it a central part of our guidance both on remote education and on the return to school. We supported this with a range of training and materials, including webinars which have been accessed by thousands of education staff and accelerating training on how to teach about mental health as part of the new relationships, sex and health curriculum, so that all pupils can benefit from this long-term requirement.
To continue this support we have invested in £8 million in the Wellbeing for Education Return programme, which will provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and practical skills they need to support teachers, students and parents, to help improve how they respond to the emotional impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The programme is funding expert advisers in every area of England to train and support schools and colleges during the autumn and spring terms. More information about the programme is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-for-education-return-grant-s31-grant-determination-letter.
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.
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, including 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.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to introduce a mandatory provision of counselling services in secondary schools and colleges across England.
Answered by Vicky Ford
It is important for schools and colleges to have the freedom to decide what support to offer pupils based on their particular needs and to draw on an evidence base of effective practice. This support can come from a number of sources, including counselling.
The department has published guidance on how to put in place effective school-based counselling, which schools can use to identify where further counselling support is appropriate for their pupils. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools.
Our most recent survey of mental health provision in schools and colleges in 2016 and 2017 found that 61% of schools and colleges (56% of primary schools, 84% of secondary schools and 93% of colleges) reported offering access to a counselling service for their pupils.
The government is 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, including counselling.
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, including 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.
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 tackle the imbalance in education funding between the most deprived and least deprived areas of the country.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This Government is delivering the biggest funding boost for schools in a decade, which will give every school more money for every child.
The Department has increased core school funding by £2.6 billion this financial year, then £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion by 2021/22 and 2022/23 respectively, compared to the financial year 2019/20, including additional funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities. This investment has enabled us to increase school funding by 5% in 2020/21 alone.
Areas with high proportions of students from a disadvantaged background will continue to receive the highest levels of funding and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed considerably in both primary and secondary schools since 2011. Through the National Funding Formula, we provide a total of £6.3 billion targeted at schools with higher numbers of pupils with additional needs, including deprivation. On top of that the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion this financial year, provides additional support for disadvantaged pupils – those currently or formerly claiming free school meals and currently or formerly looked after – to tackle educational inequality.
The Department has also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils, as part of the COVID-19 catch-up package. This will increase access to high-quality tuition for disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainment gap between them and their peers.
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 potential merits of including teaching of British Sign Language in the curriculum of Key Stages one, two and three.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises and acknowledges that British Sign Language (BSL) can be a beneficial subject for children to be taught. However, the Department does not have plans to introduce any new subjects to the National Curriculum.
Although BSL is not part of the National Curriculum, schools may choose to offer BSL in their school curriculum or include it as part of their extra curricular activities programme.
The Department is working with subject experts to develop draft subject content for a potential BSL GCSE. The Department is engaging with Ofqual, the independent qualifications regulator, to ensure that the subject content can be assessed appropriately and will be working with stakeholders to ensure that a wide range of views are reflected. Subject to being able to develop subject content, which meets the rigorous requirements which applies to all GCSEs, we are aiming to consult publicly on draft content early in 2021. The precise timings of this may be subject to change.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools were classed as not fully open on (a) 1 September 2020, (b) 8 September 2020, (c) 15 September 2020 and (d) 22 September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is currently collecting data from schools on a daily basis and publishes data from this collection, including the number and percentage of state funded schools that are fully open, as part of the official statistics series. The publication can be found here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
Data has been published from 9 September. Data collected between 1 and 8 September has not been published because many schools had not started term or had inset days during this time.
Schools are considered fully open if they are able to provide face to face teaching for all pupils on roll for the whole school day and they have not asked a group of pupils to self-isolate. The number and proportion of state funded schools not fully open[1] [2] [3] on 15 and 22 September was as follows:
| Number of state-funded | Percentage of state-funded |
| schools not fully open | schools not fully open |
15/09/2020 | 1,200 | 6 |
22/09/2020 | 1,300 | 6 |
[1] All figures are adjusted for non-response.
[2] State-funded schools are state-funded primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and alternative provision.
[3] Schools can be not fully open for non-COVID-19 related reasons, such as staggering entry for nursery and reception pupils. Where schools are not fully open, most pupils are still attending. When pupils are unable to attend school because they are complying with clinical or public health advice, schools are expected to immediately offer them access to remote education.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school (a) staff and (b) pupils have received positive covid-19 tests since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Keeping a close track of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in schools is a priority for the Government. Public Health England (PHE) leads in holding data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall. PHE have published data on COVID-19 incidents by institution, including educational settings. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports.
The Department is currently collecting data from schools on a daily basis, as well as gathering information from local areas and following up with individual settings. This is to confirm that procedures for requiring pupils to isolate are well understood and that necessary decisions are made on the basis of public health advice.
The Department collects data on the number of schools that have indicated that they have sent children home due to COVID-19 containment measures. The Department is currently looking at the quality of that data with a view to publishing it as part of the official statistics series. The series includes published data on school openings and attendance, which shows that at a national level approximately 93 per cent of state funded schools were fully open on 24 September. Of all schools that responded to the survey, 6 per cent said they were not fully open due to suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 24 September. Approximately 88 per cent of all children on roll in all state funded schools were in attendance on 24 September. More information is available at:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has he made of the trends in the level educational attainment of children in care at (a) GCSE, (b) A level or equivalent and (c) undergraduate degree level.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Children in care generally have lower educational attainment than other pupils.
63% of looked-after children enter care due to abuse or neglect. They often have a disrupted experience of education and this pre-care experience can have a significant impact on their attainment. Looked-after children are almost four times more likely to have a special educational need (SEN) than all children and this in part can also explain the gap in attainment compared to non-looked after children.
We expect looked-after children to be placed in good or outstanding schools. Schools must appoint a designated teacher for looked-after children and local authorities must have a Virtual School Head who is accountable for the educational attainment of all children looked-after by the local authority. We have introduced the pupil premium plus for looked-after children (£2,345 per eligible pupil and is managed by the Virtual School Head) to deliver the outcomes in each looked-after child’s personal education plan. The department’s exclusions statutory guidance is clear that the headteacher should, as far as possible, avoid permanently excluding a looked after child. The rate of permanent exclusion for looked after children was 0.14% in 2014–15. That has reduced in recent years; in 2017-2018, the rate was 0.05%. The local authority must have regard to the relevant statutory guidance when carrying out its duties in relation to the education of looked after children.
Information on the performance of children who had been looked after continuously for at least 12 months at Key Stage 4 is published in a statistical release. Due to the introduction of reformed GCSEs and the 9-1 grading scale, comparisons over a long timeframe are difficult. Table 5a shows that the percentage of children who had been looked after continuously for at least 12 months achieving the threshold in English and mathematics at grade 5 or above decreased slightly from 7.4% in 2017 to 7.2% in 2019. The publication is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities-31-march-2019.
Equivalent figures are not available for A levels as we do not match data collected for looked-after children with Key Stage 5 attainment data on the national pupil database.
Information on the degree qualifications of children who have been looked after is not held centrally within the department.
The Office for Students published a report that looked at the effects of different characteristics on students’ degree attainment. Annex B describes how care-experienced students have lower rates of achieving a first or upper-second class degree when compared to students who have not been in care. For qualifiers in 2018-19, the attainment rate of care experienced students was 12.1% lower than the attainment rate of students who have not been in care. The report is available here:
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/differences-in-student-outcomes-further-characteristics/.
Since 2018, we have been working with universities to encourage them to sign up to the Care Leaver Covenant and publish their offer to care leavers. The website is available here:
https://mycovenant.org.uk/offers/educational/.
We continue to work with the sector to better understand the needs of care leavers and increase their attendance and attainment.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children in England there have been place in (a) foster care, (b) residential children’s homes and (c) other residential settings in each year since 2010.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The number of looked after children placed in foster care, residential homes and other residential settings since 2010 are shown in the attached table.
The latest figures nationally on children looked-after by placement are published in Table A2 of the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2018 to 2019’, which is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils have been attending a (a) primary and (b) secondary school in (i) Hemsworth parliamentary constituency (ii) the Wakefield Council area on a daily basis since 1 June 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not hold the information in the format required. National data on pupil attendance in educational establishments since 23 March was last published on Tuesday 7 July at the following link, covering data up to Thursday 2 July:
The publication includes breakdowns of attendance statistics for both primary and secondary schools and colleges from 1 June.
The data is collected from individual education establishments and the published figures include estimates for non-response.