Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many sure start centres there were in Yorkshire and the Humber region in (a) 2010 and (b) 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Based on the information supplied by local authorities, the table attached shows the number of Sure Start children’s centres in the Yorkshire and Humber region in 2010 and 2020.[1]
[1] Source: Downloaded from Get Information about Schools database https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. Based on information supplied by local authorities as at 11 January 2020. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in future, since local authorities may update their data at any time.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) advice and (b) guidance provided by (i) the Chief Medical Officer and (ii) Public Health England which informed the decision to allow nurseries to remain open during national lockdown restrictions from 6 January 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Schools have been restricted since 6 January 2021, not because they are unsafe but because additional measures are needed to contain the spread of the virus. The wider significant restrictions in place as part of the national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus in the community enable us to continue prioritising keeping nurseries and childminders open, supporting parents and delivering the crucial care and education needed for our youngest children.
Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to 5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission which is referred to in the 65th SAGE meeting, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/935102/sage-65-meeting-covid-19-s0863.pdf.
There is no evidence the new strain of the virus causes more serious illness in either children or adults and there is no evidence that the new variant of coronavirus disproportionately affects young children.
Public Health England (PHE) advice remains that the system of controls are the right measures for early years settings, which reduce risks and create inherently safer environments.
Early years settings have been open to all children since 1 June 2020 and there is no evidence that the early years sector has contributed to a significant rise in virus cases within the community. Early modelling evidence from SAGE evidenced in the report Modelling and behavioural science responses to scenarios for relaxing school closures’ showed that early years provision had a smaller relative impact on transmission rate when modelled with both primary schools and secondary schools. The report is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/886994/s0257-sage-sub-group-modelling-behavioural-science-relaxing-school-closures-sage30.pdf.
We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open in full because of the clear benefits to children’s education and wellbeing and to support working parents. Caring for the youngest age group is not something that can be done remotely.
PHE have endorsed a ‘system of controls’ which are the set of actions all early years settings must take. They are outlined in more detail in the ‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ guidance, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
These build on the hierarchy of protective measures that have been in use throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. When implemented in line with a revised risk assessment, these measures create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced for children and staff.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to address regional inequalities in the UK for A-Level attainment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to levelling up school standards and opportunities for all children, including those studying A levels. The Department does this through a mixture of policies that support disadvantaged pupils wherever they live in the country, as well as through extra support for places that fall behind.
Through the 16-19 funding formula, we provide additional funding to support disadvantaged students from economically deprived areas as well as students who have low prior attainment in maths and English. In the 2020/21 academic year, we allocated over £500 million of disadvantage funding (almost 10% of core programme funding).
For the 2020/21 academic year, we have also made up to £96 million available specifically for colleges, sixth forms and other 16-19 providers, to provide small group tutoring activity for disadvantaged 16-19 students whose studies have been disrupted through the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The evidence is clear that early intervention is the best way to address educational inequalities that appear at A level and beyond. The Department is spending £2.4 billion this year through the pupil premium to tackle educational inequality in the school system, as well as investing in a number of reforms to improve the quality of teaching. The Early Career Framework reforms and support for newly qualified teachers is the biggest teaching reform in a generation. In autumn 2020, the Department launched the early roll-out of the Early Career Framework reforms for eligible schools in the North East, Greater Manchester, Bradford and Doncaster. Meanwhile, the Department’s Opportunity Areas and One North East programmes are helping to raise standards in areas of the country that face particular challenges.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and 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 change in the percentage gap from 2018 to 2019 between local authority areas with the highest proportion of A-Level results achieved at AAB or higher, and local authority areas with the lowest proportion of A-Level results achieved at AAB or higher.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The published data available from the Department’s most recent release showed a narrowing of the percentage gap between the local authorities with the highest and lowest AAB proportions between 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years. The gap fell from 48.4ppts to 38.8ppts; the difference in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively in the proportion of students achieving AAB or higher, where Reading and Knowsley local authorities recorded the highest and lowest proportions in both years. This information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2019-20.
However, it is important to note that data for the worst performing and best performing local authorities sit at the extremes of the data, and as such naturally fluctuate from year to year. It would not be prudent for the Department to draw out significant policy implications from the change in the gap in just one year.
The Department remains committed to high attainment for all students across the UK. Since 2011, we have reformed the national curriculum, GCSEs and A levels to set world-class standards across all subjects and invested heavily in improving the quality of teaching.
UCAS sector-level data on higher education entry rates by English region shows that in 2020, 18 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds were proportionally 80% more likely to enter full time higher education than in 2009. This data is available here: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-sector-level-end-cycle-data-resources-2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and 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 UNICEF ranking the UK 27 out of 38 OECD and EU countries for mental wellbeing, physical health and academic and social skills.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government has made the attainment, health and wellbeing of children and young people a priority. Many of the challenges set out require a cross-government approach.
School standards in England have improved overall since 2010. 86% of schools are now rated good or outstanding – up from 68% in 2010. Over the last 9 years, the percentage of children meeting expectations in the phonics screening check has gone up from 58% to 82%. We achieved our highest ever score in an international assessment of reading in 2016. There has been a 9-percentage point rise in key stage 2 maths results since new tests were introduced in 2016, and a significant improvement in maths scores for 15 year olds in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international test results, driven by a decrease in the number of low attainers. Results from the Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 international test results show our year 5 and year 9 pupils continue to perform strongly on the international stage - we particularly welcome the significant improvement in attainment for our year 5 pupils since 2015.
We are reforming the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and over 3,000 schools are early adopters this year. We have strengthened the high-level curriculum summaries and early learning goals, including a focus on areas we know are key predictors of later success: communication and language, literacy and mathematics.
The government plans to invest over £7 billion during 2020/21 academic year, to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19-year-old who wants one (this includes spending on apprenticeships). Provision is funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which works with local authorities to ensure that provision meets the needs of young people in their area.
Under Raising the Participation Age (RPA) requirements, all young people in England are now required to continue in education or training until at least their 18th birthday. In practice most young people continue until the end of the academic year in which they turn 18. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/raising-the-participation-age.
The Department for Education (DfE) works closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. There is a joint programme overseeing the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision green paper. This includes the provision of mental health support teams linked to groups of schools and colleges and part of a wider NHS England investment in children and young people’s mental health, which is transforming how specialist services are provided and make links to other services.
DfE also works closely with DHSC and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) on physical health, contributing to the government’s childhood obesity plan. The healthy schools rating scheme celebrates the positive actions that schools are delivering in terms of healthy living, healthy eating and physical activity, and supports schools in identifying further actions that they can take in this area.
The School sport and activity action plan sets out how we are working to support the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation that all children and young people should have access to 60 minutes a day of physical activity. We have also introduced a new curriculum covering relationships, sex and health education, which became mandatory from September 2020 and means that all pupils will be taught about ways to be physically and mentally healthy and about healthy relationships with their peers.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils classed as vulnerable were attending school as at 1 December 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect attendance information for all pupil characteristics, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We do collect attendance data for vulnerable children with an education health and care plan (EHCP) and/or social worker on a daily basis. This data is published at a national level 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 covering the period including 1 December will be published on 8 December.
We estimate that on 26 November 78% of all pupils with an EHCP on roll in all state funded schools were in attendance, and 78% of all pupils with a social worker on roll in all state funded schools were in attendance.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils classed as SEND were attending school as at 1 December 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect attendance information for all pupil characteristics, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We do collect attendance data for vulnerable children with an education health and care plan (EHCP) and/or social worker on a daily basis. This data is published at a national level 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 covering the period including 1 December will be published on 8 December.
We estimate that on 26 November 78% of all pupils with an EHCP on roll in all state funded schools were in attendance, and 78% of all pupils with a social worker on roll in all state funded schools were in attendance.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many child protection referrals were made to Children's Services in each month of 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The monthly figures on the number of child protection referrals that were made to children’s social care services in England, up to March 2020, are published in the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need.
The Vulnerable Children and Young People Survey collects fortnightly data from local authorities in England on the number of referrals made to children’s social care services. The data for the full month is not collected.
The attached tables show the number of referrals to children’s social care services, where the data is available for 2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school pupils have tested positive for covid-19 since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not hold COVID-19 testing data.
We collect data on the open status of schools, the number of schools that have indicated they have sent children home due to COVID-19 containment, and the total number of pupils reported absent due to a confirmed COVID-19 case. The data is published from this collection at a national level 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.
On 19 November 2020, 18,000 pupils in state-funded schools were reported absent due to a confirmed case of COVID-19. This data is collected at school level, not pupil level. Therefore, we cannot estimate a total for the number of pupils absent since the beginning of term.
Please note that Public Health England (PHE) leads in holding data on infection, incidence, and COVID-19 cases overall. PHE publishes data on COVID-19 incidents by institution, including educational settings, which can be found through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-report.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason the Union Learning Fund is due to end in April 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The decision was taken to increase the scale and reach of our offer in response to the challenges facing our changing economy, by consolidating our support in larger, more comprehensive offers.
The Unionlearn model has its limitations. It is reliant on a trade union presence in the workplace, which is more focused on larger employers and does not necessarily reach the unemployed, self-employed, start-ups, and many more small and medium-sized businesses that do not have union representation. The 2018 evaluation by Exeter University found only 2% of people supported through Unionlearn were unemployed and 5% were self-employed.
We are focussing on a much larger and more comprehensive package of training support, including the establishment of a £2.5 billion National Skills Fund to help adults get the skills they need, including the Lifetime Skills Guarantee – to support any adult who does not yet have an A-level equivalent qualification to obtain one. This is in addition to the existing entitlement for adults without English and maths level 2 qualifications or Basic Digital Skills level 1 to get fully funded support to gain these essential qualifications.
As a result, it was decided not to continue to fund the smaller Unionlearn offer. All the money will be invested in skills and retraining that will be fully accessible to everyone.