Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to use the conservation education expertise of (a) Chester Zoo and (b) other zoos on the implementation of the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In developing the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, the Department engaged with a wide range of expert groups and organisations including Chester Zoo. The Department also sought the views of young people through a Youth Panel which included a member of the Chester Zoo Youth Board.
Chester Zoo are also working with Manchester Metropolitan University and the Natural History Museum in the delivery of the National Education Nature Park, which is one of the Department’s key strategic initiatives.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to embed conservation and biodiversity issues within the school curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Topics related to climate change and sustainability already feature in the National Curriculum.
A Natural History GCSE will be introduced in 2025. Pupils will explore organisms and environments in more depth, gain knowledge and practical experience of fieldwork and develop a greater understanding of conservation.
The National Education Nature Park will provide educational opportunities for pupils to take part in citizen science and biodiversity monitoring. It will increase opportunities for all children and young people to spend time in nature, learn more about it and become actively involved in the improvement of their local environment.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) pay rises for staff and (b) increases in energy costs without additional funding on the financial viability of schools for children with special educational needs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has been taking careful account of the effect of pay awards for teachers and other staff, energy costs, and other inflationary pressures on school budgets. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement last November announced £2 billion in additional funding for schools.
Taking the Dedicated Schools Grant allocations and the additional funding announced in the Autumn Statement together, core schools funding (which includes funding for both mainstream schools and special schools) is increasing by £3.5 billion in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. The core schools budget will total £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies have said that this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil.
The additional funding following the Autumn Statement will be allocated to mainstream schools through the new Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) in 2023/24, which will be on top of schools’ core funding allocations. A typical primary school with 200 pupils will receive approximately £35,000 in additional funding through the MSAG, and a typical secondary school with 900 pupils approximately £200,000.
The Autumn Statement funding will also mean that special schools will receive increases in funding of 3.4%, similar to the average level of increase for mainstream schools, through their local authority. Schools will have flexibility over how they use the additional funding to support their pupils. It will help schools to manage higher costs, including pay awards and higher energy bills.
With regard to energy costs, a new energy scheme for businesses, charities, and the public sector was also confirmed on 9 January, ahead of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme ending in March. The new scheme will mean all eligible UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users, including schools, will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. This is on top of the additional investment in core schools funding announced in the Autumn Statement.
The Department knows that every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority in the case of maintained schools or the Education and Skills Funding Agency if they are an academy.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the Government's response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
On 2 February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the findings in the Education Endowment Foundations report on the socio-economic attainment gap; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department welcomes the Education Endowment Foundation’s report and the contributions it has made to the Department’s understanding of key issues around pupil wellbeing and attainment following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extended restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many children and young people missed out on large amounts of face to face education.
Helping children recover from the consequences of the pandemic is a key priority. The Department has made almost £5 billion available for a comprehensive recovery package to support children and young people to make up for education lost during the pandemic.
The Department is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance, and targeted support for the early years sector to support child development and recovery from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.
The Department has funded the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), which improves the language skills of Reception age children following the pandemic. The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development, and is proven to help them make around three months of additional progress.
In February 2021, the Department announced a £22 million Accelerator Fund, which aims to scale up and spread effective literacy and numeracy programmes to ensure pupils have the best chance of catching up following the pandemic. The Department announced a £66 million extension to the fund for another 3 years. This will continue to develop and scale up the best-evidenced literacy and numeracy interventions.
In addition, the Department’s ongoing investment in English and mathematics curriculum hub programmes will support children to benefit from high quality teaching in early reading and maths respectively, including through phonics and Teaching for Mastery interventions.
This year, schools funding is £4 billion higher than last year and it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. This is an increase of over 15% in two years. These increases will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, including those who are disadvantaged.
Schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth over £2.6 billion this 2022/23 financial year, to enable them to provide extra support and improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of educational psychologist provision in (a) Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of educational psychologists.
The department does not collect data on the supply of educational psychologists at a constituency level. Data on the number of educational psychologists employed by local authorities is captured in our ‘School Workforce in England’ statistics, published in June 2022. This is available here: https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/9a34fd81-bbaa-46ca-b5d5-e24c67a15d4d/files/18a597bd-40da-436a-58d0-08da7ec3a78e.
In November 2022, the department announced that funding worth £21 million would go towards training 400 more educational psychologists. The first of these cohorts will graduate and join the workforce in 2026, to provide crucial support to children and young people, schools, families, and local authorities. This new funding, in place from 2024, builds on the £10 million announced earlier this year to train over 200 educational psychologists from September 2023.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of funding pressures on schools and their ability to deliver full-time education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Association of School and College Leader’s survey findings were published in October 2022. In November, the 2022 Autumn Statement announced additional investment in schools. As a result, the core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This year, schools' funding is already £4 billion higher than last year. The Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies have noted this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil. It will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment. This includes high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.
The Department recognises that every school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on school budgets of the Association of School and College Leaders October 2022 survey findings that (a) 58 per cent of respondents are considering/likely to reduce teaching staff and increase class sizes, (b) 43 per cent were considering reducing curriculum options and (c) 55 per cent were considering reducing the number of teaching assistants.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Association of School and College Leader’s survey findings were published in October 2022. In November, the 2022 Autumn Statement announced additional investment in schools. As a result, the core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This year, schools' funding is already £4 billion higher than last year. The Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies have noted this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil. It will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment. This includes high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.
The Department recognises that every school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timetable is for the publication of the School Sport and Activity Action Plan.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The update to the Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan will be published in due course to align with timing of the Government’s new sport strategy.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an estimate of the (a) sufficiency and (b) affordability of childcare provision in Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable at 1.3 million places since August 2015. The Ofsted data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022/main-findings-childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. At present, Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency, which is covered by Cheshire West local authority, are reporting that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.
The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. We continue to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and to encourage families to use government-funded support they are entitled to. The department collects data on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England, and fees data can be broken down to local authority level. Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency falls within Cheshire West local authority, where the latest data shows the average hourly fee band for childcare is £4.75 for 2-year-old children and £4.75 for 3 and 4-year-old children.