Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the ratio of special educational need and disability teaching staff to pupils in (a) Selby and Ainsty constituency and (b) North Yorkshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All teachers are teachers of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Information on the school workforce, including the pupil to adult, and pupil to teacher ratios at national, regional, local authority and individual school level, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In 2022/23, there were 18.2 pupils for every teacher in North Yorkshire local authority.
The department is committed to ensuring all children and young people receive the right support to succeed in their education, to be proud of their achievements in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives, and to experience choice and control as they move into adult life.
In the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department sets out its vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of needs and timely access to support to meet those needs.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to support young people unable to attend school as a result of having long covid.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory, and parents have a duty, under section 7 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that their child of compulsory age receives an efficient full-time education between ages five and sixteen.
The department recognises that some children may face barriers to attendance due to diagnosed medical conditions, such as long COVID. Long COVID is an umbrella term for symptoms that persist or develop after someone recovers from COVID-19. The severity of these symptoms can vary significantly and the support for pupils should recognise this.
The department’s new attendance guidance makes it clear that children with long term medical conditions may require additional support and that schools should provide this support where necessary to help them access their full-time education. This should include having sensitive conversations with pupils and parents, making reasonable adjustments where necessary, and considering additional support from external partners (including the local authority or health services). The department expects schools to work with families to develop specific support approaches for attendance and ensuring effective pastoral support is in place.
In some circumstances, pupils’ symptoms may be so severe that they are unable to attend mainstream education. The guidance entitled ‘Ensuring a Good Education for Children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ sets out that a local authority must arrange suitable full-time education (or as much education as the child’s health condition allows) for children of compulsory school age who, because of illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. A link to the guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-for-children-with-health-needs-who-cannot-attend-school.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to improve children's oracy skills in Selby and Ainsty constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department recognises the importance of oracy, which is why spoken language is already part of the National Curriculum for English for 5 to 16 year olds. For Early Years, the Department is investing up to £17 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the language skills of reception age pupils who need it most following the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Department has secured over £28 million to support the speech and language of pupils worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which are today’s 3 and 4 year olds, delivered through the new family hubs network.
In secondary schools, the GCSE English Language qualification ensures that pupils are able to listen to and understand spoken language and use spoken Standard English effectively. Provisional 2023 data published by Ofqual shows that overall entries to GCSE English Language increased by 4.9% since summer 2022. The data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/provisional-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2023-exam-series/provisional-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2023-exam-series#gcse-entries.
The Department funds the National Poetry Recitation Competition, which encourages both primary and secondary schools to participate, to improve pupils’ knowledge and enjoyment of poetry and to improve oracy through poetry recitation and recall.
The £67 million English Hubs Programme, launched in 2018, is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Since its launch, the English Hubs Programme has provided appropriate and targeted support to several thousand schools in England.
Selby and Ainsty's local English Hub, Outwood English hub, is working to engage and support primary schools across the region to improve the teaching of phonics, including offering showcase events especially for local schools. Outwood English Hub is planning to host a showcase at the Parsonage Hotel and Spa in Escrick later in the Autumn term.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in Selby and Ainsty constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Recent data shows that there are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest number of FTE teachers on record since the School Workforce Census began in 2010. The number of FTE teachers in North Yorkshire Local Authority rose to 4,582 in 2022, an increase of 342 (8%) since 2010.
The Department is taking action to increase teacher recruitment and retention.
The Department recently announced that the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and head teachers have been accepted in full. This means that teachers and head teachers in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over 30 years. The award also delivers the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions in England, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.
The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.
The Department is also providing a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas (EIAs). North Yorkshire is an EIA. There are 30 schools in the North Yorkshire Local Authority area eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, including three schools in the Selby and Ainsty constituency. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support, and professional development for all new teachers, underpinned by the Initial Teacher Training (ITT), Core Content Framework (CCF) and the Early Career Framework (ECF). Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence based training, across ITT and into their induction.
To support teacher retention, the Department has worked with the education sector and published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the education staff wellbeing charter. More than 2,800 schools have signed up to the charter so far. The education staff wellbeing charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. The workload reduction toolkit is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit.
The Department recently announced that it will also convene a workload reduction taskforce to explore how we can go further to support trusts and head teachers to minimise workload.