Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve adult participation in access programmes for careers in the health and care professions.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
High quality careers information, advice and guidance is key to helping people to make informed decisions about their future, including being able to find out about and consider the different options, including those in the health and care professions, available to them. We are investing £100 million in careers provision for young people and adults in the financial year 2021-22. The National Careers Service, a free, government funded careers information, advice and guidance service draws on a range of labour market information to support and guide individuals. The National Careers Service is impartial, and careers guidance is tailored to individual needs, but careers advisers can play a key role in alerting people to the range of health and care profession careers available. The National Careers Service supports this through disseminating regular information to careers advisers.
The National Careers Service website gives customers access to a range of useful digital tools and resources to support them, including ‘Explore Careers’ which includes more than 130 industry areas and more than 800 job profiles, covering a range of health and care profession roles, describing what those roles entail, qualifications and entry routes.
The National Careers Service uses a range of techniques, including social media, to alert people to opportunities. For example, the Service has hosted free webinars in the North West about the range of roles available in health and social care. Virtual jobs fairs introducing potential employees to recruiting organisations regularly take place across England, for example the recent Gloucester Care Jobs Fair.
High-quality, employer-designed apprenticeships, from the Level 2 healthcare support worker to the Level 6 registered nurse degree apprenticeship, support people to begin or progress in health and care related careers.
We are also working with employers to develop an occupational traineeship in Adult Care to support those aged 24 and under into apprenticeships and employment in the sector.
Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing schools to use unspent budget for period products on other essential items such as emergency underwear.
Answered by Will Quince
The government fully funds access to free period products in schools and colleges across England, for learners that need them. This scheme enables all learners to participate fully in education by making period products available as and when they are needed.
Schools and colleges know their learners best and therefore have the freedom to select the most suitable products for their learners, considering cost and type of product. The scheme provides a wide range of period products for organisations to choose from and the department will keep this range under review. The department knows that many schools use their pupil premium grant for wider strategies to meet their pupils’ basic needs, and schools may wish to use this funding to provide clothing items such as underwear if required. Providers in colleges and other 16-19 provision may wish to use their 16-19 Bursary Fund to provide similar items to their students.
Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support private candidates who were due to sit exams in the 2020-21 academic year as external candidates.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Government considers that examinations cannot be held in a way which is fair. The Department has announced that GCSE, AS and A level examinations will not go ahead this summer as planned.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has asked the Chief Regulator at Ofqual to find a clear and accessible route for private candidates, and those not in school this year, to be assessed and receive a grade. The Department and Ofqual have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives, including consulting specifically on four different approaches for private candidates to receive a grade.
The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January 2021. The Department and Ofqual strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including private candidates and their parents, to respond. We will continue to engage with a range of relevant stakeholders when developing plans for our policy on GCSE, AS and A level assessments in 2021, as will the examinations regulator Ofqual.
Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking review his Department's guidance that advises against residential school trips, in light of the financial difficulty faced by (a) Rhos-Y-Gwaliau and (b) other outdoor activity centres and where those centres are able to accommodate school bubbles.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The guidance for full school opening continues to advise against UK overnight educational residential visits. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
This advice will remain under review and will be updated in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help ensure that children of people who are shielding during the covid-19 outbreak can (a) access education and (b) minimise risk of transmitting covid-19 to others in their household.
Answered by Nick Gibb
During the summer term, we are advising children who live in a household with someone who is shielding to only attend school if stringent social distancing can be adhered to and if they are able to understand and follow those instructions. This may not be possible for very young children and older children without the capacity to adhere to the instructions on social distancing. If stringent social distancing cannot be adhered to, we do not expect those individuals to attend. They should be supported to learn at home.
To aide this, we have published a list of high-quality online resources, which have been assessed with support from some of the country’s leading educational experts, to help pupils learn at home. We have also worked with schools to produce case studies guidance on remote education practice. This guidance provides an opportunity for schools to learn from each other's emerging practice as they develop their own approaches.
In addition, we are supporting sector-led initiatives such as the Oak National Academy. This new enterprise has been created by 40 teachers from schools across England. It will provide 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from Reception through to year 10. By 21 June, 3.9 million unique users had accessed the Oak National Academy website and 13.2 million lessons had been viewed.
The BBC has also developed resources for families as part of a comprehensive new education package, which is now available on TV and online at BBC Bitesize.
The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.
We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged and vulnerable children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers.
Shielding advice for all adults and children will pause on 1 August, subject to a continued decline in the rates of community transmission of COVID-19. This means that even the small number of pupils who remain on the shielded patient list can return to school, as can those who have family members who are shielding.
Our guidance for fully reopening schools in the autumn sets out a ‘system of controls’ which schools should adopt to minimise the risk of transmission. Where schools apply the full measures in this guidance, the risks to all pupils and staff will be mitigated significantly, including those who were previously classed as extremely clinically vulnerable and clinically vulnerable. This guidance also sets out our expectations of the remote education schools should provide if a pupil is unable to attend school because they are complying with clinical and/or public health advice, including if they are required to self-isolate or a local outbreak occurs.
This guidance can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.