Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local authorities are required to monitor the average cost of delivering Education, Health, and Care Plans within their area.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are not required to monitor the average cost of delivering education, health, and care (EHC) plans within their area. Local authorities are required to submit data on education spending, including spending relating to special educational needs and disabilities, as part of their annual returns to the department. But these returns do not cover the average cost of EHC plans.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships have started in Birmingham Northfield constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency are published in the Apprenticeships Statistics publication. Figures for Birmingham Northfield constituency can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/2abb827d-653c-4a6f-5350-08dca71310d3.
Note: Figures are based on parliamentary constituency boundaries as at July 2024.
Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the Apprenticeships Statistics publication, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding per pupil was in mainstream schools in (a) Birmingham Northfield constituency, (b) Birmingham, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The tables below provide average per-pupil funding from 2020/21 to 2024/25.
For Birmingham, the West Midlands and England, the figures represent the funding provided through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). All of the figures in table one exclude growth funding but include premises and additional funding from grants.
The DSG is allocated at local authority level, and as such the equivalent figures are not available for Birmingham Northfield constituency. The constituency level data for Birmingham Northfield is therefore instead calculated based on the notional schools national funding formula (NFF) allocations for all mainstream schools in the constituency. The figures in table two are not comparable to those in table one, not only because DSG funding cannot be aggregated down to constituency level, but also because the context of the funding figures are not the same. The figures in table two do not include the money that schools in the Birmingham Northfield constituency have received through additional grants, such as the Schools Supplementary Grant (SSG) and the Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG), therefore making the constituency-level funding appear to rise slower than that of the others presented.
Table one
Year | DSG Schools Block per-pupil funding | ||
Birmingham | West Midlands | England | |
2020-21 | £5,162 | £4,823 | £4,845 |
2021-22 | £5,518 | £5,198 | £5,228 |
2022-23 | £5,830 | £5,506 | £5,534 |
2023-24 | £6,144 | £5,815 | £5,838 |
2024-25 | £6,244 | £5,931 | £5,957 |
Table two
NFF Schools Block per-pupil funding * | |
Year | Birmingham Northfield constituency |
2020-21 | £5,429 |
2021-22 | £5,562 |
2022-23 | £5,707 |
2023-24 | £5,991 |
2024-25 | £6,304 |
* The allocations that schools within a constituency actually receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department’s transparency data, entitled Local authority applications to open a special free school: waves 3 and 4, updated on 16 May 2024, what the expected opening date is of the Frankley Hill School in Birmingham.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The school, which is planned to be a 400 place, co-educational school for pupils aged 4 to 19 with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, was approved into the pre-opening stage in March 2024. Departmental officials are working closely with the local authority and the trust to agree an opening date.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she expects a third independent report into Birmingham City Council’s SEND service to be published in 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department aims to publish the report within the coming months, in line with existing practice.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of trends in (a) recruitment and (b) retention of school support staff in (i) Birmingham and (ii) England in the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The full-time equivalent (FTE) of support staff has increased each year since the 2019/20 academic year, to 510,400 in 2023/24, and has now passed the previous peak of 2015/16. This is an increase of 4,800 (0.9%) since last year. This increase is mainly due to the addition of 2,400 in other support staff.
Support staff are categorised into posts of teaching assistants, administrative staff, auxiliary staff, technicians and other supporting staff, plus two new posts of school business professional and leadership non-teacher reported for the first time in 2023/24.
School business professionals include roles such as bursar, business manager, finance officer, office manager, premises manager or ICT network manager.
Data relating to the FTE of all support staff can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/7b0a17e8-b3ff-403e-687f-08dca70c1109.
Equivalent data relating to Birmingham’s parliamentary constituencies can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/0fb9acee-35f2-4607-fac3-08dca70cb6e4.
School support staff play a vital role in children’s education and development. The department values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce and will address recruitment and retention challenges by reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body.
This body will be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook, training and progression routes, ensuring that schools can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver high quality, inclusive education.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children who were not in school there were in Birmingham who (a) held an Education, Health and Care Plan and (b) had previously been identified in the SEN Support category by their school in each of the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes statistics on education, health and care (EHC) plans at local authority level. This data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes information on children elsewhere than at school, such as those awaiting provision, in elective home education, in other arrangements, permanently excluded, and having notice to cease of their plan, as well as those Not in Education, Employment of Training (NEET). The number of children with an EHC plan who were elsewhere than at school and who were NEET in Birmingham from 2020 to 2024 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/fffc2c6e-ef02-4be1-689a-08dca70c1109.
The data collection on children and young people with EHC plans does not include information on previous special educational needs (SEN) support identification.
Wider data on SEN, including information on the total number of pupils with EHC plans and SEN support at local authority level is available on GOV.UK, and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres closed in Birmingham since May 2010; and what the (a) name and (b) postcode was of each centre.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data on children’s centres is supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools database portal. This portal can be found here: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Based on the information supplied by Birmingham local authority, the attached document provides details of the name and postcode of Sure Start children’s centres that closed in Birmingham since May 2010. This is based on information supplied by Birmingham local authority as of 18 July 2024. These figures may be different to previous answers and could change again in the future, since local authorities may update the database at any time.