Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to provide support to the school food industry for the increasing costs of food, energy and labour.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spends around £600 million per year ensuring around 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal policy in 2014. The per meal rate of £2.34 per child was increased in the 2020/21 financial year. The funding rate for the 2022/23 financial year will be published with the funding allocations in June.
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the school food standards.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing funding for universal infant free school meals in the context of the cost and supply pressures facing the school food industry.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spends around £600 million per year ensuring around 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal policy in 2014. The per meal rate of £2.34 per child was increased in the 2020/21 financial year. The funding rate for the 2022/23 financial year will be published with the funding allocations in June.
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the school food standards.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact of cost and supply challenges on the school food industry; and if he will take steps to increase funding for universal infant free school meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spends around £600 million per year ensuring around 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal policy in 2014. The per meal rate of £2.34 per child was increased in the 2020/21 financial year. The funding rate for the 2022/23 financial year will be published with the funding allocations in June.
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the school food standards.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to increase funding for universal infant free school meals in line with free school meals; and whether he plans to increase that funding in line with inflation.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spends around £600 million per year ensuring around 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal policy in 2014. The per meal rate of £2.34 per child was increased in the 2020/21 financial year. The funding rate for the 2022/23 financial year will be published with the funding allocations in June.
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the school food standards.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason funding for universal infant free school meals (USIM) of £2.34 per meal is no longer in line with funding for free school meals (FSM) of £2.47 per meal; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the UIFSM funding rate to match that of FSM.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spends around £600 million per year ensuring around 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal policy in 2014. The per meal rate of £2.34 per child was increased in the 2020/21 financial year. The funding rate for the 2022/23 financial year will be published with the funding allocations in June.
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the school food standards.
The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will extend the Free School Meal entitlement to children whose families earn less than £20,000 per annum, as recommended in the National Food Strategy’s final report.
Answered by Will Quince
The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out of work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under the benefits related criteria the department provides a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished and can concentrate, learn and achieve in the classroom.
Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education FSM. Generous protections in place ensure that no child will lose their eligibility during the roll out of universal credit
In addition to this, the temporary extension of FSM eligibility to some groups with no recourse to public funds that has been in place since 2020 was extended to all groups and made permanent, subject to income thresholds.
The government will fully consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy review and will respond formally in due course.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the level of alternative provision in the event that a school catering company collapses as a result of food, labour and energy cost increases.
Answered by Will Quince
The department holds regular meetings with other government departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.
We routinely consider contingency arrangements and expect schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.
Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty. We are confident that schools will continue providing pupils with nutritious school meals as required by the School Food Standards.
There is no evidence to suggest widespread disruption to education as a result of issues with food supply but in the event of any disruption to supply, we will work with councils and the sector to ensure nutritious meals can continue to be provided.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training is provided to staff in his Department on avoiding implicit bias in the workplace.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Written Ministerial Statement on Unconscious Bias (December 2020) set out the findings of the ‘Unconscious bias and diversity training - what the evidence says’ report. The findings concluded that there was no evidence that the training changed behaviour in the long term or improved workplace equality. It also found there is emerging evidence of unintended negative consequences. The department has therefore ceased offering Unconscious Bias training.
The government requested other parts of the public sector, including local government, the police and the NHS, to review their approaches in light of the evidence.
Since October 2020, the department has provided separate workshops aimed at supporting staff to have informed and productive conversations on the subject of race.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the data held by the Office for Students on the number of external speakers and events occurring across higher education institutions including the number of rejected speakers for the (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21 academic years .
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Department for Education does not hold information regarding external speakers and events occurring across higher education institutions including the number of rejected speakers. Guidance on how to request information held by the Office for Students directly can be found on the following website: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/contact/how-to-request-information-from-us/.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will ensure that schools educate children and parents on the irreversible harm which can be caused by amplified listening.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Health education became a statutory requirement for state-maintained schools in September 2020. The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
It is for schools to decide what to teach as part of health education based on the needs of their pupils. The Department’s guidance does not stipulate that they should cover the risks of hearing loss, but that they may do so where it is relevant to their pupils.
Pupils are taught about sound as part of the science National Curriculum which is mandatory for all state-maintained schools in England. As part of the programme of study, pupils are taught to understand how sounds are made, how the vibrations that form sound pass through a medium to the ear, and the effect that distance from source has on volume. They also learn about absorption of sound, the auditory range of humans and animals, detection of sound by the eardrum and to understand sound as waves of differing frequencies.