Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2023 to Question 198639 on Childcare, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the adequacy of (a) trained staff, (b) safe premises and (c) registered places in Blaydon constituency by the start of September 2025 to offer eligible children aged nine months and above to access 30 hours a week of free childcare for 38 weeks each year until the end of the term before they start at primary school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Having enough staff in place to deliver high-quality education and care will be key to ensuring the successful delivery of our record expansion of early years entitlements. Driving up interest in early years careers and ensuring there are enough opportunities for career development is a priority for this government.
In the government’s Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, this Government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
The department is developing a range of new workforce initiatives including the launch of a new national campaign, planned for the beginning of 2024, to boost interest in the sector and support the recruitment and retention of talented staff. To increase interest in early years, we are working to remove unnecessary barriers to entering the sector as well as considering how to make early years qualifications more accessible, coordinated and relevant.
Over the summer the department launched a competition for Early Years Skills Bootcamps with a pathway to an accelerated level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship, and we will consider degree apprenticeship routes so everyone from junior staff to senior leaders can easily move into or indeed enhance their career in the sector. We are also working across government to boost early years career awareness by collaborating with the Department for Work and Pensions and Careers & Enterprise Company to promote the importance and value of a career in early years.
Regarding safe premises, with a growing number of staff joining the sector, the safety of our youngest children remains as important as ever. All new and existing early years providers must keep children safe and promote their welfare. The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers in England must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. More information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1170108/EYFS_framework_from_September_2023.pdf.
Under these requirements, all owners and managers of childcare settings have a responsibility to ensure that their premises, including overall floor space and outdoor spaces, are fit for purpose and suitable for the age of children cared for and the activities provided on the premises. All providers must also comply with the requirements of health and safety legislation, including fire safety and hygiene requirements. At all times when children are present, at least one person who has a current paediatric first aid certificate must be on the premises.
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. Part B of the Early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities should report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.
The Department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the geographical eligibility of the student loan repayment scheme for teachers.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The ‘Teachers: claim back your student loan repayments’ scheme was announced in 2017 and is targeted at 26 local authorities in England we have identified as having a high need for teachers, as determined by our published data at this time.
We have commissioned an external evaluation of the scheme and expect to publish the final evaluation report this year. Once we receive the final evaluation report, we will consider if eligibility for the scheme should be extended.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) highest ten areas of cross-departmental programme expenditure to which her Department plans to contribute over the spending review period 2022-23 to 2024-25 and (b) amount of programme expenditure allocated to each area over that period.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 settlement provided programme budgets for the department of £76.5 billion for the 2022/23 financial year, £78.7 billion for the 2023/24 financial year and £80.1 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. The ten highest areas of programme expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year are in the table below. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, we are only able to confirm funding figures for the 2022/23 financial year.
Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult literacy and creating a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services.
Further information on departmental and cross-government funding can be found within the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document, which is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043689/Budget_AB2021_Web_Accessible.pdf.
Ten highest areas of forecast department programme expenditure, 2022/23 financial year |
|
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | £40.5 billion |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | £9.0 billion |
16-19 education and T-Levels | £6.4 billion |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | £3.6 billion |
Pupil premium | £2.7 billion |
Apprenticeships | £2.5 billion |
Adult education budget | £1.4 billion |
Strategic Priorities Grant | £1.4 billion |
Schools supplementary grant (supporting schools with costs of the Health and Social Care Levy) | £1.2 billion |
Education recovery programmes | £1.2 billion |
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) highest ten areas of programme expenditure under the exclusive control of her Department during the spending review period 2022-23 to 2024-25 and (b) amount of programme expenditure allocated to each area during that period.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 settlement provided programme budgets for the department of £76.5 billion for the 2022/23 financial year, £78.7 billion for the 2023/24 financial year and £80.1 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. The ten highest areas of programme expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year are in the table below. Departmental expenditure is subject to an annual planning exercise. For this reason, we are only able to confirm funding figures for the 2022/23 financial year.
Government departments routinely transfer funding where there are shared priority programmes. Across the spending review period, the department will jointly deliver programmes with other government departments such as the Multiply programme to improve adult literacy and creating a network of family hubs to improve access to start for life services.
Further information on departmental and cross-government funding can be found within the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document, which is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043689/Budget_AB2021_Web_Accessible.pdf.
Ten highest areas of forecast department programme expenditure, 2022/23 financial year |
|
Schools block of the dedicated schools grant | £40.5 billion |
High needs block of the dedicated schools grant | £9.0 billion |
16-19 education and T-Levels | £6.4 billion |
Early years block of the dedicated schools grant | £3.6 billion |
Pupil premium | £2.7 billion |
Apprenticeships | £2.5 billion |
Adult education budget | £1.4 billion |
Strategic Priorities Grant | £1.4 billion |
Schools supplementary grant (supporting schools with costs of the Health and Social Care Levy) | £1.2 billion |
Education recovery programmes | £1.2 billion |
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the role of early years services is in the Government's Levelling Up agenda.
Answered by Will Quince
Levelling up is at the heart of the agenda to build back better after the COVID-19 outbreak and to deliver for every part of the UK. The department takes a dual approach to disadvantage: tackling outcome inequalities nationally while tilting efforts to, and working specifically in, places of greatest need.
In education, ability is evenly spread but opportunity is not. We know that differences in outcomes start early. To really tackle our levelling up challenge, we must look at our support for children and young people at every level, from support for families and childcare, through to university, and to develop skills throughout life.
We are already making progress. On 2 June 2021 we announced an additional £1.4 billion education recovery package, which includes a £153 million investment in evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development.
This is in addition to the £27 million which we are already investing to support children’s early language development in light of the COVID-19 outbreak:
What happens outside of schools and settings is also important. The government is investing over £34 million to champion family hubs. This approach will help to support children of all ages and their families across a broad range of needs in their localities. This investment includes establishing a new national centre for family hubs, run by the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families; a new transformation fund to open family hubs in around 10 local authorities; an evaluation innovation fund; and work with local authorities to develop data and digital products that will support the practical implementation of family hubs.
The government will publish a landmark Levelling Up White Paper later this year, setting out bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunity in all parts of the UK.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for early years services.
Answered by Will Quince
We are making our usual preparations for the imminent Spending Review, which will set departmental budgets for all financial years from 2022-23 to 2024-25.
Ministers and officials from the department will continue to have discussions with HM Treasury as the Spending Review progresses.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of early years provision.
Answered by Will Quince
High quality, accessible childcare is important in ensuring that every child has the best possible start in life. The overall quality of provision within the early years sector remains high and, as of 31 March 2021, 96% of providers on the Ofsted Early Years Register were judged good or outstanding, which is a substantial increase from 74% in 2012. Ofsted are responsible for monitoring the quality of provision.
We continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare through regular attendance data collection and monitoring the open or closed status of providers. We also discuss sufficiency of provision in our regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any significant sufficiency or supply issues and we have not seen any significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020.
Ofsted data shows that as of March 2021 the number of childcare places available on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015.