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.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make a statement on the ways in which early years provision will feature as part of the covid-19 catch-up recovery strategy; and how opportunities for play will be (a) encouraged, (b) supported and (c) facilitated.
Answered by Vicky Ford
On 2 June 2021, as part of the government’s announcement on providing an additional £1.4 billon for education recovery, we announced a £153 million investment for high-quality professional development for early years practitioners. This includes new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development, and physical and emotional development for the youngest children, of which play is an important part. This is in addition to the £18 million announced in February 2021 and the £9 million announced in June 2020 to support early language development for children in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The package will build on our early years foundation stage reforms, which support more effective early years curriculum and assessment, and reducing unnecessary assessment paperwork, so that practitioners and teachers can spend more time engaging children in rich activities, including through play, to support their learning.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
What assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for disadvantaged pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All children have had their education disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, but it is likely that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups will have been hardest hit.
Since 2011 we have spent more than £20 billion to provide Pupil Premium funding for school leaders to use, based on the needs of their disadvantaged pupils. Between 2011 and 2019, the attainment gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils narrowed by 13% at age 11 and 9% at age 16.
On top of this funding, we increased core schools funding by £2.6 billion last year and are increasing core schools funding by £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively, compared to 2019-20.
In addition, over the past year we have made three major interventions to support education recovery, totalling over £3 billion additional spend: £1 billion in June 2020, a further £700 million in February 2021 and our latest £1.4 billion package announced in June 2021.
Recovery programmes have been designed to allow early years, school and college leaders the flexibility to support those pupils most in need, including the most disadvantaged. The latest announcement expands our reforms in two areas where the evidence is clear our investment will have a significant impact for disadvantaged children, high quality tutoring and great teaching.
We are providing over £1.5 billion for tutoring programmes, including an expansion of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), an ambitious scheme that supports schools to access targeted tutoring intervention for disadvantaged pupils who have missed out on learning due to school closures. We will also provide greater flexibility to schools to make it easier for them to take on local tutors or use existing staff to supplement those employed through the NTP. This new blended offer ensures that the NTP works for all disadvantaged children, giving schools the flexibility to choose what type of approach best suits their needs and those of individual pupils.
The £302 million Recovery Premium has been weighted so that schools with more disadvantaged pupils receive more funding and includes £22 million to scale up proven approaches to reduce the attainment gap.
We have also invested more than £400 million to provide internet access and over 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to accelerate the roll out of community mental health teams to schools and colleges, and to extend it to universities, as recommended by the Samaritans in their October 2020 report entitled Pushed from pillar to post: Improving the availability and quality of support after self-harm in England.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Supporting and promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is a priority for this government. We continue to work closely with schools, colleges, the higher education sector, and local areas to provide support, guidance, and encourage good practice.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has overall policy responsibility for children and young people’s mental health. The Department for Education works closely with DHSC to take significant steps to support the mental health and wellbeing support for young people across all education settings.
Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are an important part of our long term plan to promote and support children and young people’s mental health in state-funded schools and colleges, and we remain committed to rolling them out to at least a fifth to a quarter of the country by the end of the academic year 2022/23.
There are 59 MHSTs already established in 25 areas across the country. An additional 123 MHSTs are being set up in a further 57 areas this year, and a further 104 teams have been commissioned to begin training in academic year 2020/21. Once established, MHST support schools and colleges to promote good mental health, identify and manage a wide range of issues relating to mental health and wellbeing, and deliver interventions for mild and moderate needs. This may include thoughts of self-harm and providing support with alternative coping strategies.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to ensure that, by the academic year 2023/24, at least an additional 345,000 children and young people aged 0 to 25 will be able to access support from NHS-funded children and young people’s mental health services (formerly CAMHS) and school–based or college-based mental health support teams. Funding for CYMPHS has grown faster than overall NHS and adult mental health spending.
Every NHS mental health trust in England has provided 24/7 crisis helplines for those in all age groups who need urgent help in a mental health crisis, and will continue to do so over the coming months. We provided funding and support to the people and organisations who play a vital role in young people’s mental health, with over £10 million of funding to support mental health charities, including Young Minds and Place2Be which specifically support the mental health of children and young people. We have invested £8 million in local authorities to fund mental health and wellbeing experts to provide advice and resources for education staff to support and promote children and young people’s mental health.
We recognise that many university students are facing additional mental health challenges due to the disruption and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, and it is important students can still access the mental health support they need.
My right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, wrote to Vice Chancellors in October outlining that student welfare should remain a priority, and has convened a working group of representatives from the higher education and health sectors to specifically address the current and pressing issues that students are facing during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Higher education providers are expected to continue to support their students. This has included moving services online or making services accessible from a distance and we encourage students to stay in touch with their provider’s student support and welfare teams as these services are likely to continue to be an important source of support. Many providers have bolstered their existing mental health services, and adapted delivery to means other than face to face. Staff at universities and colleges responded quickly to the need to transform mental health and wellbeing services, showing resourcefulness and there are many examples of good practice.
The Office for Students funded Student Space platform bridges gaps in support for students arising from this unprecedented situation and is designed to work alongside existing services. Students struggling with their mental health at this time can also access support via the NHS at: https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/category/mental-health/.
Online resources from Public Health England can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-public-on-mental-health-and-wellbeing, along with support from mental health charity, Mind, available here: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/student-life/about-student-mental-health/.