Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he made of the change in the number of children entering the care system since 2010.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We monitor the number of children entering the care system on an ongoing basis and information showing the change in the number of children entering the care system for the period since 2010 is provided in the table attached.
Further breakdowns of children who started to be looked after can be found in Table C1 of the statistical first release 'Children Looked After in England including Adoption: 2016 to 2017' at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017.
We set out our vision for delivering excellent children’s social care in ‘Putting Children First’. This outlines our reform programme which seeks to: improve the quality of social work practice; create systems and environments where great social work can flourish; promote learning and multi-agency working where all involved in supporting children and families can work together; and support children who both enter and leave the care system. The reforms are designed to ensure that all vulnerable children and families receive the highest-quality care and support. We have invested over £200 million through the Innovation Programme to test and develop better practice, including testing approaches to help vulnerable children to remain safely at home.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of degree apprenticeships available in the Telford constituency.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government has created a £10 million Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund to support the development and take up of degree apprenticeships across England. Harper Adams University is the closest university to Telford to receive money from this fund - followed by Staffordshire University, University of Keele, Birmingham City University and Aston University.
Degree level apprenticeships have grown year on year with over 6,600 starts since their introduction, including over 4,000 starts this academic year (2017/18) with over 100 higher education institutions registered to deliver apprenticeships, including several in the West Midlands. In Telford constituency there were 1,300 apprenticeship starts across all levels. Of these, 90 were higher level apprenticeships, which includes degree-level starts. The National Apprenticeship Service and UCAS have created a degree apprenticeship vacancy listing to highlight opportunities available across all areas of the country - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeship-vacancies.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the 200,000 new public sector apprenticeships announced by his Department on 20 January 2017 have been filled; and how many of those apprenticeships are based in (a) the Telford constituency, (b) Telford and Wrekin and (c) the West Midlands.
Answered by Anne Milton
Figures on the number of public sector apprenticeships are not available. Public sector bodies in scope of the public sector apprenticeships target are required annually to publish and send to the Department their progress towards the target. The first reports (covering the period 2017/18) will be due by 30 September 2018.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of young people in Telford started an apprenticeship after completing GCSEs in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The table attached shows the number and proportion of pupils who completed Key Stage 4 (including GCSEs) in Telford and started an apprenticeship the following year as part of at least two terms’ education, employment or training. Information on destinations in academic years 2010-11 to 2015-16 is given. This is the most recent data available. Destinations data for all England is provided for comparison.
Information on pupil destinations is published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations.