Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships in STEM industries have been taken up since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The table attached shows the number of apprenticeship starts in ‘Construction, Planning and the Built Environment’, ‘Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies’, ‘Information and Communications Technology’ and ‘Science and Mathematics’ sector subject areas for each academic year since 2009/10.
This data is published in the ‘FE data library: apprenticeships’ which can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeship programmes to small and medium-sized businesses.
Answered by Anne Milton
Through the National Apprenticeship Service, we are working closely with employers of all sizes in growing their apprenticeship programmes and to help them make the most effective decisions for their organisation.
Our relaunched apprenticeships campaign aims to help increase the number of vacancies created by employers of all sizes. It encourages small and medium-sized businesses to recruit apprentices and upskill their current workforce through apprenticeships. Radio advertising is supported by targeted digital, telemarketing activity, public relations and social media activity. It will continue to support employers to create new vacancies and publicise these on the ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website.
Links to the two apprenticeships campaign websites can be found at – one for employers: https://hireanapprentice.campaign.gov.uk/, and one for apprentices: https://www.getingofar.gov.uk/.
All UK employers with an annual pay bill of £3 million or more, pay 0.5 per cent of their pay bill to invest in apprenticeship training. We have led a major awareness-raising campaign over the past year, alongside HM Revenue and Customs. This ensures all levy-paying employers, whatever their size, are aware of both their obligations to pay the levy, and the opportunity to spend their investment through registering for an apprenticeship service account. We are providing ongoing support for smaller levy-payers via telephone to encourage them to invest their levy funds through registering for an apprenticeship service account.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to reduce the upper earnings limit for free childcare eligibility.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The entitlement to 30 hours free childcare is intended to support working parents with the cost of childcare and enable them, where they wish, to return to work or to work additional hours.
We are in the first full year of rolling out this transformative policy. Our immediate focus is on successful delivery for the spring and summer terms, and on evaluating 30 hours free childcare during its first year. We will not be making any significant changes to the policy until we can properly review whether 30 hours free childcare is being delivered effectively and supporting working families as intended.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress has been made on the roll-out of 30 hours of free childcare in Telford and Wrekin.
Answered by Anne Milton
The rollout of 30 hours free childcare has progressed well in Telford and Wrekin with 839 children reported to be taking up a 30 hours place, in November 2017. The local authority is receiving specialist support from our national delivery contractor to ensure progress continues as we move towards the summer term.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many eligibility codes for 30 hours of free childcare have been (a) generated and (b) validated in Telford and Wrekin.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of eligibility codes for 30 hours free childcare that have generated and validated in Telford and Wrekin, as of data published on 8 January, is in the table below:
LA Name | Eligibility codes issued by 8th January | Eligibility codes validated by 8th January |
Telford and Wrekin | 1168 | 825 |
Please note, codes issued relates to the local authority where the parent is resident. Codes validated relates to the local authority where the code was checked. These are not always the same as some parents may use the code in a bordering local authority.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will remove the 50 per cent faith admissions cap.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department plans to respond to the proposals regarding the establishment of new faith free schools as set out in the consultation document, Schools that work for everyone, in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Independent - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of people qualifying for the 15-hour free childcare for the most disadvantaged two-year-olds have taken up that provision in the borough of Telford and Wrekin.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
As at January 2017, take up of the 2-year-old entitlement in Telford and Wrekin is 79%.
This is 12 percentage points above the average in the East Midlands, and eight percentage points above the average in England. Take up in Telford and Wrekin has increased by 15 percentage points since 2015.