Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to consider a career as a (a) SEND teacher and (b) member of support staff in a SEND school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High-quality, well-supported teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for children, and it is particularly important for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). That is why, on top of last years’ teacher pay award of 6.5%, which was the highest in over thirty years, the department ensures that an additional SEND allowance of up to £5,009 per year must be paid to teachers in a SEND post that requires a mandatory special educational needs qualification and involves teaching pupils with SEND.
The department is further encouraging people to consider becoming teachers, including teachers of SEND, through its Get into Teaching service and marketing campaign. The campaign provides inspiration and support to explore a career in teaching and directs people to the Get into Teaching service’s website.
Through the website, prospective trainees can access support and advice through expert one-to-one Teacher Training Advisers, a contact centre, and a national programme of events. The long-standing campaign has established a strong brand identity for teaching over time and continues to do so across the teacher lifecycle, supporting initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment whilst aiming to raise the status and improve perceptions of the profession over time.
The department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The ITT financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, a £15 million increase on the last cycle.
The department is also offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. Similarly, it has convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how the department can go further to support trust and school leaders to minimise workload for teachers and leaders.
The government values and appreciates the dedication, professionalism and hard work of support staff, and knows that they play a key role in supporting children and young people with SEND. The department’s education reforms gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of support staff. Schools should have this freedom as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs. To support schools recruit and train teaching assistants, schools can access up to £7,000 in levy funding through the recently revised Level 3 Teaching Assistant apprenticeship.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to support women with a genetic history of breast cancer to access screening services in (a) England and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In Leicestershire and nationwide, women with a very high risk (VHR) of breast cancer due to family history may be offered screening earlier and more often, as part of the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
Women formally identified as eligible for VHR breast screening are referred to the National Health Service breast screening service associated with their general practice. They are eligible to be screened from the age of 25 years old upwards, and should be invited every year. The diagnostic screen includes mammography or magnetic resonance imaging, depending on age and risk criteria, and is therefore not the same as the routine breast screening service. To support screening of VHR women, a new central database is planned to ensure all referrals reach NHS breast screening services.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with (a) local authorities and (b) academy trusts on increasing the level of pay above the statutory minimum wage for non-teaching staff in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government has given schools the freedom to set pay and conditions for support staff according to their own circumstances.
Local government employees, including school support staff, are covered by the National Joint Council terms and conditions, known as the Green Book. Most schools, including academies, use the local government pay scales in conjunction with the Green Book.
The pay scales are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and local government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central government does not have any formal role in these matters.
For the lowest pay scale, there has been an increase of 22% over the two years since April 2021, to £11.59 an hour. This is above the current national living wage of £10.42 an hour.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his planned timetable is for providing local authorities (a) information on (i) funding profiles and (ii) conditions and (b) guidance on spending for funding allocated through the Local Transport Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is working with His Majesty’s Treasury to agree the funding profile for the Local Transport Fund as well as the split between capital and revenue funding. The Department will provide advice for local transport authorities shortly on the scope, process and accountability framework for the new funding, to ensure that local authorities can develop delivery plans to make the most of it.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the training required of investigators employed by statutory bodies with the authority to undertake prosecutions external to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Private prosecutions, which are started by a private individual or an entity who is not acting on behalf of the police or other prosecuting authority, are an important and necessary part of the justice system. There is value in victims of crime being able to bring their own prosecutions and not every offence worth prosecuting can be prosecuted by the CPS, SFO or other public authority.
Any private prosecutor must comply with the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 which sets out the rules for bringing a prosecution. All legal duties on prosecutors regarding their conduct of a case apply regardless of whether it is a public or a private prosecution, including the rules on disclosure and the law of evidence. As outlined in the Private Prosecutors’ Association voluntary Code for Private Prosecutors, investigators who are tasked with obtaining evidence should seek, where possible, to comply with the same codes of practice and guidance as apply to law enforcement investigators.
Whilst the Government believes that private prosecutions are an important and necessary part of the judicial system, we are examining the wider question of private prosecutions and have committed to looking again at the Justice Select Committee’s recommendations in their 2020 report as part of this work, including the recommendation to introduce an inspection regime for organisations which bring significant numbers of private prosecutions to ensure investigations and prosecutions are subject to the same standards as their public counterparts.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with the Royal Mail on service delivery in (a) rural areas and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers and officials meet with Royal Mail regularly to discuss a range of issues in relation to its role as the universal postal service provider.
I recently met the CEO of Royal Mail’s parent company to raise concerns about Royal Mail’s performance. He recognised that the current level of service is not good enough and has said that improving quality of service is his top priority. I note that to improve performance Royal Mail has recruited an additional 3,000 postmen and is continuing to actively recruit new postal staff. I will continue to raise the issue if service levels do not improve.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the HGV skills boot camp.
Answered by Robert Halfon
A statistical release published in November 2023 showed that there were 5,710 learner starts in total in HGV Skills Bootcamps between April 2022 and March 2023. Sustained provision of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving has been welcomed by the road freight sector, which has seen high levels of ongoing demand for these training places. This was also evidenced in an implementation report on delivery in the 2021/22 financial year, which showed that Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving was oversubscribed in comparison with other sectors. Further insights into the effectiveness of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving will be set out in the publication of our completions and outcomes report for Skills Bootcamps delivery later this year for the 2021/22 financial year.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to encourage school leavers to pursue a career in social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We launched the latest phase of the adult social care national recruitment campaign Made with Care on 9 October 2023, with advertising appearing across catch up television, social media, radio and online, motivating suitable candidates to apply. We also recently launched the specification for a new level two occupationally based qualification so that staff joining adult social care can gain an early qualification on the job.
The social care workforce remains at the heart of our reform plans. Our workforce reforms will provide the workforce with more support to develop and progress within their careers and will improve the quality, safety, and personalisation of care.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on updating apprenticeship standards; and what representations she has received from business stakeholders on these standards.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This is a matter for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. I have asked its Chief Executive, Jennifer Coupland, to write to the hon. Member for Bosworth, and a copy of this reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of businesses have used their apprenticeship service account to transfer unused levy funds to SMEs in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Transfers are a way for large employers to use their levy funds to support apprenticeships in any other business, including smaller employers, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities to help meet local or sector-specific needs.
Levy-paying employers have been able to transfer 25% of their annual funds since April 2019, when this was increased from 10%, and have been able to use an online service since 2021 to make the process quicker and simpler. Since September 2021, over 500 employers, including ASDA, HomeServe and BT Group, have pledged to transfer over £33 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes.
The table below shows the number and proportion of levy-paying employers that have used their apprenticeship service accounts to transfer funds to non-levy paying employers in each of the last three financial years. The department does not hold transfer data specific for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but can confirm that SMEs represent most non-levy employers on the apprenticeship service.
Financial Year | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Number of levy paying employers that have transferred funds to non-levy employers. | 390 | 520 | 580 |
Proportion of levy paying employers that have transferred funds to non-levy employers. | 2.0% | 2.5% | 2.7% |
When reviewing these figures, it is important to note that only unused funds can be transferred. Some employers make full use of their levy funds and so have no funds to transfer.