To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Academies
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many investigations into academy trusts have been completed by the Education & Skills Funding Agency since 1 November 2022.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) may conduct or commission investigations into allegations of fraud, theft or irregularity in any academy trust. Since 1 November 2022, ESFA has completed seven investigations into academy trusts.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support the Government provides to local authorities for the purposes of investing in early intervention services.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In 2021/22, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £11.9 billion. For 2023/24, the Local Government Finance Settlement has made available up to £59.7 billion for all local government services in England, including spending on early intervention. This is an increase in Core Spending Power of 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. How local authorities choose to target that funding across services is down to the discretion of local leaders.

In terms of ongoing funding, the department needs to ensure children’s services are sustainable in the long term. That is key to proposals in the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy, where we are focusing on early, preventative help which can reduce the need for crisis intervention later.

In the lead up to the next Spending Review, the Government will work to ensure the right level of funding for all Children’s Services, including early intervention.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that local authorities have adequate funding to invest in early intervention services.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In 2021/22, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £11.9 billion. For 2023/24, the Local Government Finance Settlement has made available up to £59.7 billion for all local government services in England, including spending on early intervention. This is an increase in Core Spending Power of 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. How local authorities choose to target that funding across services is down to the discretion of local leaders.

In terms of ongoing funding, the department needs to ensure children’s services are sustainable in the long term. That is key to proposals in the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy, where we are focusing on early, preventative help which can reduce the need for crisis intervention later.

In the lead up to the next Spending Review, the Government will work to ensure the right level of funding for all Children’s Services, including early intervention.


Written Question
Children in Care
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of children in residential care.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government published its plans to reform children’s social care on 2 February 2023 through an implementation strategy and consultation, entitled ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. This can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1147317/Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf. A central aim of the strategy is to keep children safely with their families, or extended family, where this is in the best interests of the child.

The department is investing more than £45 million over the next two years through ‘Families First for Children Pathfinders’ to design and test complex reforms in a number of local areas, across family help, child protection and family network policies. Additionally, we will also be publishing the first ever national Kinship Care Strategy by the end of 2023, which will explore how to better support kinship carers financially and practically.

Whilst the government recognises the importance of reducing the number of residential care placements for children and young people, residential care can be the right option for some children. Therefore, the department is also supporting local authorities to expand their own provision, which will reduce reliance on the private sector, without reducing the number of placements. We have announced £259 million of capital funding up to 2025 to address concerns in the children’s homes market, and create a market that is more attuned to the needs of local children.


Written Question
Care Leavers: Departmental Coordination
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which Ministers sit on the cross-government ministerial board for care leavers; how many times the board has met in the last 12 months; and if she will publish the board's minutes for the last 12 months.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The Care Leavers Inter-Ministerial Board is co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Education, and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Ministers that sit on the Board include:

  • Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing
  • Minister for Veterans’ Affairs (and Cross-Government lead for Care Leavers)
  • Chief Secretary to the Treasury
  • Minister of State for Justice
  • Minister for Safeguarding
  • Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression
  • Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business
  • Minister for Primary Care and Public Health
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society
  • Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport
  • Minister for Energy Consumers and Affordability
  • Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families

The Ministerial Board has met twice in the last year. Minutes of meetings are not published.


Written Question
Universities: Strikes
Friday 23rd June 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of universities deducting wages of staff that engage in industrial action on levels of participation in industrial action in that sector.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The full impact of the marking and assessment boycotts will not be known until the end of June 2023, which is after the exam boards are due to have convened. This is because some institutions will not know until then whether their staff are participating in the boycotts.

The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has surveyed its members to gain an estimate of the impact of the marking boycott. 58% of its members responded, to outline that:

  • Half of the institutions who responded were confident that less than 5% of academic staff would partake in the marking boycott. 22% reported that between 5% and 10% of academics were likely to be taking part.
  • 38% of institutions who responded were unsure of the level of impact.
  • Half of the institutions who responded expected that less than 10% of students would be impacted.

Universities are taking a variety of measures to mitigate the impact of the marking boycott and minimise the disruption, including by reallocating marking to other staff members and hiring external markers. The specific mitigating actions will be different for every institution, as each institution will be impacted in different ways.


Written Question
University of Plymouth
Friday 24th February 2023

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the initial teacher training market review, whether her Department is taking steps to support the reaccreditation of the University of Plymouth.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department appointed an Expert Advisory Group in 2020 to consider how the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) sector can provide consistently high quality training, in line with the ITT Core Content Framework. A central recommendation of the ITT Market Review report, accepted by the Department, was that all ITT courses leading to Qualified Teacher Status should have to adhere to a set of Quality Requirements, and that all providers of these courses should go through an accreditation process to ensure they can meet the new requirements from September 2024.

179 providers have been accredited to deliver ITT from September 2024, following a rigorous accreditation process. These providers cover all regions of the country and include new entrants to the market. Safeguarding teacher supply is a key priority, including in Plymouth, and the Department will continually monitor provision levels to ensure that there are sufficient ITT places to meet teacher recruitment targets. The reforms aim to ensure every trainee experiences high quality, seamless and coherent ITT programmes and quality will not be compromised.

The Department is now actively encouraging partnership and expansions in areas which may have fewer providers following the accreditation process and where unsuccessful providers, such as the University of Plymouth, wish to stay involved in ITT delivery. To support these partnership conversations the Department published guidance, as well as information on funding support, on 12 December 2022 which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-forming-partnerships.

The accreditation process concluded in September 2022 and was followed by an appeals process which concluded in December 2022. The Department does not intend to run any further accreditation rounds before the first delivery of reformed ITT in September 2024. The next round of accreditation is expected to take place during 2025/26, after the reforms have embedded into the system.


Written Question
Ukrainian Language: GCSE
Monday 14th November 2022

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to introduce a Ukrainian language GCSE.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Awarding Organisations (AOs) can produce a GCSE in any modern language. This decision would be informed by several factors, including the level of demand from schools and the proportion of the population in the UK speaking the language. There is no reason why a GCSE in Ukrainian could not be introduced, but it would be at the discretion of AOs to determine whether there was a strong case to do so.

There are currently 18 GCSEs in different modern languages produced and offered by AOs in England. The specification for these qualifications must meet the Department’s GCSE subject content requirements for modern languages, and be accredited by the independent qualifications regulator, Ofqual. The development and accreditation of a new GCSE would take at least two years.

Departmental officials have been working with AOs on creating an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in Ukrainian. Person Edexcel recently published new guidance on using the Level 3 (EPQ) in Ukrainian to help Ukrainian students work towards a qualification that can complement their studies in the UK.


Written Question
Academies: Insolvency
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the process is for recovering a Multiple Academy Trust who declares bankruptcy or insolvency.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The financial health of the academies sector is strong. The Department recognises that, in the current climate, some trusts may be facing financial difficulty, including those in Plymouth and across the country. Where that is the case, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will work with the trust and offer practical forms of support, including additional financial support, to protect the education of their pupils where necessary. This forms part of the wider Departmental oversight of financial, educational and governance delivery in the sector.

The primary responsibility for the oversight of an academy trust rests with its trustees who must deliver strong governance, monitor the financial health of their trust, and ensure they remain as a going concern. The requirements and responsibilities for trustees on managing a going concern are set out in the Financial Reporting Council's Guidance on the Going Concern in the Academy Accounts Direction and the Academy Trust Handbook.

The Department supports all schools through the School Resource Management (SRM) suite of tools and services, which help ensure that every school and academy trust can obtain the best value from their resources.


Written Question
Schools: Insolvency
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of schools that are at risk of declaring bankruptcy or insolvency in 2023 in (a) England and (b) Plymouth.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The financial health of the academies sector is strong. The Department recognises that, in the current climate, some trusts may be facing financial difficulty, including those in Plymouth and across the country. Where that is the case, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will work with the trust and offer practical forms of support, including additional financial support, to protect the education of their pupils where necessary. This forms part of the wider Departmental oversight of financial, educational and governance delivery in the sector.

The primary responsibility for the oversight of an academy trust rests with its trustees who must deliver strong governance, monitor the financial health of their trust, and ensure they remain as a going concern. The requirements and responsibilities for trustees on managing a going concern are set out in the Financial Reporting Council's Guidance on the Going Concern in the Academy Accounts Direction and the Academy Trust Handbook.

The Department supports all schools through the School Resource Management (SRM) suite of tools and services, which help ensure that every school and academy trust can obtain the best value from their resources.