Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to publish guidance for schools on how to support trans children in 2022; and what contact his Department has had with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on previous plans for that guidance.
Answered by Will Quince
The department is continuing to work with others across government and in the sector to understand how we can support schools with these complex and sensitive matters.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has recently written to the Chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to accept her offer of advice and support as we determine our next steps in this area and across other equalities issues for schools.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will commit in the next six months to long-term funding for (a) physical education and (b) sport in schools.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member for West Ham to the answer I gave on 9 December 2021 to Question 86530.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has for the future of the primary PE and Sport Premium funding.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member for West Ham to the answer I gave on 9 December 2021 to Question 86530.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has for the funding of the School Games Organiser network beyond March 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member for West Ham to the answer I gave on 9 December 2021 to Question 86530.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of teaching children about the risks of (a) cryptocurrency speculation and (b) scams involving cryptocurrencies in the context of the history of (i) scams involving novel financial products and (ii) financial bubbles.
Answered by Robin Walker
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed. Pupils receive financial education through the national curriculum for mathematics and citizenship which, for secondary school-aged pupils, includes compulsory content covering the functions and uses of money, financial products and services, and the need to understand financial risk.
As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver the curriculum so they can develop an integrated approach that is sensitive to the needs and background of their pupils. The Money and Pensions Service published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England during Talk Money Week, 8-12 November 2021, an annual event that encourages people of all ages to talk about money: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/. This guidance was developed in consultation with financial education experts and is designed to support school leaders and education decision makers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools. The guidance includes links to quality assured resources for schools, including specific content and activities on cryptocurrencies and the knowledge and skills to equip pupils to protect their personal data, critically evaluate online content and identify scams.
There are also other opportunities across the national curriculum to teach pupils about cryptocurrencies. For example, the computing curriculum teaches the knowledge and skills that empower children and teachers to make well-informed choices about technology: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study. It covers the principles of e-safety at all key stages, with progression in the content to reflect the different and escalating risks that young people face.
The department will continue to work closely with the Money and Pensions Service and other stakeholders, such as Her Majesty’s Treasury, to support the teaching of financial education to children and young people including novel financial products. The government takes fraud very seriously. We continue to work closely with the industry to close down the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit and ensure members of the public have the information they need to spot a scam and stand up to fraudsters.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children known to children’s services teams in England and Wales have had child criminal exploitation noted as a risk factor in each of the past three years.
Answered by Will Quince
Information on the number of children known to children’s services teams in England, that have child criminal exploitation recorded as a factor at the end of assessment, is not yet collected centrally by the department.
Data on child criminal exploitation will be collected for the first time in the 2021 to 2022 children in need census and included in the associated statistics release, scheduled for publication at the end of October 2022. More information on the children in need census can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-in-need-census-2021-to-2022-guide.
Further information on the child criminal exploitation factor is included in the 'Additional guide on the factors identified at the end of assessment' document which is available under the subheading 'Factors identified at the end of assessment' here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report, Out of sight: Girls in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate, published by Centre for Mental Health on 5 October 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the geographic spread of secure children’s home capacity to enable accommodation of children within a reasonable distance of home areas.
Answered by Will Quince
This report raises a number of important issues of concern to all those who are responsible for the care and provision of accommodation for girls within the secure estate.
The responsibility to ensure there is adequate secure welfare provision rests with local authorities as they have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of all children in their care.
The department has taken a number of steps to support local authorities in fulfilling this duty. The department established the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit in 2016 and continue to fund its work to help plan and coordinate welfare placements and to highlight capacity issues.
The department understands that local authorities sometimes find themselves in a position where the most appropriate placement is difficult to access, particularly for children with the most complex needs. That is why the government announced £24 million of investment to start a programme of work to support local authorities to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure children’s homes and will mean children can live closer to their families and support networks, addressing geographic disparities, in provision that meets their needs.
In addition, as part of this year’s Spending Review (SR), the government announced £259 million over the SR period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes. The department will announce more details on this funding shortly and the findings of the Centre for Mental Health’s report will be useful to inform the future design of the secure welfare estate.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report, Out of sight: Girls in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate, published by Centre for Mental Health on 5 October 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of capacity in secure children’s homes to meet demand.
Answered by Will Quince
This report raises a number of important issues of concern to all those who are responsible for the care and provision of accommodation for girls within the secure estate.
The responsibility to ensure there is adequate secure welfare provision rests with local authorities as they have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of all children in their care.
The department has taken a number of steps to support local authorities in fulfilling this duty. The department established the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit in 2016 and continue to fund its work to help plan and coordinate welfare placements and to highlight capacity issues.
The department understands that local authorities sometimes find themselves in a position where the most appropriate placement is difficult to access, particularly for children with the most complex needs. That is why the government announced £24 million of investment to start a programme of work to support local authorities to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure children’s homes and will mean children can live closer to their families and support networks, addressing geographic disparities, in provision that meets their needs.
In addition, as part of this year’s Spending Review (SR), the government announced £259 million over the SR period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes. The department will announce more details on this funding shortly and the findings of the Centre for Mental Health’s report will be useful to inform the future design of the secure welfare estate.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress the Government has made on providing a sharia-compliant alternative student finance system.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
I refer the hon. Member for West Ham to the answer I gave on 18 October 2021 to Question 53884.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for sixth form students.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We forecast future 16-19 year old student numbers and take into account population forecasts when considering the future need for education funding for 16-19 year olds. Future budgets for this education provision are being considered in the current Spending Review.
We have invested an extra £291 million in 16-19 education in the 2021-22 financial year. This is in addition to the £400 million awarded in the 2019 Spending Review, which was the biggest injection of funding into 16-19 education in a single year since 2010. This has allowed us to raise the base rate of funding for all providers of 16-19 education, including school sixth forms and sixth form colleges, from £4,000 in the 2019/20 academic year to £4,188 in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, as well as to make further funding increases targeted on high value and high cost programmes.
This year, we have also made £83 million in capital funding available through the Post-16 Capacity Fund to support eligible post-16 providers to accommodate the upcoming increase in 16-19 year olds. Bids are currently being assessed and the outcome will be announced in due course.