Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of homicides of people aged 16-24 have been followed by (a) a serious case review, (b) a child safeguarding practice review, (c) an independent investigation report and (d) a safeguarding adult review in each of the last four years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The information requested is not held by the Department for Education.
Local authorities are statutorily obliged to inform the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel of all incidents of serious harm or death of a child under 18 years old where abuse and neglect is known or suspected. The National Panel shares this data with the Department for Education.
Information collected and held by the department does not distinguish ‘homicide’ as a reporting category.
The attached table sets out over the last 4 years: the number of child deaths notified as serious incidents, the number of Serious Case Reviews that local areas have stated will be initiated and the number of local child Safeguarding Practice Reviews that local areas have stated will be initiated.
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 oral contribution of the Minister for School Standards,of 20 March 2019, Official Report, column 1152 on the circumstances in which school leaders may disregard a parental request to withdraw a child from sex education, whether he plans to update the publication, Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education draft guidance to reflect those comments.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The draft guidance published on 25 February takes account of comments received through the public consultation and engagement with over 90 organisations, including on the right to withdraw from sex education.
The Department has no plans to make changes to the guidance published in February, except to the extent that minor corrections are necessary. The Department has committed, however, to publish a supplementary guide for schools to support them in delivering the subjects; this could include further advice on the right to withdraw if that proves necessary.
The regulations were debated in the House of Commons on 20 March and were overwhelmingly approved in a division. The Department expects the debate in the House of Lords to take place shortly. The Department is committed to conducting a review of the guidance three years after the new subjects become mandatory in September 2020, and every three years after that. The Department will also make changes sooner if there is a clear, pressing need.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timetable is for the Social Mobility Commission’s statutory annual report entitled State of the nation 2018 to be published.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Social Mobility Commission is planning to publish the ‘State of the nation’ report for 2018 in spring 2019.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2018 to Question 197426 on Teachers: Qualifications, what steps he is taking to ensure that more teachers of religious education have a relevant post A-level qualification in that subject.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to supporting schools in recruiting well qualified teachers in religious education (RE), although the responsibility for making recruitment decisions rightly rests with schools, including what specialist qualifications and experience individual teachers are expected to hold.
To support recruitment efforts for postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) courses the Department is offering a £9,000 bursary for all RE trainees with at least a 2:2 degree classification, starting in 2019/20.
RE ITT applicants are also now eligible for one to one support from our expert Teacher Training Advisers, to guide them through their journey into teaching. They can access this support by registering with Get into Teaching.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of (a) religious education and (b) history lessons in state secondary schools are taught by teachers with no post A-level qualification in the subject.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2017, there were 118,200 hours of religious education taught in state funded secondary schools. Of these, 24.2% of hours were taught by a teacher with no relevant post A level qualification in religious education or a related subject such as philosophy. A ‘relevant post A level qualification’ is defined as a first degree or higher, Bachelor of education (BEd) degree, Postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE), Certificate of Education or another qualification at level 4 or above, which is in a discipline deemed relevant to that subject based on Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) codes.
These figures relate to all qualified teachers in state funded secondary schools
In 2017, there were 185,700 hours of history taught in state funded secondary schools. Of these, 8.8% of hours were taught by a teacher with no relevant post A level qualification in history or a related subject such as archaeology.
These figures relate to all qualified teachers in state funded secondary schools.
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 effectiveness of current methods for securing the provision of Religious Education in state-funded schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Religious education remains compulsory for all state funded schools, including academies and free schools, at all key stages, and it is part of schools’ activity to meet their legal duty to promote young people’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.
Where the Department is made aware that schools are not fulfilling their legal duties, it will investigate. If an individual is concerned that a school is not meeting its duty to provide religious education, they should follow that school’s complaint procedure in the first instance. If the complaint is not resolved, then the issue can be escalated to the Department’s School Complaints Unit for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, free schools, university technical colleges or studio schools. Information about complaint procedures for schools can be found at www.gov.uk/complain-about-school.
The Secretary of State for Education has a range of powers to ensure schools comply with their statutory obligations. The exact powers used will depend on the nature of the statutory duty in question and the potential impact of any failure to comply. The powers used could include a direction under 497 of the Education Act 1996, a performance and standards warning notice under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and a referral to Ofsted for an inspection. Where academies are subject to the same statutory duties as maintained schools, the Secretary of State for Education has powers to enforce compliance via the terms of the funding agreement.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consequential provisions are in place for the leaderships of state-funded schools which do not make statutory Religious Education available to all their pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Religious education remains compulsory for all state funded schools, including academies and free schools, at all key stages, and it is part of schools’ activity to meet their legal duty to promote young people’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.
Where the Department is made aware that schools are not fulfilling their legal duties, it will investigate. If an individual is concerned that a school is not meeting its duty to provide religious education, they should follow that school’s complaint procedure in the first instance. If the complaint is not resolved, then the issue can be escalated to the Department’s School Complaints Unit for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, free schools, university technical colleges or studio schools. Information about complaint procedures for schools can be found at www.gov.uk/complain-about-school.
The Secretary of State for Education has a range of powers to ensure schools comply with their statutory obligations. The exact powers used will depend on the nature of the statutory duty in question and the potential impact of any failure to comply. The powers used could include a direction under 497 of the Education Act 1996, a performance and standards warning notice under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and a referral to Ofsted for an inspection. Where academies are subject to the same statutory duties as maintained schools, the Secretary of State for Education has powers to enforce compliance via the terms of the funding agreement.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to prevent state-funded schools making inadequate provision for Religious Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Religious education remains compulsory for all state funded schools, including academies and free schools, at all key stages, and it is part of schools’ activity to meet their legal duty to promote young people’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.
Where the Department is made aware that schools are not fulfilling their legal duties, it will investigate. If an individual is concerned that a school is not meeting its duty to provide religious education, they should follow that school’s complaint procedure in the first instance. If the complaint is not resolved, then the issue can be escalated to the Department’s School Complaints Unit for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, free schools, university technical colleges or studio schools. Information about complaint procedures for schools can be found at www.gov.uk/complain-about-school.
The Secretary of State for Education has a range of powers to ensure schools comply with their statutory obligations. The exact powers used will depend on the nature of the statutory duty in question and the potential impact of any failure to comply. The powers used could include a direction under 497 of the Education Act 1996, a performance and standards warning notice under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and a referral to Ofsted for an inspection. Where academies are subject to the same statutory duties as maintained schools, the Secretary of State for Education has powers to enforce compliance via the terms of the funding agreement.
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 level of resources required for teachers, school leaders and other school staff to implement effectively the national protocol on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The national protocol on reducing criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers sets out best practice; it does not place any new statutory burdens on local authorities, the police, schools or other agencies. Implementing the protocol is voluntary.
Positive practice improvements will ultimately see benefits for young people and the services on which they rely. The protocol has been developed with leaders from across the children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors and endorsed as a positive step forward for children and young people and the relevant professionals working with them.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans for a sharia-compliant alternative student finance system to be in place for applications for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
I refer the hon. member for West Ham, to the letter I sent to Lord Sharkey on 24 July 2018, updating him on the progress we have made and the current position on Alternative Student Finance (ASF), a copy of which in available in the Libraries of both Houses.
As set out in that letter, the government intends to provide further details on the implementation of ASF following the publication of the final report of the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding in early 2019.