Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to encourage primary schools to introduce the subject of financial education in response to the financial pressures experienced by young people as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is important that pupils are well prepared to manage their money, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information, if required. The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum, which provides pupils with the knowledge and skills to make important financial decisions and has also published statutory and non-statutory programmes of study for mathematics and citizenship that outline what pupils should be taught about financial education from Key Stages one to four.
In 2014, for the first time, financial literacy was made statutory within the National Curriculum as part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16 year olds. To enable schools to plan their whole curriculum, we also published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages one and two, which is clear that, by the end of primary education, pupils should be taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the arithmetical knowledge that pupils should have. This knowledge is vital, as a strong understanding of numeracy will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money. There is also some specific content about financial education, including calculations with money.
Primary schools are free to include additional content on financial management in their curricula, including working with external experts. The Department does not monitor this and trusts schools to use their professional judgement and understanding of their pupils to develop the right teaching approach for their particular context.
We will continue to work closely with the Money and Pensions Service and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty’s Treasury, to consider what can be learned from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on access to education for disabled people.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Withdrawal Agreement Act protects the existing rights to equal treatment and non-discrimination for all EU citizens residing in the UK, UK nationals residing in the EU, and their family members. They have broadly the same entitlements to study and access public services and benefits as they did before withdrawal from the EU, where these entitlements derived from UK membership of the EU.
The government carried out a full Equality Impact Assessment on the Withdrawal Agreement Act and concluded that it is not envisaged that any equality issues will arise due to provisions contained within it. The Equality Impact Assessment can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/841245/EU_Withdrawal_Agreement_Bill_Impact_Assessment.pdf.
Furthermore, the explanatory notes on the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement Act contain a declaration from my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, that under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998, the provisions of the Act are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The full explanatory notes are published on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-future-relationship-bill.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on allocating additional funding for (a) further and (b) higher education.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
In Further Education, we are providing up to £96 million to support disadvantaged students whose studies have been disrupted.
We have announced a number of measures to help ensure there are no barriers to students being able to progress to Higher Education in 20/21. We have lifted caps on domestic medicine and dentistry courses in the next academic year and we are supporting providers to offer places to as many students who have met the grades for their current offer as they have physical capacity for, and where there are clinical placements available, through additional grant funding to support the costs of this provision. Health Education England and the Office for Students will be contacting all medical and dental schools to discuss their capacity to take on additional students in the 2020/21 academic year.
I can now confirm that providers will be eligible to bid for a share of up to £10 million funding to support capital expenditure on infrastructure required to accommodate additional students recruited as a result of the changed policy on A level grades. The fund will be administered by the Office for Students, and providers will be eligible to bid for projects that support expansion in 2020/21.
Additional teaching grant funding will also be provided to increase capacity in medical, nursing, STEM and other high-cost subjects which are vital to the country’s social needs and economy. All high cost subjects, which already receive additional funding from the Office for Students will potentially see further increases where there is an unexpectedly high distribution of students. The Office for Students will consult the sector on the details of how the allocations are made.
We will also be considering all Departmental funding as part of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the effect of audiobooks on (a) access to literature and (b) literacy rates; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department wants children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, whatever the format. Research suggests that reading for pleasure is more important for children’s educational development than their parents’ level of education. We have not undertaken research on the specific effect of e-reading, but the Department is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards – ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding.
In 2018, we launched the £26.3 million English Hubs programme. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs programme is supporting nearly 3,000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in Reception and year 1.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average length of time was for Ministers of his Department to respond to correspondence from hon. Members in each month in the last two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has a target of responding within 18 working days where a response is required. In 2019 the Department responded to 94% of correspondence from hon. Members within 18 working days, and 89% in 2018. A breakdown of the data by month is available in the attached table.
As you will understand, the Department is currently dealing with unprecedented volumes of correspondence due to COVID-19. The Department ensures that urgent cases raised by hon. Members are prioritised wherever possible, and is taking steps to provide substantive responses in as short a time as possible.
All correspondence received from hon. Members is being reviewed and will be responded to as soon as possible.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the October 2019 report Learning and Work Institute report, Bridging the Gap: next steps for the apprenticeship levy, which has found that the levy fund could be overspent by £1 billion in the next year.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The apprenticeship levy is collected by HM Revenue and Customs from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. Separately, HM Treasury sets the Department for Education a fixed, annual budget for apprenticeships in England. This budget is distinct from the levy and is used to fund new apprenticeship starts for both levy and non-levy paying employers, and must also cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training.
We welcome employers designing higher-level apprenticeships which are longer and require more off-the-job training. However, we are conscious that this will increase costs in the longer-term. In 2019-20, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion and we expect to remain within budget this financial year. The recent spending settlement has set the department’s budget for 2020-21. We keep apprenticeships funding policy under review to ensure that apprenticeships continue to be affordable and offer value for money for the taxpayer. We will consider how apprenticeships can continue to meet the changing needs of employers as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.