Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils with an Education Health and Care plan were missing education whilst awaiting a place at a Specialist School in Preston and Lancashire at the beginning of the last three academic years; and for how long was each pupil missing education.
Answered by Brendan Clarke-Smith
The department collects and publishes data annually from local authorities on the total number of children and young people who are awaiting the provision specified in their Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
Figures for Lancashire on the number of children of compulsory school age who have an EHC plan and were not in education can be found at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/2d628262-9886-457c-aca3-e0c32b749269. Data is only collected at local authority level so figures for Preston are not available.
The information requested on how long each pupil was missing education is also not held.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support children and young people with vision impairment.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Education is firmly committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with visual impairments, receive the support they need to achieve in their early years, at school and at college.
Local authorities in England are required to publish information on the support commissioned and provided for children and young people with a visual impairment in a local offer, and on the availability of specialist services. To ensure local needs are met, they must work with children, young people, and their families to develop this.
It is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils who have sensory impairments to hold the relevant mandatory qualification. Providers must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education to offer these qualifications.
High needs funding, which is specifically for supporting children with more complex SEND, including those with vision impairment, will be increasing by £1 billion in financial year 2022/23, bringing the overall total of funding for high needs to £9.1 billion. This unprecedented increase of 13% comes on top of the £1.5 billion increase over the last two years.
The government recognises that the current SEND system, established through the Children and Families Act 2014, does not consistently deliver the outcomes we want and expect for children and young people with SEND, their families, or the people and services who support them. A key priority of the SEND Review is to improve the outcomes and experience of all children and young people with SEND, within a financially sustainable system. The review will be published as a green paper for full public consultation in the first 3 months of this year.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent guidance has been given to protect primary school children and staff from the Omicron variant of covid-19.
Answered by Robin Walker
COVID-19 continues to be a virus that we learn to live with and the imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education remains. The government continues to manage the risk of serious illness from the spread of COVID-19.
While it has been announced that face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors in classrooms, and from 27 January, face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff and visitors in communal areas, a range of protective measures remain in place in primary schools. Additionally, local directors of public health may temporarily advise the use of face coverings in communal areas where this is proportionate due to specific local public health concerns.
Testing remains important in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 within schools. Staff should continue to test twice weekly at home, with lateral flow device (LFD) test kits. Schools are encouraged to ask all visitors to take an LFD test before entering the school.
Young people aged 5 to 18 and fully vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19 can take an NHS LFD test every day for 7 days and continue to attend their school or college as normal, unless they have a positive test result. People with COVID-19 in England can now end their self-isolation after 5 full days if they test negative on day 5 and day 6.
Children aged 5 to 11 years in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed are now able to get 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine 8 weeks apart.
We have provided carbon dioxide monitors backed by £25 million in government funding. Over 99% of eligible maintained schools, further education colleges, and the majority of early years education providers have now received a carbon dioxide monitor with over 350,000 now delivered. The government is also making available a number of funded air cleaning units for poorly ventilated teaching spaces where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.
Schools should regularly review their risk assessments as well as continuing to comply with health and safety law implementing proportionate control measures in line with our guidance, such as ensuring good hygiene for everyone and maintaining appropriate cleaning regimes. All education and childcare providers should already have their own contingency plans in place in cases of outbreaks within schools, as set out in the contingency framework here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-restrictions-in-education-and-childcare-settings, to help break the chains of transmissions.
The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health. This harm disproportionately affects children and young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Therefore, the government has made it a national priority that education and childcare providers should continue to operate as normally as possible during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Schools Covid Operational Guidance, published in January 2022, how primary school pupils, aged five to 11 years, and school staff's positions were considered in developing that guidance.
Answered by Robin Walker
The operational guidance for each school, college and university provides details on the testing, ventilation and hygiene measures that all education and childcare provider should have in place to manage transmission of COVID-19 day to day. The department has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to revise this guidance.
When developing guidance for education providers, the department regularly reviews data, analysis and advice from a number of different sources, including the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), UKHSA, and the Office for National Statistics.
We work closely with the DHSC and UKHSA, as well as local authorities and directors of public health, to inform our planning and response. The department engaged regularly with schools and their representatives in relevant planning, including primary schools.