Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) school students and (b) Black, African and Caribbean school students were excluded in Battersea in 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Exclusions data for 2019 are not yet available. The National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2017 to 2018’ has further information on the number and rate of permanent and fixed period exclusions, the data for which has been presented in the attached table.
The release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) school students and (b) BAME school students were excluded in Battersea in 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Exclusions data for 2019 are not yet available. The National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2017 to 2018’ has further information on the number and rate of permanent and fixed period exclusions, the data for which has been presented in the attached table.
The release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) school students and (b) Black, African and Caribbean school students were excluded in 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally, as data on exclusions in 2019 is not yet available.
The National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2017 to 2018’ includes information on the number and rate of permanent and fixed period exclusions.
The release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2017-to-2018.
In the national tables, table 1 has overall exclusion rates. The Department does not collect exclusion data for disabled students separately. Table 5 has exclusion rates by Special Educational Needs provision. Table 8 has exclusion information by ethnic group.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) school students and (b) disabled school students were excluded from school in 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally, as data on exclusions in 2019 is not yet available.
The National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2017 to 2018’ includes information on the number and rate of permanent and fixed period exclusions.
The release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2017-to-2018.
In the national tables, table 1 has overall exclusion rates. The Department does not collect exclusion data for disabled students separately. Table 5 has exclusion rates by Special Educational Needs provision. Table 8 has exclusion information by ethnic group.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) school students and (b) BAME school students were excluded in 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally, as data on exclusions in 2019 is not yet available.
The National Statistics release ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2017 to 2018’ includes information on the number and rate of permanent and fixed period exclusions.
The release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2017-to-2018.
In the national tables, table 1 has overall exclusion rates. The Department does not collect exclusion data for disabled students separately. Table 5 has exclusion rates by Special Educational Needs provision. Table 8 has exclusion information by ethnic group.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
What estimate his Department has made of the number of children who went hungry over the 2019 school summer holiday.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We do not collect this information, but our Holiday Activities and Food programme has supported children from disadvantaged families over the last 2 summers.
In 2018, we provided £2 million funding that reached over 18,000 pupils.
This year, we more than quadrupled our funding, so that even more disadvantaged children benefitted from healthy food and enriching activities.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new special schools have opened since the introduction of free schools in 2010.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Since the launch of the free school programme in 2010, 34 special and 41 alternative provision new free schools have opened. As of 1 November 2018, there are also 55 special and 14 alternative provision new free schools in the pipeline.
On 24 July 2018, a joint special provision and alternative provision free school wave was announced. Within this, the department is looking to approve around 30 special and alternative provision free schools in addition to those already in the pipeline.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the £200 contribution for Disabled Students’ Allowance equipment on the take-up of that allowance on students from low income families.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Students from the lowest-income households who started their courses this year have access to the largest ever amounts of cash-in-hand support for their living costs.
Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) are not means-tested so applicants are not required to submit evidence of their family income. DSAs are not intended to cover study costs any student might have, nor disability-related expenditure a student would incur if they were not studying in higher education. The £200 contribution was introduced as computers are a mainstream cost for all students and it is right therefore that students eligible for DSAs should contribute towards the cost of their DSAs-recommended computer equipment.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that benchmarking data is promptly available to schools so that they can report their spend to governors using such data in line with his Department's guidance.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Benchmarking data for local authority maintained schools, relating to the 2016-17 financial year, will be published on the Schools Financial Benchmarking tool later this month available at: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/. Benchmarking data for academies and academy trusts for the 2016/17 academy financial year will be published in the summer term.
The department has made improvements to the data collection and internal publication processes that will improve the timeliness of updates to the Schools Financial Benchmarking tool in the future. These improvements include online data collections, streamlined validation and automated data uploads.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of foster carers from minority communities.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The cultural, ethnic, linguistic or religious background is among a number of considerations that a local authority must consider when placing a child. The priority is that the child is safe and with a carer who is able to meet their individual needs. Local authorities have a duty to ensure they have sufficient placements that meet the needs of their looked after children.
The National Fostering Stocktake, an independent review of the fostering system in England, has now concluded. It considered the recruitment and retention of foster parents. The department will carefully consider any recommendations made by the review and by the Education Select Committee. The government’s response will be published this spring.