Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on implementing the aims of the International Education Strategy to (a) increase the value of education exports to £35 billion per year by 2030 and (b) increase the total number of international students choosing to study in the UK higher education system each year to 600,000 by 2030.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department remains committed to progressing the implementation of the International Education Strategy and has published regular updates, most recently in May 2023, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-2023-update. The strategy sets out progress to date, including total UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity, estimated to be £25.6 billion in 2020, and meeting the international student ambition two years running (2020/21 and 2021/22). Since 2010, the estimated UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity has risen by 61.2% in current prices.
The UK’s International Education Champion, Professor Sir Steve Smith, continues to promote the UK’s education system in key markets, addressing barriers and creating opportunities for education exporters across the sector.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) promote and (b) protect the UK's education exports.
Answered by Robert Halfon
I refer the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk to the answer of 13 March to Question 17127.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the average length of time the Student Loans Company takes to refund people who have made an overpayment on their student loan.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Student Loans Company (SLC) is committed to processing any requests for refunds due to customer overpayments in a timely manner. When a customer gets in touch with SLC about a potential refund, the whole process, including eligibility checks, will typically take around 10 days. However, this can take up to 28 days in some instances.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of financial advice available to students before they take out a student loan.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government provides comprehensive guidance on student loans and grants for students and prospective students in higher education and on how to apply for student support on GOV.UK.
This includes statutory guidance from the Student Loans Company on the terms and conditions for student loans.
Guidance for students is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of recording verbal abuse of children by adults as its own maltreatment subgroup.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right for all children. The government’s priority for all vulnerable children is to keep them safe, protect their welfare and put their best interests at the heart of every decision. It is about supporting and intervening with the right families, at the right time, and, most importantly, in the right way.
In the department’s 'Children in need’ statistics release, we publish data on factors identified at the end of an assessment. Currently, verbal abuse is not defined but would fall into emotional abuse. For that reason, the department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of verbal abuse on children, but it is the government’s priority to ensure all children are protected and safe from harm, and we have an ambitious programme of reform to children’s social care underway. The latest statistics release is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need.
On 2 February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation which sets out our plans to transform children’s social care, in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the national review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition Markets Authority report.
The department’s strategy focuses on six pillars of action to transform children’s social care, including to help families overcome challenges at the earliest stage, keep children safe from significant harm, and make sure children in care have stable, loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life.
Over the next two years, the department will address urgent issues and lay the foundations for wider-reaching reform across the whole system, which will have an impact for those children experiencing abuse, including verbal abuse.
Furthermore, the statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2018), is clear that, if at any time it is considered that a child may be a child in need or has suffered significant harm or is likely to do so, a referral should be made immediately to a local authority’s children social care service.
In terms of supporting children’s mental health, the department has committed to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. More than 14,000 schools and colleges have now received a senior mental health lead training grant, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.
Intervening early is critical. To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. We are extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners by the end of this financial year and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of verbal abuse of children by adults on children's (a) mental health and (b) long-term educational outcomes.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right for all children. The government’s priority for all vulnerable children is to keep them safe, protect their welfare and put their best interests at the heart of every decision. It is about supporting and intervening with the right families, at the right time, and, most importantly, in the right way.
In the department’s 'Children in need’ statistics release, we publish data on factors identified at the end of an assessment. Currently, verbal abuse is not defined but would fall into emotional abuse. For that reason, the department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of verbal abuse on children, but it is the government’s priority to ensure all children are protected and safe from harm, and we have an ambitious programme of reform to children’s social care underway. The latest statistics release is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need.
On 2 February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation which sets out our plans to transform children’s social care, in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the national review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition Markets Authority report.
The department’s strategy focuses on six pillars of action to transform children’s social care, including to help families overcome challenges at the earliest stage, keep children safe from significant harm, and make sure children in care have stable, loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life.
Over the next two years, the department will address urgent issues and lay the foundations for wider-reaching reform across the whole system, which will have an impact for those children experiencing abuse, including verbal abuse.
Furthermore, the statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2018), is clear that, if at any time it is considered that a child may be a child in need or has suffered significant harm or is likely to do so, a referral should be made immediately to a local authority’s children social care service.
In terms of supporting children’s mental health, the department has committed to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. More than 14,000 schools and colleges have now received a senior mental health lead training grant, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.
Intervening early is critical. To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. We are extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners by the end of this financial year and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the prevalence of verbal abuse of children by adults.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right for all children. The government’s priority for all vulnerable children is to keep them safe, protect their welfare and put their best interests at the heart of every decision. It is about supporting and intervening with the right families, at the right time, and, most importantly, in the right way.
In the department’s 'Children in need’ statistics release, we publish data on factors identified at the end of an assessment. Currently, verbal abuse is not defined but would fall into emotional abuse. For that reason, the department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of verbal abuse on children, but it is the government’s priority to ensure all children are protected and safe from harm, and we have an ambitious programme of reform to children’s social care underway. The latest statistics release is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need.
On 2 February 2023, the department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation which sets out our plans to transform children’s social care, in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the national review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition Markets Authority report.
The department’s strategy focuses on six pillars of action to transform children’s social care, including to help families overcome challenges at the earliest stage, keep children safe from significant harm, and make sure children in care have stable, loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life.
Over the next two years, the department will address urgent issues and lay the foundations for wider-reaching reform across the whole system, which will have an impact for those children experiencing abuse, including verbal abuse.
Furthermore, the statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2018), is clear that, if at any time it is considered that a child may be a child in need or has suffered significant harm or is likely to do so, a referral should be made immediately to a local authority’s children social care service.
In terms of supporting children’s mental health, the department has committed to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective, whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. More than 14,000 schools and colleges have now received a senior mental health lead training grant, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.
Intervening early is critical. To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. We are extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners by the end of this financial year and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy for future need of the number of current and projected students studying STEM subjects.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) skills are in demand by employers across the country, and such demand is growing. The department is investing in STEM education at all levels to ensure people have access to high-quality STEM teaching and can access STEM career opportunities to meet current and future demand. The number of students studying STEM subjects is already growing. Between 2019 and 2022, there was a 9% increase in the number of UK students accepted onto full-time undergraduate STEM courses[1] in the UK, with uptake of Computer Science degrees among the fastest growing.
Employers have designed over 360 high-quality apprenticeship standards in STEM sectors, including over 100 at levels 6 and 7, to support individuals in England looking to start, or progress, in a career in STEM. 33% of all apprenticeship starts in the first half of 2022/23 academic year have been in STEM. The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support more of these high-quality opportunities.
The department’s Unit for Future Skills (UFS) is working to improve the quality of jobs and skills data, which will support a better understanding of current skill mismatches and future demand across key sectors, including those related to STEM. As part of cross-government work to cement the UK’s status as a science and technology superpower by 2030, the UFS is developing a Skills Dashboard to understand the supply and demand of science and technology skills for priority technologies.
[1] UCAS data 2019 and 2022.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to attract foreign students to study STEM subjects.
Answered by Robert Halfon
As part of the UK Science and Technology Framework, a cross-government strategy which aims to cement the UK’s status as a science and technology superpower by 2030, the department is committed to establishing a competitive advantage in attracting international talent to the UK. Details from the Framework on attracting talent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-science-and-technology-framework/the-uk-science-and-technology-framework#talent-and-skills.
The UK higher education (HE) sector has been successful for two years running in delivering on the government’s ambition, set out in our International Education Strategy, of hosting at least 600,000 students per year by 2030, which includes many international students studying STEM subjects.
Our offer to international students, including those wishing to study STEM subjects, is extremely competitive. With our world class universities that excel in both teaching and research, the department is committed to ensuring the UK remains a destination of choice for international students from across the globe.
International students make a significant economic and cultural contribution to the UK’s HE sector, which is beneficial for our universities and delivers growth at home.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with industry representatives about the assistance available to ensure people with learning disabilities are adequately supported to sit the Construction Industry Training Board’s Health, safety, and environment test.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Under the Equalities Act 2010, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments for individuals with disabilities, as defined by the Act. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) must have due regard to this.
As the management of the health, safety and environment test, including access arrangements for candidates, is an operational matter for the CITB, I have asked the CITB’s Chief Executive, Tim Balcon, to write to the hon. Member with details of the assistance available to ensure people with learning disabilities are adequately supported to sit the test. A copy of his reply will be placed in the libraries of both Houses.