Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the findings of the Disabled Children’s Partnership polling released in January 2022, what recent progress he has made on tackling unmet need in disabled children’s social care.
Answered by Will Quince
Social care services, including those for disabled children and their families, are provided on the basis of an individual assessment of each child and family’s needs.
The department has not conducted an assessment of children’s social care services in light of the Disabled Children’s Partnership polling released in January 2022. The government believes it is right for local authorities, who know their areas’ needs best, to determine what services are required locally, including disabled children’s social care services.
This year councils have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care. The government has also given over £6 billion in unringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including children’s services.
The department will continue to work with other government departments, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to ensure the needs of children’s services are reflected.
In addition to statutory services, the department is providing £27.3 million to the Family Fund in the 2021-22 financial year to support over 60,000 families on low incomes raising children and young people with disabilities or serious illnesses. Grants can be used for a range of purposes, including family breaks.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in the City of Durham are yet to receive air cleaning units.
Answered by Robin Walker
During the autumn term, we provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding.
We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the Autumn term. Feedback suggests that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in most schools, colleges and nurseries, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.
The department will also make up to 8,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.
Deliveries will start from next week to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision schools, colleges, and nurseries. These were allocated in the first application round announced in November 2021.
The second round of applications is open until 9am on 17 January 2022. All state funded schools, colleges and nurseries can apply. Special and alternative provision providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. Once applications have closed, all applications will be assessed against strict criteria and allocated to providers based on need. Schools, colleges and nurseries with successful applications will be contacted individually to arrange delivery, with deliveries expected from February 2022.
For those providers that are not eligible for funded units, the online marketplace provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many air cleaning units have been provided to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) City of Durham constituency and (ii) County Durham as at 4 January 2022.
Answered by Robin Walker
During the autumn term, we provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding.
We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the Autumn term. Feedback suggests that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in most schools, colleges and nurseries, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.
The department will also make up to 8,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.
Deliveries will start from next week to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision schools, colleges, and nurseries. These were allocated in the first application round announced in November 2021.
The second round of applications is open until 9am on 17 January 2022. All state funded schools, colleges and nurseries can apply. Special and alternative provision providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. Once applications have closed, all applications will be assessed against strict criteria and allocated to providers based on need. Schools, colleges and nurseries with successful applications will be contacted individually to arrange delivery, with deliveries expected from February 2022.
For those providers that are not eligible for funded units, the online marketplace provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the finding of Scope and the Disabled Children’s Partnership’s report entitled The Gap Widens, published in October 2021, that there is a £573 million funding gap in disabled children’s social care, what estimate his Department has made of the funding gap in disabled children’s social care.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member for City of Durham, to the answer I gave on 20 October 2021 to Question 56976.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide schools in (a) City of Durham and (b) England with extra funding to meet increased heating costs during the 2021-22 academic year.
Answered by Robin Walker
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance to nurseries, schools and colleges on ventilation requirements. It is important to ensure that nurseries, schools and colleges are well ventilated and that a comfortable teaching environment is maintained.
The department recognises that schools may be facing pressures this winter, particularly where energy prices have increased. However, these cost increases should be seen in the wider context of funding for schools: at the 2019 Spending Round, the government committed to significant additional investment in schools of £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. This year, mainstream school funding is increasing by 3.5% overall, and all schools are receiving at least a 2% increase to pupil-led per pupil funding.
Durham is receiving an extra £10.5 million for schools this year, an increase of 3.3% per pupil. This takes total funding for 2021-22 in Durham to over £344.5 million, including additional funding to meet increased costs of teachers’ pay and pensions.
School leaders have the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to prioritise their spending to invest in a range of resources that will best support their staff and pupils. The department does not have detailed information on how cost pressures will vary for individual schools, as these will depend on individual circumstances and local decision making.
Schools continue to be able to access existing support for financial issues, including a wide range of school resource management tools, and, in serious circumstances, additional funding or advances from local authorities for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academy trusts.
School funding remains one of the department’s key priorities and any decisions on future funding will be made as part of this year’s Spending Review. We expect the outcome of the 2021 Spending Review to be announced on 27 October.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of increased heating costs for schools in (a) City of Durham and (b) England as a result of opening windows and doors to adequately ventilate classrooms.
Answered by Robin Walker
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has emphasised the importance of ventilation and provided guidance to nurseries, schools and colleges on ventilation requirements. It is important to ensure that nurseries, schools and colleges are well ventilated and that a comfortable teaching environment is maintained.
The department recognises that schools may be facing pressures this winter, particularly where energy prices have increased. However, these cost increases should be seen in the wider context of funding for schools: at the 2019 Spending Round, the government committed to significant additional investment in schools of £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. This year, mainstream school funding is increasing by 3.5% overall, and all schools are receiving at least a 2% increase to pupil-led per pupil funding.
Durham is receiving an extra £10.5 million for schools this year, an increase of 3.3% per pupil. This takes total funding for 2021-22 in Durham to over £344.5 million, including additional funding to meet increased costs of teachers’ pay and pensions.
School leaders have the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to prioritise their spending to invest in a range of resources that will best support their staff and pupils. The department does not have detailed information on how cost pressures will vary for individual schools, as these will depend on individual circumstances and local decision making.
Schools continue to be able to access existing support for financial issues, including a wide range of school resource management tools, and, in serious circumstances, additional funding or advances from local authorities for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academy trusts.
School funding remains one of the department’s key priorities and any decisions on future funding will be made as part of this year’s Spending Review. We expect the outcome of the 2021 Spending Review to be announced on 27 October.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the next Comprehensive Spending Review allocates adequate funding for disabled children’s social care to allow every local authority to provide the support services that every disabled child needs.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Funding for local authorities’ services, including disabled children’s social care, is unringfenced, allowing local authorities flexibility to spend according to local needs and priorities.
In the 2021-22 financial year, councils have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care. The government has also provided an additional £6 billion of funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including those on services for disabled children.
The department will continue to work hard across government ahead of the next Spending Review to ensure children and young people are at the heart of this government’s priorities.