Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had communications with iNHouse Communications Ltd in connection with any current commercial tender process.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has awarded any commercial contracts to iNHouse Communications Ltd in the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Education does not hold any commercial or financial records relating to iNHouse Communications Limited. An iNHouse licenced technology solution was used to provide a one-off conference call in 2015.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effects of family evictions on student numbers at individual schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has not made an assessment of the effects of family evictions on student numbers at individual schools.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the performance of the National Allocation Scheme relating to initial teacher training as part of National Teaching School programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There is no ‘National Allocation Scheme’, but this year we have used recruitment controls for the purpose of recruitment to Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Information on these recruitment controls can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-recruitment-controls
In response to feedback from the sector from previous years, we changed the approach to initial teacher training (ITT) allocations for 2016-17 recruitment. The National College for Teaching and Leadership did not allocate a specific number of places to individual organisations for postgraduate ITT courses due to start in the 2016-17 academic year. Instead, eligible schools, School Centred Initial Teacher Training providers (SCITTs) and higher education institutions (HEIs) are able to recruit (subject to a limited number of controls) as many trainees as they feel they need until the overall system has recruited sufficient trainees.
The Census data which will be published online later in 2016 will indicate the number of trainees recruited by subject.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on regionalisation of the initial teacher training programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are monitoring recruitment at a regional level in all subjects to ensure that the regional balance of initial teacher training (ITT) provision is maintained. We reserve the right to control recruitment in particular regions for all ITT routes and courses. It is important to maintain the regional balance of ITT provision and consequently we may use recruitment controls to prevent significant geographical variation in the distribution of provision compared to previous years. However, we will not operate with regional targets.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the levels of self-harm among (a) boys and (b) girls in secondary schools.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Self-harm occurs in relation to a wide range of personal problems, emotional turmoil and psychiatric disorders, and is a serious concern. The government does not collect central data on cases of self-harm by school-age children, but the Department of Health is currently commissioning a new national prevalence survey for children and young people’s mental health which is due to report its findings in 2018.
Schools should take prompt action to deal with cases of self- harm. The Department has taken a range of actions to help them to build a whole-school approach to good mental wellbeing, which includes being informed about self-harm. We funded guidance and age-appropriate lesson plans on teaching mental health in PSHE – which covers teaching about self-harm. Training for teachers on self-harm is available through MindEd, a free online portal which has been developed to enable all adults working with children and young people learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them. We have also revised and updated our blueprint for effective school-based counselling.
However, teachers are not mental health specialists and can need specialist support in deciding how to respond. We have contributed to a £3m joint pilot between schools and specialist mental health services, to help schools draw on specialist support for their pupils; where needed.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has assessed the effect of experiencing domestic violence in the home on the educational attainment of pupils at primary and secondary school.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We know that educational outcomes for children in need or on child protection plans are generally worse than their peers.
This is published in the annual children in need census which is matched to the national pupil database to show attainment levels at both key stage 2 and key stage 4 for children in need, including those who have experienced domestic violence in the home (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census).
This latest data is published on gov.uk within the ‘outcomes tables’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2014-to-2015.
Domestic violence is the most common factor identified in social worker assessments of children. We must continue to improve our understanding and response to this issue. The Home Office leads a wide-ranging cross-Government programme of work to address violence against women and girls, which includes domestic violence. In addition, on 7 July DfE announced up to £2.25 million in grant funding to VCS organisations over an 18 month period to help address key priorities on safeguarding, specifically including domestic violence.
While numbers of children for whom domestic violence is identified as a factor at assessment is published in the children in need census, attainment data for these children is not published and would only be available at disproportionate cost.
In the year ending 31 March 2015, there were around 45,500 children aged between 5 and 10 inclusive (primary school age1) and 31,200 aged between 11 and 16 inclusive (secondary school age1), recorded as having domestic violence identified as a factor at the end of their assessment by children’s social care. The purpose of an assessment is to gather information and evidence about a child’s developmental needs and the parents’ capacity to meet these needs within the context of the wider family and community. This information should be used to inform decisions about the help needed by the child.
Please note that this may not cover all children who have experienced domestic violence, but provides an estimate of those children that have been referred to children’s social care who have been assessed in the year and domestic violence was a factor identified. This information is collected within the children in need census (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census). The latest information can be found in the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistical first release (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2014-to-2015).
[1] Age calculated at 31 March 2015.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the number of children at primary and secondary school who have experienced domestic violence at home.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We know that educational outcomes for children in need or on child protection plans are generally worse than their peers.
This is published in the annual children in need census which is matched to the national pupil database to show attainment levels at both key stage 2 and key stage 4 for children in need, including those who have experienced domestic violence in the home (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census).
This latest data is published on gov.uk within the ‘outcomes tables’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2014-to-2015.
Domestic violence is the most common factor identified in social worker assessments of children. We must continue to improve our understanding and response to this issue. The Home Office leads a wide-ranging cross-Government programme of work to address violence against women and girls, which includes domestic violence. In addition, on 7 July DfE announced up to £2.25 million in grant funding to VCS organisations over an 18 month period to help address key priorities on safeguarding, specifically including domestic violence.
While numbers of children for whom domestic violence is identified as a factor at assessment is published in the children in need census, attainment data for these children is not published and would only be available at disproportionate cost.
In the year ending 31 March 2015, there were around 45,500 children aged between 5 and 10 inclusive (primary school age1) and 31,200 aged between 11 and 16 inclusive (secondary school age1), recorded as having domestic violence identified as a factor at the end of their assessment by children’s social care. The purpose of an assessment is to gather information and evidence about a child’s developmental needs and the parents’ capacity to meet these needs within the context of the wider family and community. This information should be used to inform decisions about the help needed by the child.
Please note that this may not cover all children who have experienced domestic violence, but provides an estimate of those children that have been referred to children’s social care who have been assessed in the year and domestic violence was a factor identified. This information is collected within the children in need census (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census). The latest information can be found in the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistical first release (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2014-to-2015).
[1] Age calculated at 31 March 2015.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the geographical allocation of placements of teachers to initial teacher training schemes.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The table below shows the latest figures for postgraduate trainees by the location of the provider.
Number of postgraduate ITT trainees by region, academic year 2015 to 2016 |
| |||||
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| Number of Trainees |
| |||
North East |
| 1,271 |
| |||
East Midlands |
| 1,888 |
| |||
East of England |
| 2,355 |
| |||
South West |
| 2,440 |
| |||
Yorkshire and The Humber |
| 2,807 |
| |||
West Midlands |
| 3,187 |
| |||
North West |
| 4,379 |
| |||
South East |
| 4,473 |
| |||
London |
| 4,969 |
| |||
Grand Total |
| 27,769 |
| |||
Source: ITT Census 2015/16 |
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1) Figures for 2015/16 were extracted on 2nd November 2015 |
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2) Troops to Teachers are excluded |
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3) Excludes forecast trainees |
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Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many kinship carers her Department estimates will be eligible for the Government's proposed free 30 hours of childcare.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Kinship carers will be able to access the existing 15 hour early education entitlement for any three and four year old children in their care. In addition, two year olds who are looked after by a local council or have left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order are entitled to 15 hours per week of early education.
In respect of the extended entitlement for three and four year olds, kinship carers who have parental responsibility for the child will be able to access the extended entitlement provided that they are earning the equivalent to 16 hours a week at National Minimum or Living Wage and their income does not exceed £100,000. This includes employed and self-employed kinship carers.
The Department does not hold information on the number of kinship carers who would meet the income eligibility criteria and who have three or four year old children.