Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment the Government has made of the effect of support for children’s mental health and well-being on levels of academic attainment.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We know that children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing are associated with their educational attainment and other long-term outcomes. That is why we are committed to support schools in promoting good mental wellbeing and ensuring that children and young people get the help and support they need, with the right support from specialist services.
The return to school is a vital factor in supporting the mental wellbeing of pupils, in addition to providing more opportunities for physical activity, attendance at school allows social interaction with peers, carers and teachers, which benefits wellbeing. To support this, we have encouraged schools to focus on mental wellbeing as pupils return.
We have now published detailed plans for all children and young people to return to full-time education from September. The guidance highlights the particular need to focus on pastoral support and mental wellbeing as a central part of what schools provide, in order to re-engage pupils, rebuild social interaction with their friends and teachers and provide a sound basis for academic catch-up. The guidance for schools is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
The government has sent a clear message that NHS mental health services remain open, and we have recently provided over £9 million to leading mental health charities to help them expand and reach those most in need. This includes a number of programmes which specifically support the mental health of children and young people, and all NHS mental health trusts are providing 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages.
For the longer term, we remain committed to delivering our joint green paper programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams (MHSTs), and testing approaches to deliver four week waiting times for access to NHS support. One of the core functions of the MHSTs will be giving timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support, stay in education and achieve to their potential.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of (a) trained personnel and (b) funding allocated to schools to provide mental health services to BAME children and young people when they return to school in September 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The return to school is a vital factor in supporting the mental wellbeing of pupils, in addition to providing more opportunities for physical activity, attendance at school allows social interaction with peers, carers and teachers, which benefits wellbeing. To support this, we have encouraged schools to focus on mental wellbeing as pupils return.
Schools will need to reflect the particular circumstances of their pupils in deciding how to do this. They may wish to provide particular groups of pupils with specific support, including some Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) pupils, given the disproportionate rates of COVID-19 diagnoses and death rates among Black and Asian ethnic groups. There are also emerging indications of the potential for greater mental health and wellbeing impacts on children and young people from BAME groups.
Funding for pastoral support is part of schools’ core funding, which is rising by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 funding levels. The government has also announced an additional £650 million ‘catch up’ premium, as part of our wider £1 billion COVID catch-up package, to be shared across all state-funded schools over the 2020-21 academic year. School leaders will have the discretion on how to use this funding to best support their pupils to catch up for lost time which in some cases will include support to parents, carers and children to help them re-engage with learning.
The department has published detailed plans for all children and young people to return to full-time education from September. The guidance highlights the particular need to focus on pastoral support and mental wellbeing as a central part of what schools provide, in order to re-engage them and rebuild social interaction with their friends and teachers. This will involve curriculum provision as well as extra-curricular and pastoral support, and our recently published relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) training module will support teachers with preparation to deliver content on mental health and wellbeing. The guidance for schools is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-and-colleges-to-reopen-in-full-in-september.
The department hosted a free webinar for schools on 7 July on delivering the new RSHE curriculum for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, including supporting their mental wellbeing. The recorded webinar is available, free of charge, on the PSHE Association’s website here:
https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/content/send-hub.
However, teachers are not mental health professionals and some pupils will need support from specialist services. The government has sent a clear message that NHS mental health services remain open, and we have recently provided over £9 million to leading mental health charities to help them expand and reach those most in need. This includes a number of programmes which specifically support the mental health of children and young people, and all NHS mental health trusts are providing 24/7 open access telephone lines to support people of all ages.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to help increase the number of apprentice places available in the construction industry.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Apprenticeships will have an important role to play in creating employment opportunities, particularly for young people, and in supporting employers in all sectors to access the skilled workforce that they need to recover and grow following the COVID-19 outbreak. We will ensure that there is sufficient funding to support all businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year and will provide further details in due course.
Apprenticeships are jobs with training and form an employer-led programme where employers choose which apprenticeships they offer to meet their current and future skills need. There are currently 86 high quality construction standards at different levels, designed by industry to equip individuals with the skills that employers want. A further 12 standards are in development and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is working to approve these as soon as possible.
The construction industry will be key in supporting the country’s economic recovery and the Prime Minister recently announced a £5 billion Capital Investment Plan to accelerate infrastructure projects aimed at stimulating the sector and help to recruit and retain staff including apprentices. We are working with the sector to encourage take up of new apprentices and continue to work with employers including Persimmons Homes and Balfour Beatty through our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network (ADCN) to promote best practice in recruiting and supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds and under-represented groups including Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) and women.
We recognise that employers, at the moment, face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so we will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Details can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that there is greater (a) gender and (b) BAME diversity among construction apprentices.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Apprenticeships will have an important role to play in creating employment opportunities, particularly for young people, and in supporting employers in all sectors to access the skilled workforce that they need to recover and grow following the COVID-19 outbreak. We will ensure that there is sufficient funding to support all businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year and will provide further details in due course.
Apprenticeships are jobs with training and form an employer-led programme where employers choose which apprenticeships they offer to meet their current and future skills need. There are currently 86 high quality construction standards at different levels, designed by industry to equip individuals with the skills that employers want. A further 12 standards are in development and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is working to approve these as soon as possible.
The construction industry will be key in supporting the country’s economic recovery and the Prime Minister recently announced a £5 billion Capital Investment Plan to accelerate infrastructure projects aimed at stimulating the sector and help to recruit and retain staff including apprentices. We are working with the sector to encourage take up of new apprentices and continue to work with employers including Persimmons Homes and Balfour Beatty through our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network (ADCN) to promote best practice in recruiting and supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds and under-represented groups including Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) and women.
We recognise that employers, at the moment, face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so we will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Details can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to permit flexibility in the use of Apprenticeship Levy funds to help mitigate the effects of the covid-19 outbreak on (a) current and (b) potential construction apprentices.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Apprenticeships will be key to our recovery, especially for young people. We are looking at ensuring that we support employers, especially small businesses, to take on new apprentices this year and will provide further details in due course. The apprenticeship levy is an important part of our apprenticeship reforms, supporting employers of all sizes to make a long-term, sustainable investment in training. We will ensure that there is sufficient funding to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year.
We recognise that employers, at the moment, face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so we will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Details can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
We are developing a campaign plan to underpin our work on supporting the recovery and getting redundant apprentices back to work. As part of this campaign we will be working with all the largest construction businesses to ensure they can restart and recover as quickly as possible. This will include encouraging the sector to take on redundant apprentices from other employers both inside and outside of construction.
In light of the challenges presented by COVID-19, we have extended the transition of non-levy paying employers onto the apprenticeship service from 1 November 2020 to 1 April 2021. Under the new system, smaller employers will have more control over the funding they use to create new apprenticeship opportunities and can reserve funds before choosing the provider that best meets their needs. Levy-paying employers can transfer up to 25% of the annual value of funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to other employers. Employers can continue to recruit and train apprentices. They already have 24 months in which to spend their funds before these expire.
We want apprentices and employers to continue with their apprenticeships and have introduced a range of flexibilities to make this easier, while maintaining the quality of apprenticeships. Flexibilities include encouraging remote delivery of training and allowing changes to end point assessment, as well as introducing additional flexibility to allow furloughed apprentices to continue their apprenticeships and undertake end point assessments.
Employers are developing new apprenticeships standards, allowing them to spend the levy on the apprenticeships training that matters for them. There are now 86 construction standards that have been designed by employers across a range of levels to meet employer demand to date and a further 12 construction standards that are currently in development.