Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of funding universal entitlement to the Summer Reading Challenge in the North East of England for primary school aged children as part of the Government's catch-up plans to support children's reading over the summer holidays.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department welcomes the summer reading challenge and is supportive of the work of the Reading Agency.
The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, including those of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Ensuring that every child has access to high quality teaching of literacy forms a vital part of this Government’s mission to ‘level up’ education across the country.
The Department has invested £3 billion since June 2020 to support education recovery. This will have a significant impact in addressing lost education and closing gaps that have emerged. The £1.4 billion package to support children aged 2-19 across schools, early years and further education colleges announced in June 2021 is the next step, and builds on the £1.7 billion already committed.
As part of the wider recovery package to support children and young people of all ages in catching up on missed education and development due to the COVID-19 outbreak, £200 million will be made available to secondary schools to deliver face to face summer schools this year.
The following North East library authorities participated in the Summer Reading Challenge in 2020: Durham, Hartlepool Borough Council, Northumberland County Council and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.
All library authorities in the North East of England participated in 2019. All library authorities in the region, except Darlington, will be participating in 2021.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has any plans to extend her Department's policy of free school transport for children between eight and 16 years old living over three miles from their school to match the compulsory school leaving age of 18 years old.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government has no current plans to extend the home to school statutory entitlement beyond the age of 16.
It is helpful to be clear initially that young people do not need to be in school beyond the age of 16. There are a range of ways that young people can fulfil their duty to participate in education and training until they are 18, as well as staying at school. Options include apprenticeships or part-time paid work together with study.
The statutory responsibility for transport to education and training for 16 to 19 year olds remains with local authorities, enabling them to make decisions and arrangements which best match local needs and circumstances. Arrangements do not have to include free or subsidised travel; however, local authorities are expected to make reasonable decisions based on the needs of their population, the local transport infrastructure and the resources they have available.
Most 16 to 19 year olds have access to a discount or concession on local travel, from their local transport provider, their local authority, or from their education or training provider. Providers can also use the 16-19 Bursary Fund to support young people with the costs associated with attending education or training. This is often used to support transport for disadvantaged young people.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement on (a) academy chains and (b) the ability of US or European companies to establish academy chains in the UK.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government remains committed to academies and providing the best quality education for all children and young people. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will not change this. The Government of the day will always set the rules governing how the education system is run.
We have protected public services, including education, in all of our trade agreements and will continue to do so in the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is non-negotiable.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many agency staff were contracted to cover classes in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects details of all teachers working in state funded schools through the annual School Workforce Census. However, this census does not separately identify agency teachers.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to increase the number of teachers in training.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing heavily in the future of our teaching profession. Between now and 2020, we have committed to spending more than £1.3bn on initiatives aimed at attracting more people into the profession.
Teaching remains a profession that is attracting the brightest and best new graduates as well as career changers. We achieved 94% of our postgraduate ITT target for 2015/16, of which 7% was additional recruitment beyond the target in primary, English, history and PE. Although we recognise that teacher recruitment remains challenging, particularly in some priority subjects and in certain areas of the country, we are nevertheless confident that overall recruitment to ITT remains strong.
We have already put in place a number of measures aimed at attracting more top graduates into teaching, particularly in the core academic subjects that help children reach their full potential. We are continuing to offer generous financial incentives, including prestigious scholarships, worth up to £30,000 tax-free for trainees with top degrees in priority subjects.
In March 2015, the Prime Minister announced a package of up to £67m to recruit an additional 2,500 maths and physics teachers and to train 15,000 existing non-specialist teachers in those subjects over the term of this Parliament.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve teacher retention.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers – that is why we have made policy interventions in the areas that teachers tell us matter most, such as improving pupil behaviour and reducing unnecessary workload.
We have appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead a review to ensure new teachers are fully trained in managing behaviour in 21st century schools.
In response to our Workload Challenge, we set up three independent review groups to address unnecessary workload in the key areas of marking, planning and data management. The groups reported early this year, and set out clear principles about what should happen in schools to reduce unnecessary workload in these areas. The Government has accepted all the relevant recommendations made by the groups, and we will continue to work with the teaching profession to make sure they have the ongoing support they need to continue reducing unnecessary teacher workload.
We have recently conducted the first biennial Teacher Workload Survey, which will allow us to track teacher workload over the coming years. The results of the first survey will be published later this year.
Approximately 90 per cent of all teachers are in service in state-funded schools the year after they qualify, and 72 per cent of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later. Over the longer term, over 60 per cent of teachers remain in service 10 years after qualifying.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to amend adoption rules to facilitate the adoption of children resettled under the Immigration Act 2016.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government has no plans to amend adoption legislation to facilitate the adoption of children resettled under the Immigration Act 2016. The United Nations and other humanitarian charities advise that no new adoption applications should be considered in the period after a disaster or from a war zone before the authorities in that State are in a position to apply the necessary safeguards. This is because it is not uncommon in an emergency or unsettled situation for children to be temporarily separated from their parents or other family members who may be looking for them. So whilst some lone refugee children may come to the UK for temporary care, we would wish to support them to be reunited with their parents or other relatives where this is possible.