Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his Answer of 17 October 2022 to Question 58927, if he will he publish information held by his Department on school and community defibrillator provision to allow areas of most need to be identified.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s defibrillator roll out, to all state funded schools in England without access to a defibrillator, began on 20 January 2023.
The Department’s defibrillator survey asked schools a small number of questions to establish if they needed a defibrillator. This included asking if they had a device that was over four years old. This is because defibrillators typically have a five year warranty and the Department wanted to ensure no school would be left without provision. To support schools, the Department has secured an eight year warranty and support package for the devices it is providing.
The Department’s defibrillator programme is targeted at schools. The Department will ensure defibrillators are available to over nine million pupils, visitors to schools and over 950,000 adults working in the school sector. NHS England, academic experts, and leading charities were all consulted in the development of the specification to ensure the device selected was suitable for both schools and communities. Each school will make the decision on whether to provide public use of their defibrillator. New guidance has been produced to support schools which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130210/Automated_External_Defibrillators_Guidance_jan_23.pdf.
The Department does not hold records on community provision of defibrillators. Over half of schools responded to the defibrillator survey, with approximately 60% of schools indicating they did not have a defibrillator or that their device was over four years old. The Department’s roll out is expected to be completed by the end of the 2022/23 academic year, ensuring that all state funded schools in England have access to a defibrillator. The latest information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement laid before both Houses on 20 January 2023, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-01-20/hcws506.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, why respondents were only asked about Automated External Defibrillators purchased within the last four years in her Department’s most recent survey on school defibrillator provision.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s defibrillator roll out, to all state funded schools in England without access to a defibrillator, began on 20 January 2023.
The Department’s defibrillator survey asked schools a small number of questions to establish if they needed a defibrillator. This included asking if they had a device that was over four years old. This is because defibrillators typically have a five year warranty and the Department wanted to ensure no school would be left without provision. To support schools, the Department has secured an eight year warranty and support package for the devices it is providing.
The Department’s defibrillator programme is targeted at schools. The Department will ensure defibrillators are available to over nine million pupils, visitors to schools and over 950,000 adults working in the school sector. NHS England, academic experts, and leading charities were all consulted in the development of the specification to ensure the device selected was suitable for both schools and communities. Each school will make the decision on whether to provide public use of their defibrillator. New guidance has been produced to support schools which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130210/Automated_External_Defibrillators_Guidance_jan_23.pdf.
The Department does not hold records on community provision of defibrillators. Over half of schools responded to the defibrillator survey, with approximately 60% of schools indicating they did not have a defibrillator or that their device was over four years old. The Department’s roll out is expected to be completed by the end of the 2022/23 academic year, ensuring that all state funded schools in England have access to a defibrillator. The latest information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement laid before both Houses on 20 January 2023, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-01-20/hcws506.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what evidential basis did she determine the defibrillator requirements for (a) schools and (b) communities in her Department's recent tender for defibrillators.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department’s defibrillator roll out, to all state funded schools in England without access to a defibrillator, began on 20 January 2023.
The Department’s defibrillator survey asked schools a small number of questions to establish if they needed a defibrillator. This included asking if they had a device that was over four years old. This is because defibrillators typically have a five year warranty and the Department wanted to ensure no school would be left without provision. To support schools, the Department has secured an eight year warranty and support package for the devices it is providing.
The Department’s defibrillator programme is targeted at schools. The Department will ensure defibrillators are available to over nine million pupils, visitors to schools and over 950,000 adults working in the school sector. NHS England, academic experts, and leading charities were all consulted in the development of the specification to ensure the device selected was suitable for both schools and communities. Each school will make the decision on whether to provide public use of their defibrillator. New guidance has been produced to support schools which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130210/Automated_External_Defibrillators_Guidance_jan_23.pdf.
The Department does not hold records on community provision of defibrillators. Over half of schools responded to the defibrillator survey, with approximately 60% of schools indicating they did not have a defibrillator or that their device was over four years old. The Department’s roll out is expected to be completed by the end of the 2022/23 academic year, ensuring that all state funded schools in England have access to a defibrillator. The latest information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement laid before both Houses on 20 January 2023, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-01-20/hcws506.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his answer of the 24 October to Written Question 63042, whether she plans to allocate new funding to train educational psychologists after 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
I refer the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam to the answer given on 24 October 2022 to Question 63042.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much capital funding her Department has provided for (a) specialist deaf units, (b) bases and (c) other deaf resource provisions for deaf children in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department does not hold all of the information requested. Available information on specific schools of interest can be found on the get information about schools service, which can be found at: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Revenue funding for such specialist facilities is allocated to local authorities through the high needs funding block of their dedicated schools grant. The department does not currently collect information on how much local authorities allocate in respect of the operation of specialist units.
The department does not provide capital funding for individual categories of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) need. Rather, alongside the department’s continued investment in new special and alternative provision (AP) free schools, we provide capital grants to local authorities to help support the delivery of new places and improvements to existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require AP.
In March 2022, the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. Prior to this, we also invested a total of £300 million HNPCA funding in the 2021/22 financial year and £365 million through the Special Provision Capital Fund from the 2018/19 financial year to the 2020/21 financial year. It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding to address their local priorities and they can use their grants to work with any school or institution in their area, including those that provide specialist deaf provision.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to specialist deaf units, bases for deaf children or deaf resource provisions in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department does not hold all of the information requested. Available information on specific schools of interest can be found on the get information about schools service, which can be found at: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Revenue funding for such specialist facilities is allocated to local authorities through the high needs funding block of their dedicated schools grant. The department does not currently collect information on how much local authorities allocate in respect of the operation of specialist units.
The department does not provide capital funding for individual categories of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) need. Rather, alongside the department’s continued investment in new special and alternative provision (AP) free schools, we provide capital grants to local authorities to help support the delivery of new places and improvements to existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require AP.
In March 2022, the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. Prior to this, we also invested a total of £300 million HNPCA funding in the 2021/22 financial year and £365 million through the Special Provision Capital Fund from the 2018/19 financial year to the 2020/21 financial year. It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding to address their local priorities and they can use their grants to work with any school or institution in their area, including those that provide specialist deaf provision.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have (a) specialist deaf units, (b) bases for deaf children and (c) deaf resource provisions in England as of 2 November 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department does not hold all of the information requested. Available information on specific schools of interest can be found on the get information about schools service, which can be found at: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Revenue funding for such specialist facilities is allocated to local authorities through the high needs funding block of their dedicated schools grant. The department does not currently collect information on how much local authorities allocate in respect of the operation of specialist units.
The department does not provide capital funding for individual categories of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) need. Rather, alongside the department’s continued investment in new special and alternative provision (AP) free schools, we provide capital grants to local authorities to help support the delivery of new places and improvements to existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require AP.
In March 2022, the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. Prior to this, we also invested a total of £300 million HNPCA funding in the 2021/22 financial year and £365 million through the Special Provision Capital Fund from the 2018/19 financial year to the 2020/21 financial year. It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding to address their local priorities and they can use their grants to work with any school or institution in their area, including those that provide specialist deaf provision.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what new funding for training of educational psychologists will be allocated by his Department after 2022.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
In February 2022, the department announced a further £10 million investment to train over 200 more educational psychologists. Their training will commence in September 2023, and they will graduate in 2026.
In March 2022, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Green Paper, detailing our proposals for an inclusive education system to ensure that all children and young people have timely access to specialist services and support. Consultation on these proposals closed in July, and the department is currently reviewing these responses in preparation for the publication of our SEND implementation plan.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report of the Independent Review of children's social care published on 23 May 2022, if he will meet with the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam and Barnardo's to discuss (a) prioritising early intervention in children's social services and (b) improving outcomes for children in the care system.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department will be publishing a detailed and ambitious implementation strategy in due course, which will set out our approach to reforming children’s social care. We thank Barnardo’s for their ongoing engagement on children’s social care reform with officials in the department and welcome the opportunity to meet with the hon. Member for Sheffield Hallam and Barnardo’s later this year, following the publication of the implementation strategy.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report of the Independent Review of children's social care published on 23 May 2022, whether the Department for Education will take steps to prioritise listening to care-experienced young people in implementing the sections of that report which relate to its work.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department is continuing to listen to the views of care experienced individuals as part of its response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Three individuals with experience of the children’s social care system will sit on the National Implementation Board and provide advice and challenge on the government’s overall plan to reform children’s social care. The department is also committed to hearing from care experienced individuals on specific policy areas including on a new National Framework for Children’s Social Care.