Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to assist key workers affected by long covid who are threatened with losing their homes due to their condition.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
A range of financial and welfare support is available to support key workers affected by chronic healthcare conditions, including those experiencing post COVID-19 syndrome.
Information on where to seek help and support is available on the GOV.UK website at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-help-and-support-if-you-have-long-covid
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Law Commission will commence its review of legislation relating to museum collections.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Law Commission proposed a law reform project on museum collections as part of its 13th Programme of Law Reform, published on 13 December 2017. The project has yet to begin, but the Commission remains committed to the work and will commence the project as soon as resources allow.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of children who have been supported by the SAFE Taskforce since 2021; and if she will make an assessment of the impact of those Taskforces on (a) pupils’ attendance, (b) exclusion rates and (c) pupils' attitudes to education.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Since commencing, in December 2021, the SAFE (‘Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed’) taskforces have established a local partnership led by schools, completed a comprehensive strategic needs assessment and begun delivery including interventions to support secondary school transition.
The department does not yet hold data on the number of young people who have been supported by the SAFE taskforces, but the taskforces will be collecting data on the pupils receiving support on a termly basis, as part of the independent evaluation.
RAND Europe, in consortium with FFT Datalab and University of Westminster, have been commissioned by the Youth Endowment Fund to conduct the evaluation of the SAFE programme. The programme evaluation, due to be completed by summer 2026, will include an impact evaluation element, along with a process and cost evaluation strand. The department expects the impact assessment to consider the impact of the programme on pupils’ post-16 outcomes, school attendance and behaviour, and involvement in serious youth violence.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the attendance mentoring pilot commenced; how much her Department has spent on that pilot since it commenced; how many children in the pilot area have been supported through that scheme; and whether she plans to take steps to re-engage severely absent children outside of the pilot area.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department launched a £2.32 million attendance mentoring pilot on 20 October 2022 to deliver one-to-one support to a group of persistently absent pupils and their families. The support will start in Middlesborough, one of the Department's priority education investment areas (PEIAs). In the first year, 335 pupils will be supported. The pilot will be rolled out to an additional four PEIAs in its second and third years.
Barnardo’s, the delivery partner for this contract, have now completed their recruitment and training. Mentoring support for pupils will begin later this month. The evidence gathered from this pilot will be shared with the sector and should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent absence more effectively.
In May 2022, the Department published attendance guidance, which sets out an expectation that schools and Local Authorities should agree a joint approach and plan to support every severely absent pupil. This expectation will work alongside the mentoring pilot to provide targeted support for persistently absent pupils.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle higher than average persistent absence rates in the Education Investment Areas.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In all 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), the Department is taking steps to support underperforming schools to make necessary improvements. 24 of the areas were given priority status as Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs). PEIAs will have access to more intensive support, on top of the significant support available to all EIAs.
Attendance has been identified as one of the key issues to address in many of the PEIAs. The Department is working closely with schools, trusts, Local Authorities and other partners to address the specific issues in each area through the local area needs funding. An attendance adviser from the Department has been assigned to support every Local Authority in a PEIA. The Department is looking at how local plans build on this work. Local attendance action alliances will also be piloted in several PEIAs to share best practice and address area wide challenges.
The Department will track the progress of these and other initiatives in the PEIAs to gauge their impact on improving attendance.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have (a) been offered and (b) accepted use of an attendance advisor; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of attendance advisors in reducing persistent absence from schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Over the next two years, attendance adviser support will be offered to every Local Authority in the country. Advisers work closely with Local Authorities to ensure that they are fully implementing the key expectations in the Department’s new attendance guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.
This includes supporting Local Authorities to make effective use of their attendance data to develop a local strategy, putting in place effective multi-agency support for families to address attendance barriers, and meeting with all schools on a termly basis to discuss and agree support for any persistently absent pupils.
Attendance adviser support has also been offered this year to 24 multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence across their schools. These trusts are responsible for 226 schools in total.
The Department continues to assess the effectiveness of the attendance adviser initiative by monitoring the progress of Local Authorities and trusts in implementing the action plans that they have developed with their adviser to reduce absence. School attendance data continues to be published regularly by the Department in the usual way.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many exclusions of (a) SEN and (b) other pupils there were in schools in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes figures from the school census on permanent exclusions and suspensions from state funded schools in England. The latest full academic year figures are for the 2020/21 academic year and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england/2020-21.
The attached Excel spreadsheet gives the number of permanent exclusions and suspensions for pupils with and without special educational needs at state funded schools in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency between the 2018/19 and 2020/21 academic years.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he will respond to correspondence of 18 October 2022 from the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys on behalf of a constituent on duplicate VAT invoicing.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
I would like to reassure the hon. Member that I have responded to this letter on 19 January 2023.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will respond to correspondence of 18 October 2022 from the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys on the impact of rising energy prices on vulnerable individuals in assisted living facilities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member on the 17 November 2022.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what independent reports have been commissioned by her Department since December 2019.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.