Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many service sector apprenticeships were available in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support service sector apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing (a) financial grants, (b) interest free and (c) lower interest loans to students in the context of rises in the cost of living.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government recognises the cost of living pressures that are impacting students. The department has made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support students who need additional help to succeed, including disadvantaged students.
We have continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year, with a 2.3% increase for the 2022/23 academic year, and a further 2.8% increase for 2023/24. In addition, students eligible for benefits, such as those who are responsible for a child, qualify for higher rates of loans to help them with their living costs at university.
Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the 2022/23 tax year has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, have been able to apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
The government has no plans to reintroduce maintenance grants, as it believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. In 2022, we had record numbers of 18-year-olds going to university, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. An English 18-year-old from a disadvantaged background today is 86% more likely to go to university than in 2010.
The student funding system must provide value for money for all at a time of rising costs. It is important that a sustainable student finance system is in place, that is fair to both students and taxpayers. Interest is an important part of this. If interest payments were removed altogether, it would increase the burden to taxpayers, not all of whom will attend university. The government does not plan to further reduce interest rates on student loans. In 2022/23, student loan interest reduced public sector net debt by around £4.8 billion according to published data from the Spring 2023 Office for Budget Responsibility Economic Outlook.
Student loans are different to commercial personal loans. Monthly student loan repayments are calculated by income rather than by interest rates or the amount borrowed. No borrower will be repaying more per month as a result of changes to interest rates. Borrowers are protected. If income is below the relevant repayment threshold, or a borrower is not earning, repayments stop. Any outstanding loan balance, including interest accrued, is written off after the loan term ends, or in case of death or disability, at no detriment to the borrower. Student loans are subsidised by the taxpayer, and the government does not make a profit from the loan scheme.
To further protect borrowers, where the government considers that the student loan interest rate is too high in comparison to the prevailing market rate, it will reduce the maximum Plan 2, Plan 3 and Plan 5 interest rate by applying a cap.
New students who start courses on or after 1 August 2023 will receive their loans on new Plan 5 terms. Students with Plan 5 loans will benefit from a reduction in the interest rate to Retail Price Index only. This change ensures that borrowers on the new Plan 5 terms will not repay more than they originally borrowed over the lifetime of their loans, when adjusted for inflation.
Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional support her Department is providing in the educational setting to children and young people housed in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department’s guidance on school attendance sets out clear expectations of schools, trusts and local authorities in relation to improving school attendance. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. This guidance recognises that issues with housing (such as being in temporary accommodation) can impact on children’s ability to attend school regularly, and highlights the importance of effective multi-disciplinary support for the family to address attendance problems where that is the case.
The government provides a range of help to schools to support disadvantaged pupils, which may include those in temporary accommodation. The Pupil Premium, rising to around £2.9 billion next financial year, is supporting schools to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. School leaders use this extra funding to tailor support, based on the needs of their disadvantaged pupils, and to invest in proven practices that improve outcomes. Currently 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged children are eligible for and claiming a free nutritious meal. In addition, the government is committed to continuing support for school breakfasts. In November 2022, the department extended the National School Breakfast Programme for an additional year until the end of the summer term in 2024.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department issues guidance to school leadership teams on supporting children housed in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department’s guidance on school attendance sets out clear expectations of schools, trusts and local authorities in relation to improving school attendance. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. This guidance recognises that issues with housing (such as being in temporary accommodation) can impact on children’s ability to attend school regularly, and highlights the importance of effective multi-disciplinary support for the family to address attendance problems where that is the case.
The government provides a range of help to schools to support disadvantaged pupils, which may include those in temporary accommodation. The Pupil Premium, rising to around £2.9 billion next financial year, is supporting schools to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. School leaders use this extra funding to tailor support, based on the needs of their disadvantaged pupils, and to invest in proven practices that improve outcomes. Currently 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged children are eligible for and claiming a free nutritious meal. In addition, the government is committed to continuing support for school breakfasts. In November 2022, the department extended the National School Breakfast Programme for an additional year until the end of the summer term in 2024.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to provide funding for mental health services for children in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
While it is not for schools to provide clinical mental health services and teachers should not be expected to diagnose or treat mental health, schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support to put in place to support their pupils.
To help schools to make informed decisions on what support to provide, the department is funding all schools and colleges in England to train senior mental health leads who can put in place effective whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. This includes how to ensure they are including robust processes for identifying students or specific groups who need additional mental health support. Two thirds of schools and colleges will have been able to access funding by April 2023, backed by a £10 million investment for the 2022/23 financial year. The department is also providing over £1 billion Recovery Premium funding for schools for the 2021/22 and 2023/24 academic years which, on top of pupil premium, can be used to support pupil mental health and wellbeing, including providing counselling services.
The department is working with the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England to increase the number of Mental Health Support Teams working in schools and colleges. These teams offer support to children and young people experiencing common mental health issues and facilitate smoother access to external specialist support. As of Spring 2022, there are 287 Mental Health Support Teams covering 26% of pupils in schools and learners in further education. More teams are on the way, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of child mental health provision in (a) primary and (b) secondary school settings.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
I refer the hon. Member for Liverpool Wavertree to the answer I gave on 25 January 2023 to Question 126752.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the level of school holiday hunger; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to local authorities to help tackle school holiday hunger.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is investing over £200 million a year in our holiday activities and food (HAF) programme. Delivered through grants to local authorities across England, HAF provides free holiday club places to children from low-income families, providing them with enriching activities and healthy meals over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.
Last summer, the department reached over 685,000 children and young people in England, including over 475,000 children eligible for free school meals.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Waste Management Policy of schools in England; and if she will make an estimate of the number of schools that have policies in place to ensure that waste materials are recycled.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not currently collect data on waste management policies of schools in England. Due to the different services provided for recycling by Local Authorities, it is not possible to provide a national estimate.
In the sustainability and climate change strategy for the education system, the Department has set out its commitment to supporting schools to align with the Resources and Waste Strategy to reduce all waste, moving away from single use items and towards re-usable alternatives, wherever possible.
The Department will be supporting schools to establish climate action plans, which will set out the action they will take to enable greater sustainability in how their school operates, including waste management.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has plans to guarantee places in higher education settings for disadvantaged students.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Access to higher education (HE) should be based on a student’s attainment and their ability to succeed, rather than their background.
In November 2021, the department issued guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) to refocus the Access and Participation Regime. We asked them to create a system that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by ensuring students can make the right choices, accessing and succeeding on high-quality courses which are valued by employers and lead to good graduate employment. We have appointed John Blake as Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS, and he will play a pivotal role in driving this work forward.
It is very important that providers focus on supporting students to see good outcomes, not just getting more disadvantaged students through the door, this will ensure that HE remains an engine of true social mobility. We know that prior attainment is a key determinant of successful participation in HE, and that is why we are asking universities to take on a more direct role in driving up the standards in schools.
The department also recently consulted on the design of a new National State Scholarship, worth up to £75 million, which will help the highest achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds overcome barriers to attending and succeeding on the course that is right for them.
Ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access a world-class education remains a top priority, and we expect universities to do all they can to help disadvantaged students. This year, more students from disadvantaged backgrounds went to university than ever before.