Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 96 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, how much of the £4.7 billion increase to school funding he plans to allocate to public sector compensation for employer costs of the Health and Social Care Levy.
Answered by Robin Walker
As announced at the 2021 Spending Review, we are continuing to deliver year on year, real terms per pupil increases to school funding, investing a further £4.7 billion in the core school budget by financial year 2024-25 compared to previous plans. Overall, this is equivalent to a cash increase of £1,500 per pupil by financial year 2024-25 compared to financial year 2019-20.
The settlement includes a further £1.6 billion in financial year 2022-23, over financial year 2021-22 levels, on top of the £2.4 billion increase already announced as part of the 2019 spending round. This additional funding will help the school sector respond to the pressures we know they are facing, and includes £0.3 billion of funding for the public sector compensation for employer costs of the Health and Social Care Levy in each year of the Spending Review. We will make announcements on how the additional £1.6 billion of funding for financial year 2022-23 will be distributed in due course.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department his made of the differential impact of increases to per pupil funding, as announced on 27 October 2021, between the (a) most deprived and (b) least deprived fifth of schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Autumn 2021 Spending Review delivers an additional £4.7 billion for the core schools budget by financial year 2024-25, compared to previous plans. That includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in financial year 2022-23, on top of the funding we have previously announced. The department will confirm in due course how this additional funding for financial year 2022-23, and for the two subsequent years, will be allocated for schools and high needs.
In summer 2021 the department announced that, next year, funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF) is increasing by 3.2% overall, and by 2.8% per pupil, compared to financial year 2021-22. The NFF continues to distribute this fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. The NFF is levelling up school funding by increasing core factors of the formula (such as the basic per-pupil funding rate, and deprivation factors) by 3%, while also ensuring that every school is allocated at least 2% more pupil-led per pupil funding. As part of that increase, the amount allocated towards deprivation in the financial year 2022-23 NFF is increasing by £225 million, or 6.7%, compared to financial year 2021-22.
The NFF targets funding to schools which have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In the 2022-23 financial year, the NFF is providing a total of £6.7 billion (17%) targeted at schools with higher numbers of pupils with additional needs, including deprivation. In addition, the department is allocating £2.5 billion in financial year 2021-22 through the pupil premium, to support schools to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Allocations for the pupil premium in 2022-23 will be made in March 2022.
This funding is in addition to the three major interventions we have made to support education recovery in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the 2021 Spending Review provided an additional £1 billion for a Recovery Premium over the academic years of 2022/23 and 2023/24. Both the Recovery Premium and the National Tutoring Programme (which we have committed £1.2 billion since June 2020, including £579 million paid directly to schools to employ new or existing school staff as tutors), are directing funding based pupil premium eligibility figures, to ensure appropriate funding reaches schools facing the greatest challenges.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children took part in the Holiday Activities and Food programme in the 2021 summer holidays in (a) total and (b) each local authority in England.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities were asked to send reports to the department by 15 October 2021, including detailed information on their delivery of the programme to date. The department is now examining these detailed individual reports and may need to clarify information with local authorities in some cases. The department will then consider the best way to share information on the programme. The department has also commissioned Ecorys UK to conduct an external evaluation of the programme. Fieldwork has taken place during and shortly after this year’s summer holidays, and we expect to publish findings in the new year.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) academies and (b) free schools have negotiated recognition agreements with teaching unions.
Answered by Robin Walker
The information requested is not held centrally.
The department does not collect data on academies or free schools who have negotiated recognition agreements with teaching unions.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to publish the results of his Department's trial of air purifiers in Bradford schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
The trial of air purifiers is funded by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), who are contracting the trial management to Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust via their Centre for Applied Educational Research programme.
The full results of the study are expected in October 2022, but it is anticipated that an interim report on the feasibility of using air cleaners (HEPA and UV-C devices) in a school setting will be available early in 2022.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools received their full allocation of CO2 monitors by the end of the autumn 2021 term.
Answered by Robin Walker
The CO2 monitor roll out began in September across special schools and alternative provision, who were prioritised to receive their monitors first given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils. These settings have now received their full allocation of monitors. Monitors are now being dispatched to all schools and other eligible settings over the remainder of the autumn term. The roll out is on track, and we expect all eligible settings to have received their monitors by the end of the autumn term.
The department will begin publishing delivery data from 4 November. The first publication will cover all deliveries up to 25 October.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many CO2 monitors were distributed to schools by the end of the autumn 2021 term (a) nationally, (b) regionally and (c) by local authority.
Answered by Robin Walker
The CO2 monitor roll out began in September across special schools and alternative provision, who were prioritised to receive their monitors first given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils. These settings have now received their full allocation of monitors. Monitors are now being dispatched to all schools and other eligible settings over the remainder of the autumn term. The roll out is on track, and we expect all eligible settings to have received their monitors by the end of the autumn term.
The department will begin publishing delivery data from 4 November. The first publication will cover all deliveries up to 25 October.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the rate of school exclusions has been in (a) local authority maintained schools and (b) academies in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robin Walker
The requested data is in the attached table. Rates of permanent exclusion and suspension for local authority maintained schools and academies are affected by the mix of schools in each group. Comparisons across years are affected by the increasing numbers of academy schools.