Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the long-term economic merits of supporting children to have a safe, happy and healthy childhood.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department’s vision is to provide world-class education, training and care to make sure that everyone has the chance to reach their potential and live a more fulfilled life. This will create a more productive economy, so that our country is fit for the future.
For example, one of the department’s priorities is to improve our understanding of child wellbeing and happiness. Beginning in 2019, the government will publish a State of the Nation report every year on World Mental Health Day. This report will highlight the trends and issues in young people’s mental well-being - the first time children’s mental health will be reported in this way, alongside their physical health and academic attainment. The government will also provide tools to help schools measure their students’ health, including their mental wellbeing - building on the commitment to make education in mental health and resilience a compulsory part of the curriculum. Further information on these announcements can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-pledges-action-on-suicide-to-mark-world-mental-health-day.
The department has also announced it is developing an activity passport - a template intended to provide ideas to schools to support their efforts to encourage young people to try a wider range of activities and develop new interests.
Further details on how the department will ensure that education builds character, resilience and well-being is provided in our single departmental plan, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-single-departmental-plan/may-2018-department-for-education-single-departmental-plan.
Nothing is more important than safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. This is why we have strengthened local safeguarding arrangements through the Children and Social Work Act (2017) by placing a duty on the safeguarding partners, - the police, health and the local authority - to work together to make plans to keep children safe. As part of this we have consulted on and updated the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ statutory guidance.
All children deserve a safe environment in which they can learn and schools and colleges are under a legislative duty to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils. We recently consulted on and strengthened the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, statutory guidance for schools. We also provide a range of advice documents to support schools and colleges to keep their children safe, including sexual harassment and sexual violence advice, bullying advice and behaviour advice.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) male and (b) female social workers were employed in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department only collects the numbers of child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England. Data on the gender of social workers was only collected on a mandatory basis for the first time in 2017. Therefore, there is only one year of data available on the gender of child and family social workers.
The figures that are available can be found in the ‘Children’s social work workforce’ publication. This can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-work-workforce-2017.
As of 30 September 2017, 26,310 females and 4,360 males were employed as child and family social workers by local authorities in England.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the main policy priority is for his Department for 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department published an updated Single Departmental Plan on 23 May 2018. This set out the department’s main policy objectives and how it will achieve them. Single Departmental Plans will be revised annually to reflect new priorities or changes in responsibilities.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many contractors have been employed by his Department for (a) up to one year, (b) between one and five years, (c) between five and 10 years and (d) over 10 years.
Answered by Anne Milton
We do not hold the data in the format that has been requested.
We are able to provide the Department for Education’s data in relation to off-roll payroll engagements as of 31 March 2018, which are in excess of £245 per day and last longer than a six month period. This information has been provided within the attached table.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many contractors currently employed by his Department are paid £1,000 or more per day.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Department for Education does not have any contractors currently under contract that are paid £1000 or more per day.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the job titles are of civil servants in his Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver.
Answered by Anne Milton
There are no civil servants in the Department for Education who have been provided with an official car or a driver.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which regulations his Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department introduced The Education (School Teachers’ Qualifications and Induction Arrangements and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators) (Amendment) Regulations 2016, which came into force on 17 November 2016.
These regulations give effect to the requirement to allow partial access to the teaching profession (partial Qualified Teacher Status) by reference to the relevant provisions in the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/2059).
The department anticipate negligible costs associated with these changes.
The department introduced the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1094) which came into force in December 2016.
The purpose of this legislation was to ensure the requirements of the revised Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (MRPQ) Directive 2005/36/EC (PQD) were met. This Statutory Instrument added three early years professions to the main MRPQ implementing regulations, allowing for the mutual recognition of these qualifications within the European Union.
There are currently no direct costs to the private sector or public purse as a result of these regulations.
Should any subsequent changes be required to the MRPQ regulations, the department will accordingly amend its regulations to reflect the necessary changes
.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Active Movement programme on exam results in participating schools.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government recognises the value of physical activity for pupils. Schools have the freedom to decide which programmes they wish to adopt to suit their pupils.
Active Movement Limited is a private company and the department has not made any assessment of the programme on exam achievement levels.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of her Department's staff had a pay increase (a) above, (b) at and (c) less than one per cent in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
All departmental pay awards have been applied in accordance with HMT pay guidance that restricts increases to an average of one per cent across all staff. Over the last three years, the department has targeted awards so that lower paid staff receive higher awards than those at the top of pay grades.
The table below shows the number of employees of the Department for Education who received a pay increase a) above, (b) at and (c) less than one per cent for each of the last three years.
Pay Award Year | Above 1% | 1% | Below 1% |
2017/18 | 3611 | 989 | 721 |
2016/17 | 2405 | 926 | 194 |
2015/16 | 2302 | 699 | 492 |
These figures include staff in post on the 31 March each year and exclude people that joined during the financial year (i.e. the pay awards for staff in post on 31 March 2017 are included in the 2017/18 figures).
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers have been disciplined under section 406 of the Education Act 1996 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Decisions on whether to discipline teachers are a matter for their employers.
The Department does not, therefore, hold any data on how many teachers are subject to disciplinary proceedings.