Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral statement of 18 March 2020, what steps he is taking to ensure that children and young people whose educational institution is closed are able to access mental health services provided through those institutions.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department is working with NHS England and Public Health England who are providing guidance on seeking mental health support, including guidance for parents and carers of children and young people on addressing mental health and wellbeing concerns during the COVID-19 outbreak. Where in place, mental health support teams are also actively considering how they continue to deliver a service to support children and young people.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support children with special educational needs and disabilities but who do not have an Education, Health and Care plan when schools are closed.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are working closely with colleagues across government to ensure that all appropriate arrangements and support are in place for all the department’s sectors, from the early years and childcare to schools and children’s social care, and for vulnerable groups including children with special educational needs.
We understand that parents will be worried about continued provision for their children with special educational needs while schools are closed. Local authorities, schools and colleges, together with parents, should assess the risks to children and young people with Education, Health and Care plans (EHC plans) to judge whether they can be safely cared for at home or whether it is safer for them to remain at school or college. Local authorities and education settings have discretion to do a similar risk assessment for any individual children and young people who do not have an EHC plan but who have complex needs that could mean it is safer for them to be at school or college than at home. Guidance to help parents understand the changes, including information on vulnerable children can be found at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprentices have (a) undergraduate and (b) master’s degrees, by apprenticeship level.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The department does not collect robust data on the prior attainment of learners on apprenticeship programmes and whether they hold undergraduate or masters degrees.
We are committed to ensuring all apprenticeship standards deliver value for money, meet the skills needs of employers and help individuals acquire the skills they need to get ahead.
The apprenticeship funding rules require training providers to undertake an assessment of prior learning. This is to determine whether an individual needs to do an apprenticeship that lasts a minimum of 12 months and requires at least 20 per cent off-the-job training, and to ensure that every apprenticeship leads to the acquisition of new skills, knowledge and behaviours.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) is responsible for working with employer trailblazer groups to design and approve apprenticeships standards; this includes deciding which qualifications may be included in standards, and whether those qualifications should be funded by government as part of the apprenticeship.
To ensure that high-quality apprenticeships are available to learners, the Institute reviews standards on an ongoing basis. It is currently reviewing the Level 7 Senior Leader standard, which may include a MBA qualification, to ensure that it meets the current policy intent and provides value for money.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times he has used his power to direct academies in (a) Edgbaston constituency, (b) the West Midlands and (c) Birmingham to accept looked-after children in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities of all schools to prioritise looked-after children and previously looked-after children in their admissions criteria. Academies, trusts and local authorities work together at a local level to prioritise the admission of looked-after children. As a last resort, a local authority can request a direction for the academy to admit a looked after child from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, via the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
ESFA has collected and recorded data on such directions since March 2017. Since then, no such directions have been issued to an academy in the Edgbaston constituency. In the West Midlands as a whole, two such directions have been issued, one of which was in Birmingham.
Published guidance on academy admissions can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-admissions.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to introduce a new funding round for the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Since 2014, we have invested £200 million in the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme to give local authorities and children’s social care organisations the permission, funding and support to test ways of doing things differently and to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.
We are committed to supporting innovation and want to make sure we use funding available in 2020-21 to learn from the current projects showing most promise. We are looking at how we can best spread learning to other areas, including considering the evaluations of projects which report in the coming months. We are in discussions with projects and hope to announce next steps shortly.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of contextual safeguarding.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Through the children’s social care Innovation Programme, the Department for Education is funding the London Borough of Hackney up to £2 million to test “contextual safeguarding theory”. This approach creates a system in which practitioners can appropriately assess and intervene when risk of harm comes from beyond an adolescent’s family. The project is being externally evaluated and we expect the final report in March 2020.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recommendations in the report by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) of 12 November 2019, entitled About Time: Life as a middle leader; and what discussions he has had with the NAHT on that report.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I refer the hon. Member for Birmingham Edgbaston to the answer I gave on 8 January 2020 to Question 179.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to invest in continuing professional development for middle leaders in schools, as recommended in the National Association of Head Teachers' report of 12 November 2019, entitled About Time: Life as a middle leader.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has put in place a range of measures to support middle leaders, including those that address the recommendations of the National Association of Head Teachers report.
Improvements to National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), including the NPQ for middle leadership, for aspiring and serving middle leaders, have been well received by the profession. NPQ scholarships target funding towards the professional development of primary and secondary middle leaders in the country’s most challenging schools. The Department is also currently developing new specialist NPQs to support and promote career pathways beyond traditional leadership routes that can enable teachers and leaders to progress and excel in specialist areas. The Department is working closely with the sector on the design of these new qualifications and will release further details in due course.
The Department wants to continue to strengthen support for those already in middle-leadership roles through collaboration with the profession. For example, the High Potential Middle Leaders programme (branded Expert Middle Leaders) targets funding towards accelerating the professional development of primary and secondary middle leaders in the country’s most challenging schools, to enable them to raise attainment within their schools and develop their potential for senior leadership.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings and recommendations of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) report entitled About time: life as a middle leader, published in November 2019; and what discussions he has had with representatives of the NAHT on that report.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has put in place a range of measures to support middle leaders, and which address the findings raised in the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) report. Ministers and officials regularly engage with NAHT on issues relating to school leadership.
Improvements to National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), including for middle leaders, have been well received by the profession. NPQ scholarships and our High-Potential Middle Leaders Programme target funding towards the professional development of primary and secondary middle leaders in the country’s most challenging schools. The Department is currently developing new specialist NPQs to support and promote career pathways beyond traditional leadership routes that can enable teachers and leaders to progress and excel in specialist areas. The Department is working closely with the sector on the design of these new qualifications and will release further details in due course.
The Teacher Workload Survey 2019 indicated there has been a reduction in the reported working hours for teachers and middle and senior leaders of five hours per week over the past three years, largely in the areas targeted through our recently updated workload-reduction toolkit. The Teacher Workload Survey 2019 is available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842053/teacher_workload_survey_2019_report.pdf.
We are committed, as set out in a joint letter with the sector published in November 2018, to support school leaders to identify and reduce unnecessary workload in their schools, and to undertake further work ourselves to reduce the pressures on schools and so enable teachers and leaders at all levels to improve their work–life balance and focus on their development. The Department published the 2019 Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy last year, which was developed with teachers, education unions and leading professional bodies, to focus reform and investment on helping school leaders establish more supportive school cultures and on promoting flexible working.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2019 to Question 284 on Private Education: West Midlands, how many applications for the cross-sector partnerships grant there have been for (a) independent school-non-selective state school partnerships and (b) independent school-selective state school partnerships.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The total planned value of the cross-sector partnerships grant is £219,500.
The Department is currently inviting bids and schools have been asked to submit proposals by 3pm on 29 November 2019.
As the bidding window is still open, the Department is unable to publish the number or type of applications received. Future decisions about the award of the grant will be taken by ministers post-election.