Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of funds raised from the apprenticeship levy have remained unspent within the two year threshold in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government introduced the apprenticeship levy to incentivise larger businesses to develop and invest in their own apprenticeship programmes whilst ensuring the availability of funding for smaller employers wanting to offer apprenticeships. Through the levy, the government is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes build their workforces. As the apprenticeships levy is UK wide, income from the levy also supports the Devolved Administrations to invest in their skills programmes.
In England, employers can use their levy contributions to fund apprenticeships in their own business or transfer their funds to other businesses in their supply chain, sector or region. Funds that levy payers do not draw on is used to fund apprenticeships in small and medium sized businesses. Levy payers are not expected to use all funds available to them, though they are able to do so.
The table below shows the number of registered employer apprenticeship service accounts that utilised all their funds available, as well as the number that did not, in each financial year since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017.
FY | Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that utilised all funds available | Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that did not utilise all their funds available and therefore had expired funds |
2017/18 | 5650 | 7570 |
2018/19 | 5030 | 10660 |
2019/20 | 4930 | 11960 |
2020/21 | 5210 | 12230 |
2021/22 | 6790 | 11920 |
Please note that:
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the apprenticeships budget which funds apprenticeships for employers of all sizes. On average, 98% of the apprenticeships budget has been spent in the last two financial years. Spend for the 2023/24 financial year, and for future years, will be set out in the department’s annual report and accounts which will be published when available. The apprenticeships budget beyond 2024/25 will be determined at the next Spending Review.
With regard to allowing levy-paying employers to spend funds on non-apprenticeship training schemes and courses, I refer my right hon. Friend, the Member for Witham to the answer I gave on 10 November 2023 to Question 614.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to increase the number of courses and training schemes that are eligible to be funded through the resources available to employers raised through the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government introduced the apprenticeship levy to incentivise larger businesses to develop and invest in their own apprenticeship programmes whilst ensuring the availability of funding for smaller employers wanting to offer apprenticeships. Through the levy, the government is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes build their workforces. As the apprenticeships levy is UK wide, income from the levy also supports the Devolved Administrations to invest in their skills programmes.
In England, employers can use their levy contributions to fund apprenticeships in their own business or transfer their funds to other businesses in their supply chain, sector or region. Funds that levy payers do not draw on is used to fund apprenticeships in small and medium sized businesses. Levy payers are not expected to use all funds available to them, though they are able to do so.
The table below shows the number of registered employer apprenticeship service accounts that utilised all their funds available, as well as the number that did not, in each financial year since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017.
FY | Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that utilised all funds available | Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that did not utilise all their funds available and therefore had expired funds |
2017/18 | 5650 | 7570 |
2018/19 | 5030 | 10660 |
2019/20 | 4930 | 11960 |
2020/21 | 5210 | 12230 |
2021/22 | 6790 | 11920 |
Please note that:
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the apprenticeships budget which funds apprenticeships for employers of all sizes. On average, 98% of the apprenticeships budget has been spent in the last two financial years. Spend for the 2023/24 financial year, and for future years, will be set out in the department’s annual report and accounts which will be published when available. The apprenticeships budget beyond 2024/25 will be determined at the next Spending Review.
With regard to allowing levy-paying employers to spend funds on non-apprenticeship training schemes and courses, I refer my right hon. Friend, the Member for Witham to the answer I gave on 10 November 2023 to Question 614.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the (a) amount raised through the apprenticeship levy and (b) number of apprenticeship levy service accounts in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The apprenticeship levy is a key part of the government’s reforms to the apprenticeship system and enables employers of all sizes to make a long-term, sustainable and high-quality investment in training. Monthly receipts data for the apprenticeship levy is published by HM Revenue and Customs in their tax and national insurance contributions receipts publication, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The table below shows the total number of levy-paying employer accounts created on the apprenticeship service in each financial yearsince its introduction in the 2016/17 financial year. It is pleasing to see annual increases in the number of levy-paying employers registering an account on the apprenticeship service.
FY | New accounts created | Total accounts (cumulative) |
2016/17 | 4,630 | 4,630 |
2017/18 | 8,640 | 13,270 |
2018/19 | 2,970 | 16,240 |
2019/20 | 2,030 | 18,270 |
2020/21 | 1,870 | 20,140 |
2021/22 | 1,920 | 22,060 |
2022/23 | 1,280 | 23,340 |
2023/24 | 750 | 24,090 |
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to inspect multi academy trusts.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Academy trusts are held to high standards of governance and transparency, as companies, charities, and public sector bodies.
Ofsted inspection takes place at the level of each individual school within a trust, which provides accountability and transparency for parents around the education their child receives. At the trust level, the department has a broader framework of accountability, which both looks at the performance of their schools, and focuses on high standards of governance and financial management, while also recognising that trusts operate on very different models and in different contexts.
In July, the department published a new framework for commissioning multi-academy trusts. The framework provides descriptions of what the department expects of high-quality trusts and sets out the evidence Regional Directors will use when making decisions to place a school with a trust. It represents an ambitious vision for the academies sector, and a driver of high standards.
The department’s regional directors and their teams, together with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), provide robust educational and financial oversight of all academy trusts.
Where non-financial or financial non-compliance or governance failure is identified, Regions Group or the ESFA respectively will intervene, in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves education provision. This can include issuing a trust with a notice to improve or, in the most serious cases, termination of the funding agreement.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Education, Health and Care Plans have been agreed in each local authority area in each year since 2014; and if she will make an estimate of the number of plans that will be agreed in each local authority area in each of the next five years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans in each Local Authority area is set out in published statistics, which are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/150da0a4-2fef-4836-8c12-08dbe514ee42.
The department does not make estimates of the number of plans in each Local Authority area for the next five years. However, in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, the department set out its proposals for EHC plans reform, including to develop reformed templates and guidance to deliver a nationally consistent EHC plan process. The department’s proposed reforms aim to improve the system and ensure that children and young people who require an EHC plan get access to the support they need.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department plans to provide to (a) schools, (b) academy trusts and (c) Essex County Council to support pupils with special educational needs in each of the next three years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department provides funding for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to local authorities through their dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations.
In respect of mainstream schools, local authorities are required by regulations to identify, for each of the mainstream schools in their area, an amount (sometimes referred to as a notional budget) within their overall budget, which helps the school understand what may be required to meet the additional cost of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), up to £6,000 a year per pupil.
During the 2023/24 financial year the department has provided local authorities’ DSG allocations totalling £42.9 billion for their mainstream schools. Of this amount, local authorities have identified notional SEN budgets for their schools amounting to a total of £4.9 billion.
Essex County Council has been allocated £1.1 billion for mainstream schools in its area, of which it has identified £160.7 million in total as the amount that schools might need for their pupils with SEN.
When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This funding comes from the authority’s high needs budget. This may follow a statutory assessment producing an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan, though local authorities have the discretion to provide top-up funding to pupils without an EHC plan.
Local authorities are also allocated high needs funding through their DSG. Of the total high needs budget of over £10.1 billion nationally, the great majority of which is allocated to local authorities in England, Essex County Council has been allocated high needs funding amounting to £227 million in the 2023/24 financial year for securing provision for those with complex needs.
High needs funding is increasing in the 2024/25 financial year to a total of over £10.5 billion, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. We have announced provisional 2024/25 high needs allocations for local authorities, and Essex County Council’s allocation is £240 million, which is an increase of 5% per head, and a cumulative 31% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
Local authorities have not yet determined how much of their DSG will be identified for schools' notional SEN budgets in future years. All allocations of school funding beyond 2024/25 will be subject to decisions by the government that have not yet been taken.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme on schools (a) in Witham constituency and (b) Essex.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are eligible for the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least 31 March 2023. This will protect schools from high energy costs and give them greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months. The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.
Schools are also being supported by cash increases to the core schools budget, including a £4 billion increase this financial year. Schools in Witham are attracting £61.7 million in total this financial year through the National Funding Formula (NFF), a 3.5% cash increase. This reflects 2.7% more per pupil in their pupil-led funding compared to the 2021/22 financial year. Schools’ actual allocations in the 2022/23 financial year will be based on local authorities’ local funding formulae. On top of this funding through the NFF, schools in Witham are seeing a further £1.8 million through the schools supplementary grant.
Through the dedicated schools grant and the schools supplementary grant for mainstream schools combined, Essex is seeing an extra £68.2 million for schools in the 2022/23 financial year, an increase of 5.8% per pupil, this per pupil funding increase excludes ‘growth’ funding. This takes total funding for the 2022/23 financial year in Essex to over £1.05 billion.
The Department knows that every school’s circumstances are different. Schools in serious financial difficulty should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to raise levels of literacy in Essex.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding. Building on the success of our phonics partnerships and phonics roadshows programmes, in 2018 the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. The Department has appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. Hub schools are taking a leading role in improving the teaching of early reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure.
There is a substantial body of evidence that shows that systematic phonics is the most effective method for teaching early reading. Reflecting this, the Department introduced the light touch phonics screening check for year 1 pupils in 2012. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, there were 163,000 more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.
The Department have appointed Myland Community Primary school as an English Hub in Colchester, and Elmhurst Primary School in Newham. Both of these hubs will work with schools in Essex to improve the teaching of early reading.
In 2016, new tests and frameworks for teacher assessment were brought in at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, following the introduction of a new, more challenging National Curriculum that set higher expected standards for reading, writing and mathematics. These changes mean that the expected standard from 2016 is higher and not comparable with the expected levels used in previous years' statistics. It is not possible to make direct comparisons between the results before and after the changes in 2016.
The number and percentage of state-funded pupils, at the end of Key Stage 1, 2 and 4, who did not achieve the expected level of literacy[1] in Witham, Essex and England are in the attached tables. Figures relate to academic years 2013/14 to 2017/18. The Department does not produce statistics for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, or the UK as a whole, and therefore these figures relate to England only.
[1] There is not a definitive definition of ‘expected level of literacy’ for each key stage. Figures have been provided for achievement in English, or English subjects, in the headline or additional measures that were used for that key stage, in each academic year.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils at the end of (a) Key Stage 1, (b) Key Stage 2 and (c) Key Stage 4 did not meet the expected level of literacy in (i) Witham constituency, (ii) Essex, and (iii) the UK in the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding. Building on the success of our phonics partnerships and phonics roadshows programmes, in 2018 the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. The Department has appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. Hub schools are taking a leading role in improving the teaching of early reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure.
There is a substantial body of evidence that shows that systematic phonics is the most effective method for teaching early reading. Reflecting this, the Department introduced the light touch phonics screening check for year 1 pupils in 2012. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, there were 163,000 more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.
The Department have appointed Myland Community Primary school as an English Hub in Colchester, and Elmhurst Primary School in Newham. Both of these hubs will work with schools in Essex to improve the teaching of early reading.
In 2016, new tests and frameworks for teacher assessment were brought in at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, following the introduction of a new, more challenging National Curriculum that set higher expected standards for reading, writing and mathematics. These changes mean that the expected standard from 2016 is higher and not comparable with the expected levels used in previous years' statistics. It is not possible to make direct comparisons between the results before and after the changes in 2016.
The number and percentage of state-funded pupils, at the end of Key Stage 1, 2 and 4, who did not achieve the expected level of literacy[1] in Witham, Essex and England are in the attached tables. Figures relate to academic years 2013/14 to 2017/18. The Department does not produce statistics for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, or the UK as a whole, and therefore these figures relate to England only.
[1] There is not a definitive definition of ‘expected level of literacy’ for each key stage. Figures have been provided for achievement in English, or English subjects, in the headline or additional measures that were used for that key stage, in each academic year.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional funding for special educational needs and disabilities services in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education frequently discusses matters of shared interest with HM Treasury ministers, including funding for special educational needs and disabilities.
We are committed to supporting local authorities in tackling cost pressures on their high needs budgets. In December 2018 we allocated an additional £250 million up to 2020, on top of the £6 billion we had already promised nationally, and in the run up to the Spending Review we will continue to consider the level of funding that is needed.