Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of boys aged under five who have not achieved expected standards of language and communication.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises a key part of raising the standard of education for all children, regardless of background or gender, is to ensure they receive a good level of development in literacy and numeracy before they start school at age five. To support this we have introduced an early years pupil premium to help providers support the learning and development needs of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets the prime areas of learning that early years providers must follow. This includes a focus on communication and language. The Early Years Foundation stage is published on gov.uk and can be accessed through the following link:
The EYFS makes clear that all children should be given opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations. It also requires practitioners to make sure that children have sufficient opportunities to learn and develop a good standard in English language so they are ready to begin year 1.
The 2014-15 EYFS Profile results tell us that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development continues to increase – 66% in 2015, compared to 60% in 2014 and 52% in 2013. The EYFS Profile results also show that more than 80% of children are reaching the expected communication and language skills by age five, but we will continue to work with the sector to make sure every child gets the high quality education they deserve.
The quality of early education is improving, the numbers of qualified staff have risen, the numbers of graduates in the workforce continues to rise, and a record number of providers are rated good or outstanding, with 86% of providers currently on the Early Years Register judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness at 31 March 2016.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that nurseries have sufficient funding to afford access to early years teachers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is investing over £1 billion more per year by 2019-20 to fund our commitments on the early years entitlements – this includes £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the hourly rate paid for the two, three and four year old entitlements. We are currently consulting on proposals for an early years national funding formula to ensure this funding is fairly allocated, and I would encourage the Honourable Member and his constituents to submit their views.
The Early Years Foundation Stage sets staffing and qualification requirements for early years providers and allows settings to operate without an Early Years Teacher. However, the Government wants to see more trained graduates in the workforce, and we are supporting this by providing funding for course fees and bursaries to eligible trainees, and also funding for employers to support trainees.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that appropriate pastoral and other support is available in schools for people who identify as transgender.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are committed to building a society where transgender people feel safe and supported. While individual schools are best placed to decide what pastoral support to put in place, they do this in the framework set by the public sector equality duty.
The provisions of the duty are not intended to be burdensome but set some clear expectations. The Department’s guidance on how the duty applies to schools can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
It sets out that the duty includes having due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity for pupils with protected characteristics – including those who identify as transgender – and schools have to publish information on how they are complying.
The guidance also sets out that advancing equality of opportunity involves, in particular:
(a) removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people which are connected to a particular characteristic they have;
(b) taking steps to meet the particular needs of people who have a particular characteristic; and
(c) encouraging people who have a particular characteristic to participate fully in any activities.
To further support LGB&T pupils we recently announced £4.4 million in funding over the next two years to support anti-bullying schemes. This includes £2.8 million for six projects tackling homophobic, transphobic and biphobic (HBT) bullying. Bullying is best tackled as part of a whole-school approach to create inclusive environments where pupils get appropriate support and the HBT-focused projects will support schools with doing that.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) LEAP Academy Trust, (b) teaching trade unions, (c) staff and (d) students and parents on the future viability of Baverstock Academy; and what steps she is taking to ensure that that school remains open.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Leap Academy Trust has formally requested that the Secretary of State agree to terminate their funding agreement. No decision has yet been made. The Secretary of State will need to be confident that a robust plan is in place to ensure pupils’ education continues without disruption. In the meantime, our priority is to stabilise the academy in terms of school improvement and outcomes for pupils and the future of the staff.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations she has received on a further review of arrangements around special guardian orders.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The government conducted a review of arrangements around special guardianship and special guardianship orders (SGOs) in 2015 and published its response on 17 December 2015, which can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/special-guardianship-review
Although the review found that there were no fundamental issues with the awarding of SGOs, it did suggest that those seeking to become special guardians may not always be assessed or supported in a way that puts children’s long term welfare first.
As a result, we have strengthened regulations to ensure that special guardian assessments are more robust and based on the principle that the guardian should be capable of caring for the child to the age of 18. Revised regulations came into force on 29 February and updated Statutory Guidance can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/503547/special_guardianship_guidance.pdf
In addition, from 1 April this year, we have extended access to the Adoption Support Fund to special guardians supporting children previously in the care system. This will pay for therapeutic services such as cognitive therapy and intensive family support - helping children recover from their previous experiences and bond with their new families.
We have received no recent representations asking for a further review or arrangements around SGOs since we conducted our review last year.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the take-up of creative subjects in secondary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes that every child should experience a high quality education throughout their time at school including in creative subjects such as music, art and design. All state-funded schools must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.
In maintained schools music and art and design are compulsory subjects within the national curriculum for 5-14 year olds. Maintained schools are also required to teach their pupils dance, as part of the PE curriculum for 5-14 year olds and drama, as part of the English curriculum for 5-16 year olds.
We have reformed GCSEs to make them more rigorous and to match expectations in the highest performing jurisdictions around the world. Since the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) was first introduced the proportion of pupils in state-funded schools taking at least one GCSE in an arts subject has increased, rising from 46 per cent in 2011 to 50 per cent in 2015. From September 2016, schools will be teaching new gold standard GCSEs in music, dance, drama and art and design and new AS and A levels in music, dance and drama and theatre.
Between 2012-16, the Department invested over £460 million in a diverse portfolio of arts and music education programmes that are designed to improve access to the arts for all children, regardless of their background, and to develop talent across the country.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage schools to provide (a) support, (b) guidance and (c) information for pupils with anorexia nervosa.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Schools should consider how to provide appropriate support to all students, based on their individual circumstances. One of the best ways is as part of a ‘whole-school’ approach, in which pastoral and behavioural support systems recognise the role that all staff have a part to play in supporting and maintaining the positive emotional wellbeing for all pupils. This can include effective teaching about mental health through the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum and involvement of specialists in schools who can provide more specific support where needed.
We have funded guidance and age-appropriate lesson plans on teaching mental health in PSHE. This includes information on eating disorders.
We have funded MindEd, a free online portal which has been developed to enable all adults working with children and young people, including teachers, to learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them. MindEd includes specific modules on eating disorders. MindEd is available at: https://www.minded.org.uk/.
We also have recently revised and updated our counselling guidance which provides practical, evidence-based advice on how to ensure school based counselling services achieve the best outcomes for all students. This is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools
However, teachers are not mental health professionals. Support and treatment for eating disorders such as anorexia can require joined up action from schools and specialists. We are contributing to a £3m joint pilot between schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure students have timely access to appropriate specialist support where needed.
To increase this specialist support, the Government is providing £150m to improve specialist treatment for children and young people diagnosed with eating disorders, as part of its wider investment of an additional £1.4bn in children and young people’s mental health this Parliament. This funding is accompanied by a new standard specifically for young people with eating disorders, aiming by 2020 to get 95% seen within four weeks, or one week for urgent cases.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2016 to Question 22095, whether her new proposals on special guardianship orders will include revisions to the child maintenance system.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government published its response to the special guardianship review on 17 December 2015, which can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/special-guardianship-review
In our response, we said that we would make a further announcement about improving support for special guardians. We expect to make this announcement in due course.