Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that environmentalism is in the National Curriculum; and what guidance his Department provides on teaching about climate change.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation..
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to secure continued access to UK universities for eastern European students after 2020; and what steps his Department has taken to ensure that UK universities are affordable for European students after 2020.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
International students make a vital contribution to UK higher education, both economically and culturally, diversifying campuses and enriching UK student experiences. The UK government recognises the value of international students. In the International Education Strategy, published in March 2019, we set an ambition to increase the number of international students choosing to study in the UK to 600,000 by 2030, an increase of over 30%. A link to the International Education Strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth.
On 28 May 2019, the government announced guarantees on student finance for EU nationals to help provide certainty. EU nationals (and their family members) who start a course in England in the 2020/21 academic year or before will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status and student finance support from Student Finance England for the duration of their course, provided they meet the residency requirement.
Applications for courses starting in academic year 2021/22 do not open until September 2020. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective EU students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has conducted an impact assessment on changes in English for Speakers of other Languages funding.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The government recognises that learning English is essential to help people integrate into life in England, including breaking down barriers to work and empowering refugees to rebuild their lives. That is why the Department for Education supports adults in England through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) to secure the English language skills they need. The AEB is allocated on an annual basis, and colleges and adult learning providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their AEB allocation to meet the needs of their communities. This includes planning, with local partners, the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses that they will deliver locally. The Home Office and the Department for Education have also provided £10 million specifically to enable refugees resettled through the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to access additional classes.
The government has committed to developing a new strategy for ESOL in 2019. The strategy will provide a shared vision for all publicly funded English language provision including addressing the needs of refugees and migrants. Funding for all programmes beyond 2019/20, including any potential funding for this strategy, will be set during the upcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government has taken to ensure that people who are granted refugee status and who do not speak English as their first language are offered a two-year course in English as a foreign language.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The government recognises that learning English is essential to help people integrate into life in England, including breaking down barriers to work and empowering refugees to rebuild their lives. That is why the Department for Education supports adults in England through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) to secure the English language skills they need. The AEB is allocated on an annual basis, and colleges and adult learning providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their AEB allocation to meet the needs of their communities. This includes planning, with local partners, the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses that they will deliver locally. The Home Office and the Department for Education have also provided £10 million specifically to enable refugees resettled through the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to access additional classes.
The government has committed to developing a new strategy for ESOL in 2019. The strategy will provide a shared vision for all publicly funded English language provision including addressing the needs of refugees and migrants. Funding for all programmes beyond 2019/20, including any potential funding for this strategy, will be set during the upcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real terms changes in Government funding for Further Education colleges was between 2010 and 2018.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Published further education (FE) college accounts for 2009/10 show that total funding body and government agencies income came to £5,888 million. Adjusted for inflation, that is the equivalent of £6,724 million in 2017/18.
Published FE college accounts data shows that total income to FE colleges from funding body grants in 2017/18 came to £4,642 million. This includes data from those colleges which had submitted their finance record by 31 December 2018.
The difference in part reflects reforms to funding, which have led to colleges receiving income from other sources. The 2017/18 figure does not include college income from Advance Learner Loans, employer payments for apprenticeships, or higher education tuition fees. There has also been demographic change, with a decline in the number of 16-19 year olds in the publication during the period covered.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to increase funding for Further Education colleges.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We are reviewing this carefully ahead of the next Spending Review and are considering how effective our funding and regulatory structures are in supporting providers to deliver excellent education for young people and adults.
We have been working with the sector to ensure the system can support sustainable, high-quality education, and effective recruitment and retention of teachers and leaders.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the level of (a) funding and (b) school staffing for children with (i) special educational needs and disability and (ii) autism.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In December 2018 my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced an increase of £250 million in the level of funding up to 2020, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This brings the total level of high needs funding to £6.3 billion in this financial year 2019-20. The level of high needs funding in future years will depend on the next Spending Review. Decisions taken locally determine how much of this funding is spent on children with autism and other types of special educational needs (SEN). Information from local authorities or schools on how much of their funding is spent on children with autism is not held centrally.
We believe that all teachers should be teachers of children with SEN. We have provided £3.4 million funding over 2018-2020, for the SEND schools’ workforce contract, which will be delivered by the Whole School SEND consortium, led by National Association of Special Educational Needs. The SEND schools’ workforce contract’s aim is to embed SEND into school improvement in order to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND, including children and young people with autism.
We recognise that some schools, including special schools, are facing challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers. That is why in January 2019 we launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.
Designed collaboratively with the sector, the centrepiece of the strategy is the Early Career Framework, which will underpin a fully-funded, 2 year package of structured support for all early career teachers. The strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the take-up of Music GCSE courses by pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Music is compulsory in the national curriculum and the Government is providing funding of over £300 million for music education hubs between 2016 and 2020. A report published last year by Birmingham City University showed that in 2016/17 the hubs taught more than 700,000 children to play a musical instrument with their class. The national curriculum does not apply in academies, but all state-funded schools have to provide a broad and balanced curriculum.
All pupils who want to study music at GCSE will have the opportunity to do so. Since 2009/10, the percentage of the GCSE cohort in state funded schools taking the music GCSE has fluctuated but remained broadly stable at between 6% and 7%. It currently stands at 6%.
In order to ensure all pupils are able to enjoy a high quality music education, the Department is developing and publishing a non-statutory model music curriculum for Key Stages 1 to 3. This will expand on the statutory programmes of study and act as a benchmark for all schools. The model curriculum will provide pupils with the knowledge and skills which enable them to embark with confidence on a GCSE course of study. This model curriculum will be made freely available to schools. We have also announced plans to refresh the National Plan for Music Education.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that teachers in sixth form colleges that (a) are and (b) are not academies receive the same Teachers' pay grant.
Answered by Nick Gibb
A Teachers’ Pay Grant will be paid to all maintained schools and academies this year and next. The grant will total £187 million in 2018-19 and £321 million in 2019-20. The methodology underpinning the distribution of the grant can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-pay-grant-methodology/teachers-pay-grant-methodology.
Individual schools’ allocations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-pay-grant-2018-to-2019-financial-year-allocations.
Further education (FE) and sixth form colleges have a different legal status and relationship to government when compared with academies. They are private sector institutions, independent of government and therefore, we are considering the needs of FE providers separately. We will continue to look carefully at funding for FE in preparation for the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to reports that some academies have chosen not to pay the 2018-19 teacher pay award despite receiving the Teacher's Pay Grant for that year, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that academies in receipt of the pay grant deliver the pay award to their teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are autonomous institutions and therefore it is for schools to determine by how much an individual teacher’s pay should rise if they are considered eligible for progression.
With the above in mind, it is for schools to decide how best to spend the funds allocated under the teachers’ pay grant. The Department has, however, made clear that this additional money is to fully fund an increase in pay for teachers and the Department would therefore expect schools to put it towards pay.