Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools in Canterbury constituency had at least one construction element in (a) condition grade C and (b) condition grade D, when that data was collated; and which of those schools (i) have already received funding from the School Rebuilding Programme and (ii) are expected to receive funding from the School Rebuilding Programme in the next two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
Canterbury constituency has had two schools selected as part of the SRP. These are St Anselm's Catholic School, Canterbury, (announced December 2022) and Pilgrims' Way Primary School (announced July 2021)
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether a summer-born child with an Education, Health and Care Plan has the right to apply to (a) start and (b) maintain education outside their chronological year group as a compulsory school age start set out in the Admissions Code.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
A child does not have to start school until they have reached compulsory school age. For summer born children, this means that they do not need to start school until the September after their fifth birthday.
Where a child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan, the School Admissions Code does not apply to the admission decision. Instead, the Children and Families Act 2014 and Regulations made under the Act set out the process for a local authority drawing up such a plan. The local authority must set out, at section B of the plan, the needs of a child and, at section F, the special educational provision to meet those needs. The local authority must review the plan at least annually.
The local authority has various statutory duties that apply to its decisions over a plan. These include a duty to have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of the parents of the child. A parent of a summer born child, when an EHC plan is being reviewed or when a plan is first being drawn up, has a right to ask a local authority for them to be placed in a year group other than the usual for their chronological age.
If a child has special educational needs (SEN) that may be connected with their being summer born, such as a developmental delay, then the local authority will have to reflect these in Section B of the plan. The local authority must specify in Section F of the plan ‘special educational provision’ for each and every need specified in Section B. The local authority may decide that a child being placed in a year group other than the usual for their chronological age should be such special educational provision, and if so, the local authority must write this into Section F.
If the parents are dissatisfied with what an EHC plan does or does not say in relation to SEN or special educational provision, they have certain rights of appeal to the first-tier Tribunal.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the HGV Skills bootcamp programme beyond 2023, to alleviate the shortage of HGV drivers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving provide more opportunities for people to train as a HGV driver, gain their HGV driving licence and launch new careers in the sector, helping to alleviate the HGV driver shortage. Since the launch in December 2021, the suppliers contracted to deliver Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving have seen high demand for places.
The department is investing up to £34 million to create up to 11,000 HGV driver training places for people that are new, returning to, or looking to upskill as an HGV driver. We have listened to HGV driver training companies and have confirmed that the new drivers can be trained between December 2021 and end of March 2023.
The department is currently reviewing HGV delivery, and more detail on the future availability of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase attendance in post-16 education for students with anxiety.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The mental health and wellbeing of young people is a priority for this government, and we know post-16 providers can play a critical role in this. Colleges that take an effective whole-college approach are best placed to promote and support learners’ mental health and wellbeing, which can in turn can improve attendance.
The department has coordinated several programmes that are available to colleges to support the mental health of post-16 learners, including those with anxiety. This has included the opportunity for all colleges in England to access senior mental health leads training by 2025, and a £79 million boost to young people mental health support, including expanding Mental Health Support Teams, to bring colleges closer with mental health professionals in their local area.
Colleges funded through the £5.4 million College Collaboration Fund developed new creative ways to support learner mental health and wellbeing, with resources available to all Further Education (FE) providers online, while the Challenge Competition Fund has delivered project funding which has involved FE colleges, such as the University of Keele’s project to integrate a ‘whole community’ approach to mental health, including both FE and higher education providers in the region.
As part of our commitment to a long-term education recovery plan, the department is investing over £800 million across the next three academic years to fund an average of 40 additional learning hours for band 5 and T Level students in 16 to 19 education. The additional hours can be used to support areas where there are barriers for learners to effectively access and engage with teaching and learning, which can include their mental health.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to increase the level of hardships funds for students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that have impacted students. Many higher education providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance.
There is £261 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support disadvantaged students who need additional help. The department has worked with the Office for Students (OfS) to ensure that universities support students in hardship using both hardship funds and the student premium.
In addition, all households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Bill introduced on 12 October 2022 includes the provision to require landlords to pass benefits they receive from energy price support, as appropriate, onto end users. Further details of the requirements under this legislation will be set out in regulations. A Treasury-led review will be launched to consider how to support households and businesses with energy bills after April 2023.
As part of the package of support for rising energy bills, the government is also giving a council tax rebate payment of £150 to households that were living in a property in council tax bands A to D as their main home on 1 April 2022. This includes full-time students that do not live in student halls or in property that is not considered a House in Multiple Occupation for council tax purposes.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of SEND places available in schools in Canterbury.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. Therefore, the department has not collected central data on the capacity of special schools or of the availability of SEND places more broadly. However, starting from summer 2023, we plan to collect data from local authorities on the physical capacity of special schools and SEND units and resourced provision in mainstream schools, as well as corresponding forecasts of demand for specialist places. We expect this to be an annual data collection, forming part of the existing School Capacity Survey.
To support local authorities fulfil their statutory duties, the department is investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to help deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision (AP). This represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. It will support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
As part of this commitment, in March 2022 the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment, focused on academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25. In June 2022, we announced that we will build up to 60 new centrally delivered special and AP free schools. The application process for special free schools will close on 21 October 2022.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of primary school places in Canterbury.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own forecast data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools, or through the expansion of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.
In March 2022, the department announced Kent will receive just below £43 million to support the provision of new school places needed for 2024 and just over £5 million for 2025. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2025 to just below £422 million.
The department also engages with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department supports them to find solutions as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been distributed through the National Tutoring Programme in Canterbury in each month since that programme was launched.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department does not hold information on Tuition Partners or Academic Mentors in the required format at constituency level.
School-led tutoring grant allocations by school and local authority for the academic year 2021 to 2022 have been published at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1071234/School_Led_Funding_Publication_File_flat_values_v1.ods
Payment information relating to School-Led Tutoring for the academic year 2021 to 2022 will be published by the ESFA once the reconciliation process has been completed for that period.
School-led tutoring grant allocations for the academic year 2022 to 2023 have been published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2022-to-2023-academic-year.
Between November 2020 and June 2022, over 2 million tuition courses were started. The Government has committed more than £1 billion to support tutoring over academic years 2020 to 2023/24, during which we aim to offer up to six million tutoring courses.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many year nine places are available in Canterbury as of 11 October 2022.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department does not collect or hold real-time data on school capacity or pupil numbers on roll, which would be needed to calculate how many year 9 places are available on any given date. The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. Kent local authority will have further information on school places in the Canterbury area.