Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to ensure that parents of deaf children have access to British Sign Language classes.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department understands the great importance of British Sign Language (BSL) for bridging barriers to communication between hearing and deaf people. We also appreciate the vital need for families with deaf children to be able to access BSL courses, as early access to language is essential to help children learn and thrive.
Funding is available through the adult education budget (AEB) for qualifications in or focussing on BSL, up to and including Level 2. These qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL. It will depend on an individual’s circumstances as to whether they are entitled to free provision or expected to meet part of the cost (through co-funding).
About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas. Where community learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission.
For some BSL courses, Advanced Learner Loans (ALLs) are available, and parents can find more information about which qualifications are eligible on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/Search. More general information about the provision of ALLs is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan/.
For parents learning BSL on an AEB funded course, there is also additional support available. The AEB provides funding to colleges and providers to help adult learners overcome barriers preventing them from accessing learning. Providers have discretion to help learners meet costs such as transport, accommodation, books, equipment, and childcare. Learning support funding also helps colleges and training providers to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and the costs of reasonable adjustments, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) recruit and (b) retain special educational needs and disabilities specialist staff in schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
All teachers are teachers of Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers.
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full-time equivalent teachers working in state-funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010.
The department’s priority is to ensure that we continue to attract, retain, and develop highly skilled teachers. This is why we are taking action to improve teacher supply and quality by transforming the training and support we provide for teachers to attract more people to teaching and enable them to succeed.
The Teachers’ Standards sets clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils. All trainees who achieve Qualified Teacher Status must demonstrate that they can adapt teaching to respond to the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.
To support all teachers in meeting these standards, the department is implementing a golden thread of high-quality teacher training reforms, which begins with initial teacher training and continues throughout their career progression.
Once teachers qualify and are employed in schools, headteachers use their professional judgement to identify any further training, including specific specialisms, for individual staff that is relevant to them, the school, and its pupils.
To teach a class of pupils with sensory impairments, a teacher is required to hold the mandatory qualification in sensory impairment approved by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. The department has developed a new approval process to determine providers of Mandatory Qualifications in Sensory Impairments from the start of the 2023/24 academic year. Our aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairments, in both specialist and mainstream settings.
The school teachers’ pay and conditions document for 2022 sets out that an additional SEND allowance must be paid to teachers in a SEND post that requires a mandatory SEND qualification and involves teaching pupils with SEND. It is for schools to determine the specific amount, but this must be between £2,384 and £4,703 per annum.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory duty of care for higher education institutions on student (a) mental health, (b) safety and (c) well-being.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The mental health and wellbeing of young people is a high priority for this government. It is crucial that students get the effective mental health and wellbeing support they need to allow them to flourish at university.
The department is determined to provide students with the best mental health support possible at university. If creating a statutory duty of care in this space was the right way to achieve this, it would have the government’s full backing. However, this government believes creating a statutory duty of care for higher education providers is not the most effective way to improve outcomes for students.
Putting a duty of care on a statutory basis would not necessarily make a difference in practice to what providers have to do or the consequences if their actions mean a student’s wellbeing is harmed. This is because we consider that a duty of care already exists in common law as part of the law of negligence, and it is therefore not necessary to put it on a statutory basis.
There are also other relevant legal protections that already apply. Students with disabilities, including mental health conditions, are protected under the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits unlawful discrimination and harassment because of a disability. It also imposes a duty on providers to make reasonable adjustments where disabled students, including those with mental health conditions, would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage.
The government also believes that there are more effective solutions to improve outcomes for students in the near term. It is our view that the most effective way to support student mental health is through a two-pronged approach of funding vital and innovative services and working with mental health experts and the sector to implement best practice.
The department has made clear our ambition for all providers to back the University Mental Health Charter by 2026. We expect universities to create cultural change around mental health by embedding a whole-university approach to support, as advocated by the charity Student Minds, with student mental health and wellbeing considered across every aspect of university life.
The department has asked the Office for Students to distribute £15 million of funding to providers in 2023/24 to support student mental health, including providing additional support for transitions from school or college to university, with a particular focus on providing counselling services for students. This funding will also allow providers to continue to develop better partnerships with local NHS services to ensure that students are able to access support in a timely manner, and not slip between the gaps in university and NHS provision. Partnership working between HE providers and the NHS will improve the care of students experiencing poor mental health by ensuring a more joined up approach to the delivery of mental health support.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that climate change and sustainability are integrated throughout the primary and secondary school curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department will not be making any changes to the National Curriculum. Topics related to climate change and sustainability feature in the National Curricula for science, citizenship, and geography for primary and secondary schools.
An environmental science A level is available, and a Natural History GCSE will be introduced in 2025. The National Education Nature Park will also provide many educational opportunities for young people to take part in citizen science and biodiversity monitoring.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on potential options for resolving the pay dispute with teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education continues to work with Cabinet colleagues to seek a fair and reasonable resolution to the pay dispute with teachers. She has made a serious offer to the leaders of the National Education Union (NEU) to pause the planned strikes so that we can discuss pay, conditions and reforms. The NEU refused to call off strike action last week, once again causing disruption to families and thousands of children who missed out on their education.
This same offer has been accepted by health unions including Unite, the GMB, Unison, CSP and the Royal College of Nurses who have all paused their strikes and are engaging in intensive negotiations.
Last year, the Chancellor committed an additional £2 billion for schools for next year and the year after. This additional money means schools will be funded at their highest levels in history. Each school has flexibility over how this money is used, such as staffing, classroom materials, or other running costs.
Teacher pay is set by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) and Government respects its independence. The Department published written evidence on Thursday 21 February to the STRB that will, alongside evidence from the treasury and other consultees including trade unions, inform their recommendations on teachers’ pay for 2023/24.
The Government published its written evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) on 21 February 2023, giving views and input to help them form their recommendations for teachers’ pay. This evidence sets out how a 3.5% overall award, which includes raising starting salaries to £30,000, would be manageable within schools’ budgets, on average. The Department recognises that this year this judgment is particularly finely balanced, with the possibility that changing conditions, such as an improvement to energy prices, might allow schools to accommodate a higher award.
The Secretary of State has been clear that her offer to the NEU still stands. It is in the best interests of children, parents, and teachers for the NEU to take up her offer and engage in talks on all areas of their dispute.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding to support international students, in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Robert Halfon
To be eligible for home fee status and student support from Student Finance England, a student must be ordinarily and lawfully resident in England, and have ‘settled’ status or a recognised connection with the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course. This includes persons who are covered by the EU Withdrawal Agreement, those who have long residence in this country or those who have been granted international protection by the Home Office.
Usually, students must also have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the three years immediately preceding that date. This ensures that the limited public funds available for student support are targeted at people with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK.
We have boosted our student premium by £15 million to help students who need extra support. This extra funding, now totalling £276 million, will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department works with the Office for Students to ensure universities support students using both hardship funds and drawing on the student premium.
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 Act passed on 25 October 2022 includes the provision which requires landlords to pass any benefits they receive from energy price support onto end users, as appropriate. Further details of the requirements under this Act are set out in the legislation.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme provides a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers are protected from high energy bills this winter, including universities and private purpose-built student accommodation providers.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of qualified teachers for deaf children in schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
I refer the hon. Member for Ealing Central to the answer I gave on 23 February 2023 to Question 143709.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 Ealing Central and Acton 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.
Of the 400 so far selected, none are in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
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: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Food Strategy Report published in July 2021, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of updating the School Food Standards to remove the mandatory servings of (a) meat including fish and (b) dairy as suggested in that report.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes that the current standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils continue to receive high quality and nutritious food that builds healthy eating habits for life.
The Department’s current focus is on promoting compliance with the School Food Standards, and it will keep this under review. In February 2022, the Levelling Up White Paper outlined what the Department is doing to strengthen adherence. This includes piloting work with the Foods Standards Agency, funding of up to £200,000 in a pilot Governor Training Scheme and encouraging schools to complete a statement on their websites setting out their whole school approach to food.
The Department will consider the National Food Strategy Report’s recommendations in future updates.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the flexibility of the apprenticeship levy on the level of (a) staff and (b) skill shortages in the hospitality sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The apprenticeship levy supports employers in all sectors, including those in hospitality, to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. Employers in the catering and hospitality sector have developed 10 apprenticeship standards to help them to develop their workforces, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, Level 3 Chef De Partie and Level 4 Senior Culinary Chef. In the 2020/21 academic year, there were 8,870 starts in the hospitality sector.
The department is committed to enhancing the quality of apprenticeships and improving the system, so that apprenticeships continue to meet the needs of employers in all sectors.
The department is also supporting employers to make greater use of their levy funds by helping them choose more flexible training models, such as portable, flexi-job and accelerated apprenticeships. Improvements have been made to the levy transfer system, to enable larger employers to more easily support apprenticeship starts in other employers in their own or different sectors. In addition, employers can also access a range of other government-funded skills programmes, including T-levels, Skills Bootcamps, and our free Level 3 courses for jobs, which can help people gain the skills that employers value.
There are no current plans to reform the apprenticeship levy, and as such, no assessment has been made of changes to the levy and the impact on the level of staff or skill shortages in the hospitality sector.