Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of potential merits of deferring (a) Key Stage 1 SATs, (b) Key Stage 2 SATs and (c) other statutory primary school assessments during the academic year 2021-22 to enable teachers to focus on supporting children to catch-up on learning after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is taking forward a full programme of primary assessments to take place in the 2021/22 academic year. The assessments will help parents, schools and the department to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pupils more clearly, and how this varies between different groups of pupils (for example, disadvantaged pupils compared with the wider population), schools and local authority areas. At a local level, the data will provide vital information to parents about their child’s attainment, support transition to secondary schools, and identify where additional support is best targeted to individuals. At a national level, the data will help inform policy decisions about support for schools, enable analysis to underpin education recovery initiatives and understand their effectiveness, and to track system progress as we emerge from the pandemic.
Although schools should encourage pupils to work hard and achieve well, the department does not recommend that they devote excessive preparation time to assessment. The department trusts schools to administer assessments in the appropriate way.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to allocate additional funding to cover the costs of (a) sickness cover for teachers and (b) sanitation in schools incurred as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department recognises that schools are facing pressures. Teachers and school leaders have contributed hugely to the nation’s efforts to respond to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 outbreak, and we are very grateful for their continued hard work.
School funding remains a key priority for the department. The government is increasing funding to deliver year on year, real terms per pupil increases to school funding. This is starting with a £7 billion increase in the core schools budget by the financial year 2024-25, compared with the financial year 2021-22, taking total funding to £56.8 billion by 2024-25.
Future increases in funding have been frontloaded to rapidly get money to schools. In the financial year 2022-23 alone, core schools funding will increase by £4 billion, compared to 2021-22. This represents a 5% increase in real terms per pupil boost. This will help schools rise to the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, schools have continued to receive core funding, regardless of any periods of reduced attendance. Schools have the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to prioritise their spending to invest in a range of resources and activities that will best support their staff and pupils. Schools will be able to use their existing budgets to help with the costs associated with COVID-19 absences.
The department re-introduced the COVID-19 workforce fund in the autumn term to provide financial support to eligible schools and colleges. The fund has been extended until Easter to cover the cost of term-time staff absences experienced between 22 November 2021 and 8 April 2022. The fund is available to support schools and colleges facing the greatest staffing and funding pressures to continue to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all pupils.
All schools can access a range of school resource management tools to help them get the best value from their resources. Schools in financial difficulty should contact the Education and Skills Funding Agency or their local authority.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of World Book Day on literacy rates.
Answered by Robin Walker
The government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, including those of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. English is fundamental to learning and provides the skills and knowledge pupils need to communicate with others, both in school and in the wider world.
The department welcomes the important work of the World Book Day charity, an annual celebration of reading. It is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. World Book Day gifts free £1 vouchers to purchase special £1 editions of books, or to put towards purchasing another book. World Book Day, and other literacy charities such as the National Literacy Trust, organise events and partnerships to help ensure children have the opportunity to discover a love for reading.
The department has not undertaken any specific assessment of World Book Day, but note that the charity commissioned the National Literacy Trust to evaluate the impact of the work on children aged 8 to 11 in the UK. The 2021 impact report can be found here: https://www.worldbookday.com/resource/exploring-the-impact-of-world-book-day-on-childrens-reading/.
The department’s English Hubs regularly mark the day in several ways, including sharing best practice guidance, promoting reading for pleasure, and organising book talks for children. Ministers from the Department for Education will contribute to the celebrations this year.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The information is not readily available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to introduce measures for the assessment of (a) GCSEs and (b) A-Levels for the 2021-22 academic year to reflect disruption from school absence due to covid-19 infection.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department continues to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on education closely, including through attendance data. It remains the government’s firm intention that examinations and assessments should go ahead next year. The department and Ofqual consulted on and announced a range of adaptations to exams and assessments over this academic year. The package of measures includes:
The department engaged with a range of stakeholders, including students and parents, on these measures, and sought to ensure that students have breadth of knowledge, whilst also giving them support with focusing revision. In the interests of fairness to students, Ofqual has also confirmed that 2022 will be a transition year for grading and has set out its plans for a mid-point between 2021 and pre-COVID-19 grades.
If there is significant further disruption to education, the government has the flexibility to bring forward advance information to support students further. Furthermore, the government understands that contingency arrangements are also needed to deal with the unlikely event that exams cannot go ahead fairly or safely. Following a joint consultation with Ofqual, the department has confirmed that should exams not be able to go ahead, students will receive teacher assessed grades (TAGs) instead. The changes to the TAGs process for 2022 takes account of lessons learned from 2021 and minimises burdens on both teachers and students. Further information on plans for 2022 assessments can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/contingency-plans-confirmed-for-gcses-as-and-a-levels.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue updated guidance on disapplication of the national curriculum.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department recognises that teaching a broad and balanced curriculum is important to the academic, social, and personal development of children and young people. All schools should continue to teach a broad and balanced curriculum in all subjects.
In response to education catch-up, taking the planned, sequenced curriculum as a starting point, schools should prioritise teaching missed content that will allow pupils to make sense of later work in the curriculum. This includes key knowledge, skills, vocabulary, concepts, and the links between concepts. For schools that are required to follow it, these are outlined in the national curriculum.
Schools can use existing flexibilities to create time to cover the most important content in which pupils are not yet secure. Further information can be found in the non-statutory guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-a-broad-and-balanced-curriculum-for-education-recovery.
Up to and including key stage 3, prioritisation within subjects of the most important components for progression is likely to be more effective than removing subjects. This avoids depriving pupils of the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
In exceptional circumstances, and where a subject is not one mandated, schools may consider it appropriate to suspend some subjects for some pupils. When this happens, schools are expected to be able to show that this is in the best interests of these pupils, and this should be in discussion with parents. Further guidance on disapplying aspects of the national curriculum can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disapplying-aspects-of-the-national-curriculum.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make a comparative assessment of the (a) percentage of asylum seekers at a school and (b) applications for disapplication of the national curriculum.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department does not collect data on the asylum seeker status of children and therefore cannot make an assessment of the percentage of asylum seekers at a school and applications for disapplication of the national curriculum.
The number of pupils recorded as not following the national curriculum is published at a school level in the file ‘School level underlying data.’ This is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of interest rate changes on student loans on graduate income.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The student loan system in England removes financial barriers for those hoping to study higher education, while sharing its costs between learners and the general taxpayer, which is fair. After finishing study, monthly student loan repayments are linked to income, not to interest rates or the amount borrowed. Repayments are made only on earnings above the repayment threshold, and borrowers are protected. If their income drops, so do their repayments. Any outstanding debt is written off after the loan term ends at no detriment to the borrower.
As part of the review of post-18 education and funding, we are carefully considering a range of options to ensure that student finance continues to deliver value for money for both students and the taxpayer. The interim conclusion of the review of post-18 education and funding was published on 21 January 2021, and we will conclude the review in full in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) apprenticeships and (b) traineeships were started in each month of 2021 in the (a) HGV driver, (b) nursing, (c) home and other types of carer, (d) nursery and primary education, (e) professional chef, (f) sales and retail assistant, (g) cleaners and (h) butcher and slaughter professions.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The attached table contains apprenticeship starts, reported to date, for the provisional 2020/21 full academic year for selected apprenticeship standards and frameworks. Please note that these reflect the subject of the apprenticeship and do not necessarily align with the profession of the apprentice. These are provisional figures and subject to change – finalised figures will be published in November 2021. Figures for all apprenticeship starts are published here: https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/922d9d6b-8a91-428f-8133-0dc5425b9cd5/files/0785fe06-5be8-42b8-7aff-08d9826bde18.
For traineeships, whilst our data allows us to identify learners undertaking work experience, it is not possible for us to identify the profession involved. In the first three quarters of the 2020/21 academic year (August to April), reported to date, there were 13,600 traineeship starts in England, an increase of 23.8% from the equivalent point in 2019/20.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much Government funding has been allocated to adult education in each region in each year since 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
The government supports adult education, outside of apprenticeships, through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), National Skills Fund, European Social Fund (ESF) and Advanced Learner Loans.
A complete regional breakdown of funding allocations across these funding streams is not available. However, the government does publish the following online at GOV.UK:
The amount of AEB allocated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to providers is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/19-funding-allocations#supporting-documents and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2021-to-2022.
The figures from 2019/20 onwards, following AEB devolution, are in respect of funding allocated to providers for learners resident in non-devolved areas.
Starting this year, the government is investing £2.5 billion in the National Skills Fund. This is a new investment, which includes £375 million in the financial year 2021-22, exclusive of Barnett. This is broken down as follows:
ESF contract values from 2014 to 2020, covering rounds one and two, for contracts starting in 2016 and 2019 respectively, are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esf-2014-to-2020-programme-list-of-contracts.
The Department forecasts demand for Advanced Learner Loans with HM Treasury annually. These tuition fee loans are for provision across England in all areas. The total value of loans approved by the Student Loans Company in the 20219/20 academic year was £182.4 million.
The Department also publishes adult learner data, which includes a breakdown of how many learners are supported by region: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-and-skills.