Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on government-funded childcare provision for 2 year olds in each of the last 5 financial years.
Answered by Will Quince
The government allocates funding for the early years entitlements in line with the number of places that are taken up.
The expenditure figures are as follows:
Early years dedicated schools grant allocation | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
3-4 year old universal hours | £2,302.6 million | £2,286.7 million | £2,278.5 million | £2,310.9 million | £2,338.2 million |
3-4 year old additional hours | £404.6 million | £743.7 million | £807.0 million | £840.3 million | £850.4 million |
2 year old | £469.7 million | £449.1 million | £433.8 million | £434.5 million | £440.8 million |
Please note that final allocations for 2020-21 and 2021-22 are not yet available.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on government-funded childcare provision for 3 and 4 year olds in each of the last 5 financial years.
Answered by Will Quince
The government allocates funding for the early years entitlements in line with the number of places that are taken up.
The expenditure figures are as follows:
Early years dedicated schools grant allocation | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
3-4 year old universal hours | £2,302.6 million | £2,286.7 million | £2,278.5 million | £2,310.9 million | £2,338.2 million |
3-4 year old additional hours | £404.6 million | £743.7 million | £807.0 million | £840.3 million | £850.4 million |
2 year old | £469.7 million | £449.1 million | £433.8 million | £434.5 million | £440.8 million |
Please note that final allocations for 2020-21 and 2021-22 are not yet available.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to implement the findings of the Government consultation into Sharia-compliant financing for education and the November 2015 Government green paper entitled, Fulfilling our potential Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government took new powers in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 to make a system of alternative payments possible. The government has been considering the Alternative Student Finance (ASF) product carefully alongside its other priorities and has decided to align a decision on implementation with the outcome of the post-18 review of education and funding. The interim report of the review was published on 21 January 2021, and the review is due to conclude alongside the next multi-year Spending Review. We will provide an update on ASF at that time.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to monitor whether (a) sexual harassment and (b) other types of gender-based violence and abuse are being taught in schools as part of Relationship and Sex Education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Sexual harassment and gender based violence are covered within the statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum. Schools are expected to teach these important subjects as part of the statutory curriculum.
Schools are accountable for what they teach. The 2019 Ofsted education inspection framework includes a ‘personal development’ judgement, and inspections will look at how well a school is following the new statutory RSHE requirements.
The Department is awaiting the outcome of Ofsted’s thematic review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges. The review will look specifically at whether schools need further support in teaching about sex and relationships, which will provide some valuable insight and help us to consider how we can further support schools to deliver RSHE subjects effectively and confidently.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the number of laptops that local authorities were required to buy for children who are eligible for (a) free school meals, (a) pupil premium, (c) education, health and care plans and (d) other vulnerabilities following the announcement of an additional funding allocation for laptops by his Department in February 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including making 1.3 million laptops and tablets available for disadvantaged children and young people.
Upon delivery, laptops and tablets are owned by schools, academy trusts, local authorities or further education colleges who can lend these to the children and young people who need them most, during the current COVID-19 restrictions.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2021 to Question 140063 on Remote Education: Computers, if he will publish weekly data on the number of laptops (a) allocated and (b) delivered to pupils to support remote education by constituency since 1 April 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has allocated and delivered devices to schools, academy trusts and local authorities through our £400 million Get Help with Technology programme. On delivery, devices become the property of the organisation that receives them. Academy trusts and local authorities often have schools in several constituencies and will have passed on devices according to their own assessment of the need of their schools. For this reason, it is not possible to provide the requested data.
As of Monday 1 February 2021, we have delivered over 920,000 laptops to schools, academy trusts and local authorities. We are publishing aggregate data on a weekly basis which shows deliveries at local authority and academy trust level, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data/2021-week-5.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the number of laptops (a) allocated and (b) delivered to pupils to support remote education by constituency in each week of the last six months; and if he will publish the number of children in receipt of free school meals by constituency in each of the last six months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, by securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. As of Monday 18 January, over 800,000 laptops and tablets had been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities.
The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The number of devices available to each school, academy trust and local authority is determined by the number of children eligible for free school meals. All schools, academy trusts and local authorities have now been given the opportunity to order their full current allocation of devices.
Figures on the number of devices delivered is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data/2021-week-3.
These figures are broken down by local authority and academy trust. Figures on delivery by constituency are not available.
Data related to the number of pupils claiming free school meals is collected in the termly school census. We routinely publish the statistics from the spring (January) school census in the schools, pupils and their characteristics statistical release. The most recent published figures, from the January 2020 school census, are available at the following link, including data for each school and the constituency they are in:
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a summer census did not take place in the 2019/20 academic year. The Department plans to publish the information relating to October 2020 in due course.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2020 to Question 91878 on Students: Loans, what recent assessment he has made of the equity of charging interest on Plan 1 student loans during maternity leave.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
There has been no recent assessment made on the equity of charging interest on Plan 1 student loans during maternity leave.
Student loans have much more favourable terms than commercial loans. Repayments are linked to income, not to interest, or the amount borrowed. Borrowers earning less than the annual repayment threshold of £19,390 for Plan 1 loans repay nothing at all. The interest rate on Plan 1 (pre-2012) income-contingent repayment student loans is the Retail Price Index (currently 2.6%), or the Bank Base Rate +1%, whichever is lower. The current interest rate of 1.1% will remain in place until such time as the Bank Base Rate changes.
The current system protects borrowers, including people on maternity and other forms of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the repayment thresholds.
Loans are written off after a specified time, with no detriment to the borrower. There are no commercial loans that offer this level of borrower protection. Student loans are subsidised by the taxpayer; the government does not make a profit from the loan scheme.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the interest charged on Plan 1 student loans during maternity leave does not cause unfair financial hardship on women.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The system for setting interest rates on student loans is set out in The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations (2009), as amended. The interest rate on Plan 1 (pre-2012) income-contingent repayment student loans is the Retail Price Index (currently 2.6%), or the Bank of England base rate + 1%, whichever is lower. The current interest rate of 1.1% will remain in place until such time as the Bank of England base rate changes.
The current system protects borrowers, including people on maternity leave and other forms of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the repayment thresholds. Repayments are calculated as a fixed percentage of earnings above the relevant repayment threshold. The annual repayment threshold for Plan 1 borrowers is currently £19,390, rising to £19,895 from 6 April 2021. Any outstanding debt is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.
If, at the end of the year, the borrower’s total income is below the annual threshold, they may reclaim any repayments from the Student Loans Company made during that year.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2020 to Question 108223 on Sex and Relationship Education: Religion, whether the materials published on the website, A Fertile Heart are permitted to be used in schools according to the Government guidance, Plan your relationships, sex and health curriculum, published on 24 September 2020.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department remains committed to supporting all schools in their preparations to deliver the content of Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) subjects.
It is for schools to decide which resources they choose to support the teaching of RSHE. The Department’s ‘Plan your relationships, sex and health curriculum’ implementation guidance, building on the content of the statutory RSHE guidance, includes clear advice on choosing resources: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The implementation guidance also advises schools to exercise caution when working with external agencies, including ensuring they have full confidence in any agency’s approach and the resources it uses. The Department has stated that schools should not work with agencies that take extreme positions, and this should also be reflected in the school’s choice of resources.