Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle persistent school absences.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Persistent absence is a post-pandemic challenge which is affecting schools around the world. With the standards of schools continuing to rise, the benefits of this success can only be felt when all children are in school.
The department knows that persistent absence is often a symptom of other problems. Progress has already been made with 380,000 fewer children persistently absent or not attending in the 2022/23 academic year than in 2021/22. The department’s comprehensive strategy to improve attendance continues to tackle this attendance challenge.
The department has published new, stronger guidance setting out the expectations for schools, academy trusts and local authorities to work together to improve attendance. To make it easier for schools and local authorities to identify pupils at risk of becoming persistently absence, a new attendance data tool to has also been piloted with 88% of state-funded schools currently involved.
This year, the department will introduce 18 new attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32 and 2,000 schools supported to tackle persistent absence. Attendance hubs involve several leading schools sharing practical solutions with others to break down barriers to attendance. From direct pupil engagement initiatives, like breakfast clubs and extracurricular activities, to improving other schools’ processes and analysis, these hubs are already making a real difference, with more than one million pupils being supported into regular education.
The department is also expanding the three-year mentoring programme to tackle absenteeism. Backed by an additional investment of £15 million, this programme provides direct intensive one-to-one support to 10,000 persistent and severely absent pupils and their families. From September 2024, attendance mentors will work in a further ten areas. These areas are in addition to the existing pilot programme with Barnardo’s, which is already operating in Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Knowsley, Salford, and Stoke on Trent.
Ten newly appointed expert attendance advisers have also played an important role in supporting local authorities and a number of multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence to review their current practice and develops plans to improve.
Alongside these measures, the department is investing:
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to respond to reports of increases in the number of incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia in (a) schools, (b) universities and (c) other educational settings.
Answered by Damian Hinds
It has been deeply concerning to see the rises both in antisemitism and in Islamophobia since the 7 October terrorist attacks against Israel. All education settings have a legal duty of care to safeguard and protect the welfare of all children and students; and must have regard to equalities legislation and comply with relevant provisions under the Equality Act 2010.
Every school and further education provider, including independent and faith schools, should actively promote the shared values, including mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. The department has published advice on promoting these values and made resources available on challenging antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.
The department has also published the Preventing and Tackling Bullying guidance, which directs schools to organisations who can provide support with tackling bullying related to race, religion and nationality. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying. The department is providing over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations, which includes projects to tackle hate-related bullying on the basis of race and faith.
In the Autumn Statement, on 22 November 2023, the government has announced a further £7 million of funding over the next three years to help tackle antisemitism in education, and to ensure support is in place for schools, colleges, and universities to understand, recognise and deal with antisemitism effectively.
In universities the department is working to introduce a Tackling Antisemitism Quality Seal, which will be awarded to providers who’ve shown leadership and excellent practice in their approach to antisemitism. A five-point plan has been set out that both the department and university leaders should take to strengthen our support for Jewish students. The plan is available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/11/05/how-were-protecting-jewish-students-on-university-campuses/. The department also welcomes guidance produced by Universities UK, which focuses on tackling anti-Muslim hatred available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/tackling-islamophobia-and-anti-muslim.
The department continues to engage both with Jewish and with Muslim groups, including the Union of Jewish Students and Tell MAMA, and is actively assessing incidents affecting both communities. Where there are serious concerns, departmental officials have reached out to providers to understand what actions have been taken.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating universities to award honorary teaching degrees to people who gained a certificate of education from teacher training colleges prior to the year 2000.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department does not have degree awarding powers and is therefore not in a position to award honorary teaching degrees. The award of degrees can only be made by institutions with degree-awarding powers.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to introduce non-statutory guidance on a whole school approach for preventing violence against women and girls in education settings.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department proposed to publish non-statutory guidance focusing on teaching about sexual harassment, sexual violence and violence against women and girls in response to a report by Ofsted into sexual abuse in schools and colleges following the tragic death of Sarah Everard. Once the current review of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance is complete, the department will consider how best to support schools to teach about this topic.
A new draft statutory RSHE guidance will be released at the earliest opportunity, which will then be subject to public consultation.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 the real term changes in funding for schools in Portsmouth South constituency between 2023-24 and 2024-25 on a) educational attainment of pupils b) classroom sizes and c) classroom resources.
Answered by Damian Hinds
This government is committed to providing a world-class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Nationally, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including additional funding for teachers’ pay, is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25. This is the highest ever in real terms per pupil.
Through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s Dedicated School Grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
Through the 2023/24 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £5,814 per pupil. Through the 2024/25 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £6,135 per pupil. This is a cash increase of 2.0% compared to 2023/24. This increase is after taking into account the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG), which the department has rolled into the schools NFF in 2024/25, to ensure that this additional funding forms an on-going part of schools’ core budgets.
These constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations. Schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ funding formulae.
The figures do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG). Nor do they include other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.
The government provides these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead. However, schools have autonomy over their own spending and should use this to raise attainment as well as to manage their classroom resources.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real term change in average per pupil spending was in Portsmouth South constituency between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
This government is committed to providing a world-class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Nationally, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including additional funding for teachers’ pay, is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25. This is the highest ever in real terms per pupil.
Through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s Dedicated School Grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
Through the 2023/24 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £5,814 per pupil. Through the 2024/25 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £6,135 per pupil. This is a cash increase of 2.0% compared to 2023/24. This increase is after taking into account the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG), which the department has rolled into the schools NFF in 2024/25, to ensure that this additional funding forms an on-going part of schools’ core budgets.
These constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations. Schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ funding formulae.
The figures do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG). Nor do they include other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.
The government provides these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead. However, schools have autonomy over their own spending and should use this to raise attainment as well as to manage their classroom resources.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools have not completed the Government survey on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Damian Hinds
It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
All responsible bodies were requested to complete a questionnaire. We now have responses to these questionnaires for all of the schools with blocks built in the target era, of which there are 15,158.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse has been of school building repairs in each year since 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The Department will spend what it takes to keep children safe. This includes paying for the emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including alternative classroom space where necessary, and supporting schools with remedial works – this is the Department’s immediate focus. Where schools need additional help with revenue costs like transport to other locations, the Department is actively engaging with every school affected to put appropriate support in place. The Department expects to fund all reasonable revenue costs related to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). It will also fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where needed, to rectify RAAC for the long term.
The Department is providing funding to improve the condition of the school estate, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24. This funding is informed by consistent data on the condition of the estate. On top of this, the Department will transform 500 schools through its School Rebuilding Programme, prioritising buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues.
Local authorities, larger multi academy trusts and larger voluntary aided school bodies are eligible to receive an annual School Condition Allocation (SCA) for maintaining and improving the condition of the schools for which they are responsible. Small and standalone academy trusts, small voluntary aided school bodies and sixth-form colleges are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year for specific capital projects to improve the condition of their buildings. Further details are available at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund. Schools also receive Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) each year to spend on small capital projects or contribute to larger projects. As part of the overall condition funding allocated, the Department has provided one off allocations in some years. This includes £560 million in 2020/21 allocated through SCA and CIF, as well as £447 million allocated in 2022/23 to improve buildings prioritising energy efficiency.
Details of SCA and DFC, as well as overall funding for the Condition Improvement Fund, for the current financial year are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding#funding-allocations-for-the-2022-to-2023-financial-year; and for previous years, including one off allocations, at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations.
The figures do not include capital funding for the Department’s rebuilding programmes, which are delivering rebuilt and refurbished school buildings across the country.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools have not yet completed the Government survey on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's surveys of school buildings are visual inspections.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.