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Written Question
Family Conciliation Services
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 June 2024 to Question 17775 on Family Conciliation Services, for what reason her Department does not monitor the number of therapists offering reunification therapy services in England and Wales who help with cases of family breakdown.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This is not a matter for the Department for Education, therefore, the department does not collect this data.


Written Question
Family Conciliation Services
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of the number of therapists offering reunification therapy services to help with cases of family breakdown.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The information requested is not held centrally.


Written Question
Schools: Admissions
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled Selective Comprehensives 2024, published by the Sutton Trust on 11 January 2024, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the school admissions code.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The School Admissions Code sets the requirements for admission arrangements for all mainstream, state-funded schools. It requires admission arrangements to be fair, clear and objective, and contains various provisions to ensure that children from low-income backgrounds are not unfairly disadvantaged in the admissions system.

The department keeps the provisions of the Code under review to ensure they continue to remain fit for purpose.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Thursday 7th December 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers with qualified teacher status have enrolled on subject knowledge enhancement courses in each year since 2018.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Government funded subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses are not available to teachers who already hold qualified teacher status (QTS). The SKE programme supports recruitment to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in subjects with the biggest sufficiency challenges. It is only available to candidates who have a conditional offer of a place on an ITT programme which leads to the award of QTS.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Thursday 7th December 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of trainee teachers who are enrolled on initial teacher training programmes are also enrolled on subject knowledge enhancement courses in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The information requested is not held centrally. The department does not hold exact matching data showing the number of Initial Teacher Training participants who have undertaken a subject knowledge enhancement course.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Thursday 7th December 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of participants on subject knowledge enhancement courses are eligible for bursary funding.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

For academic year 2022/2023, there were 3075 participants undertaking a subject knowledge enhancement course (SKE). For academic year 2022/2023, there were 3,075 participants undertaking an SKE. Of these, 2,940 (approximately 96%) were eligible for an SKE bursary.


Written Question
Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre: Buildings
Thursday 19th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 September 2022 to Question 45406 on Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre: Buildings, what recent progress his Department has made on preparing the former East Ham Police Station building for use by Newham Collegiate School.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department has entered a building contract and work began on site in March 2023. These works are scheduled to complete by September 2024, which is when the former East Ham Police Station will be handed over to the school. This will allow the school to increase its capacity to 800 students overall, from September 2024.


Written Question
Children: Social Services
Monday 16th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Transformation to children's social care to put families first, published 26 July 2023, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of piloting the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Stable Homes, Built on Love Strategy for Children’s Social Care, which was the Government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, announced an additional £200 million for system transformation until 2024/25.

The initial £200 million investment supported the urgent first phase of reform, testing and learning which interventions work, and this included a number of pathfinders covering the Families First for Children pathfinder, fostering and regional care co-operatives.

Longer term funding decisions to scale up these reforms will be made in subsequent Spending Review periods.


Written Question
National School Breakfast Programme
Monday 18th September 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to engage with schools during the tender process for the national school breakfast club programme.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department has confirmed that the National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) has been extended for an additional year, from July 2023 until July 2024. The Department is currently undertaking market engagement on future arrangements for school breakfast provision for delivery after July 2024.

Any future funding invested by the Department in National Breakfast Clubs is subject to future funding approvals and the outcome of the next Spending Review.

The contract will be awarded to a provider that is able to demonstrate that they can meet the needs of a school taking part in the NSBP. To achieve this, the Department will engage with schools to ensure that the tender process meets the needs of schools that are currently on the NSBP and those looking to join the programme.

Engaging with schools will ensure their views are listened to and influence the evaluation process. This will help retain what is currently working well and improve any areas that may not be meeting the expectations of schools.


Written Question
Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education: Public Consultation
Wednesday 19th July 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to engage with parents in its relationships, sex and health education public consultation review; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The first phase of the review of the RSHE statutory guidance started in March 2023. All parents will have an opportunity to present their views as part of the public consultation on revised guidance due to be launched in autumn 2023.

In developing revised guidance for consultation, the Department have asked a range of stakeholders including a number of groups representing parents, to share evidence about areas of the guidance they would like to see strengthened.

Parents have also been invited to contribute their views directly in roundtables with ministers focusing on key topics such as suicide prevention and RSHE teaching materials.