Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of children who are at risk of experiencing hunger during the school summer holidays in 2019.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally.
In 2018, the department announced a programme of work to explore ways of supporting disadvantaged families during school holidays. We received 94 applications for funding from organisations across the country, for a share of £2 million.
The 2018 programme saw charities and community groups provide meals and activities such as football, play sessions, and cooking classes for more than 18,000 children across the country. Building on this, the department has quadrupled funding and strengthened the programme to encourage coordination in local communities, so that even more disadvantaged children can benefit from the programme. Applications were invited from organisations to act as coordinators in a specific local authority area. The 2019 programme received 92 applications and selected 11 locations for funding, including at least one in each of the 9 regions of England. This summer, around 50,000 disadvantaged children will be offered free meals and activities over the upcoming summer holidays, funded by £9.1 million.
The purpose of this programme is to allow us to gather more evidence about the scale of the issue, the most effective ways of tackling it, and the costs and delivery challenges associated with doing so. As a result, the department will be able to make an evidence based decision about whether and how we should intervene in the longer term.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to families with children who are at risk of experiencing hunger during the school summer holidays in 2019.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally.
In 2018, the department announced a programme of work to explore ways of supporting disadvantaged families during school holidays. We received 94 applications for funding from organisations across the country, for a share of £2 million.
The 2018 programme saw charities and community groups provide meals and activities such as football, play sessions, and cooking classes for more than 18,000 children across the country. Building on this, the department has quadrupled funding and strengthened the programme to encourage coordination in local communities, so that even more disadvantaged children can benefit from the programme. Applications were invited from organisations to act as coordinators in a specific local authority area. The 2019 programme received 92 applications and selected 11 locations for funding, including at least one in each of the 9 regions of England. This summer, around 50,000 disadvantaged children will be offered free meals and activities over the upcoming summer holidays, funded by £9.1 million.
The purpose of this programme is to allow us to gather more evidence about the scale of the issue, the most effective ways of tackling it, and the costs and delivery challenges associated with doing so. As a result, the department will be able to make an evidence based decision about whether and how we should intervene in the longer term.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to increase the accessibility of childcare in Merseyside.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government provides the following childcare support to parents and foster parents:
It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that every child that is eligible for the 15 hours and 30 hours of free childcare is able to access a place. Local authorities also have a statutory duty to provide parents with information, advice and guidance on their websites about how these childcare offers can be accessed locally.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department has issued to schools on identifying pupils who are young carers; and what steps is he taking to help ensure that young carers achieve the same standards of educational attainment at GCSE level as other pupils.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government is committed to supporting young carers so that they are properly protected from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities and supported to achieve their full potential.
We know that consistent identification of young carers remains challenging, which is why we have funded the Carers Trust to review and disseminate best practice in the identification of young carers - this commitment was set out in the Carers Action Plan 2018-20. The Children in Need review is also identifying how to spread best practice on raising educational outcomes of children in need, including those young carers assessed as being in need.
The department provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils; each eligible pupil attracts £1,320 to primary schools and £935 to secondary schools. Eligibility for the pupil premium is based largely on current or past claims for free school meals. Some research with young carers aged 14-16 suggested that around 60% already attract the pupil premium through their eligibility for free school meals.
We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium and do not tell them how to use it. Schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant to meet pupils needs, which may include needs arising from a caring role. Schools are held to account for their pupil premium use through school inspection and information in performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details about their pupil premium strategy and its impact. These are national programmes of work which will benefit young carers across England. The department is not undertaking regional programmes at this time.
We recognise, however, that there are issues that are specific to the North East around education and employment prospects for children and young people. That is why, in October 2018, the department committed £24 million to Opportunity North East, in order to tackle issues holding back young people from all communities, raise aspiration, and boost social mobility in the region.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support young carers with their education in (a) Merseyside, (b) the North West of England and (c) the rest of England.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government is committed to supporting young carers so that they are properly protected from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities and supported to achieve their full potential.
We know that consistent identification of young carers remains challenging, which is why we have funded the Carers Trust to review and disseminate best practice in the identification of young carers - this commitment was set out in the Carers Action Plan 2018-20. The Children in Need review is also identifying how to spread best practice on raising educational outcomes of children in need, including those young carers assessed as being in need.
The department provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils; each eligible pupil attracts £1,320 to primary schools and £935 to secondary schools. Eligibility for the pupil premium is based largely on current or past claims for free school meals. Some research with young carers aged 14-16 suggested that around 60% already attract the pupil premium through their eligibility for free school meals.
We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium and do not tell them how to use it. Schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant to meet pupils needs, which may include needs arising from a caring role. Schools are held to account for their pupil premium use through school inspection and information in performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details about their pupil premium strategy and its impact. These are national programmes of work which will benefit young carers across England. The department is not undertaking regional programmes at this time.
We recognise, however, that there are issues that are specific to the North East around education and employment prospects for children and young people. That is why, in October 2018, the department committed £24 million to Opportunity North East, in order to tackle issues holding back young people from all communities, raise aspiration, and boost social mobility in the region.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of Ofsted excluding young carers from its 2019 Draft Inspection Framework on schools' ability to identify young carers early and initiate support.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
No group of pupils is considered less important than another, and we would not expect schools to become negligent in their support of vulnerable pupils due to an absence of named groups in Ofsted's proposed new inspection framework.
While Ofsted could list all of the different groups that schools need to consider, including young carers, it believes an exhaustive list fails to acknowledge that many pupils may fit into several groups. Ofsted has consulted on its proposed new inspection framework and its response to the consultation will be published shortly.
The government is committed to supporting young carers, so they are safeguarded from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities and supported to achieve their full potential.
As well as delivering the commitments set out in the Carers Action Plan 2018-20, we have also launched the Children in Need Review. This will identify how to spread best practice on raising educational outcomes of children in need, including young carers assessed as being in need.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on educating young people on road safety.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are free to cover teaching about road safety as part of their duty to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, including through their Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education provision. Schools can draw on resources available from many providers including, in relation to road safety, the THINK! Campaign developed by the Department for Transport (DfT). Information on the campaign is available at the following link: https://www.think.gov.uk.
During the stakeholder engagement process and call for evidence about the curriculum content for Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and about the future status of PSHE, the Department for Education engaged with 90 organisations and other Government Departments, including the DfT.
On 25 February, following a 17 week consultation, the Department published an updated draft of the guidance on Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education, and laid the regulations for debate in Parliament.