Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it is his policy to increase funding for schools where English is a second language for a significant proportion of pupils; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
Overall, core schools funding is increasing by £4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil from the 2021/22 financial year. This includes an increase in mainstream school funding for 5 to 16 year olds of £2.5 billion, which is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase, or an average of £300 per pupil.
Through the English as an additional language (EAL) factor in the national funding formula (NFF), schools attract funding for pupils who are classed as having EAL and who have started in the state-funded education system in England within the last three years. This equates to an additional £565 per primary school pupil and £1,530 per secondary school pupil in the 2022/23 financial year, meaning the NFF will distribute a total of £410 million through the EAL factor.
At present, the NFF is used to determine how much funding is provided to each local authority in England, and it is for each local authority, to set a local formula to distribute it between schools. Individual authorities can decide whether to include an EAL factor in their local formulae, and where they do, how much that factor should distribute. The government has made clear its intention to move to a ‘direct NFF’, which will determine schools’ budgets directly rather than through local formulae. This includes requiring all local authorities to use the NFF methodology of EAL3, meaning that all pupils with EAL that have entered the school system during the last three years will attract this funding. This will ensure that all schools in England will be guaranteed to receive funding in respect of their pupils with EAL.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that teachers and other education staff can choose to be accompanied to disciplinary or grievance hearings by a person other than a trade union representative or colleague.
Answered by Robin Walker
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is supportive in principle of a change to the Employment Relations Act 1999 to give teachers who are not members of a trade union the right to be accompanied by a representative of another professional body, such as Edapt, to disciplinary and grievance meetings.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help support students who have been disrupted by industrial action called by unions representing university staff.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Students have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and any further disruption caused to their learning is wholly unfair and completely unnecessary.
Young people have already sacrificed enough during this pandemic and students should be able to enjoy the full university experience. Students deserve good quality, face-to-face teaching from their universities, and we need a resolution that delivers this for them as soon as possible. It is what the vast majority of teaching staff want, and what students rightly expect.
The Office for Students (OfS) have wide-ranging powers to ensure students’ interests are protected, and they expect providers to do all they can to avoid disruption to students. The OfS has written to universities to make their expectations clear: universities must abide by the conditions of registration and ensure they meet obligations under consumer protection law in relation to the impact of industrial action.
Higher education providers are autonomous and responsible for the pay and pension provision of their staff. While government has no direct role in the disputes, we have been clear that we want this disagreement resolved in a way that avoids further disrupting students’ learning. We strongly encourage a resolution that delivers good value for students, staff, and providers.
Students who have complaints about their higher education experience should contact their provider in the first instance. Where a student remains unsatisfied once they have been to their provider, they can approach the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) who can consider their complaint. The OIA has published a guide to handling complaints arising from significant disruption: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/providers/handling-complaints-arising-from-significant-disruption.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support and (b) offer redress to university students whose face-to-face teaching has been replaced by online and pre-recorded lectures since the lifting of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Higher education (HE) providers have delivered new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning, and some providers continue to use some of these approaches alongside in-person provision. However, online learning should only be offered to enhance the student experience, not to detract from it, and it should not be used as a cost-cutting measure.
The department has written to all English HE providers to make clear that we expect them to be offering a high-quality face-to-face student experience and, on 17 January 2022, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote an open letter to students about face-to-face teaching, setting out what they can do if they feel they are not getting the teaching they signed up for. In addition, I have been speaking with a number of university Vice Chancellors to ensure they are offering students the amount of in-person teaching they should expect, including speaking with seven universities regarding concerns about their face to face teaching provision to ensure they are offering students the amount of in-person teaching they expect.
In line with all other settings, HE providers should continue to conduct risk assessments for their particular circumstances. Risk assessments should take account of the approach to managing the virus in wider society, particularly now that all restrictions have been removed and the vaccine programme continues to be rolled out. Risk assessments should never be used to prevent providers delivering a full programme of face-to-face teaching and learning.
HE providers are independent and autonomous bodies which are responsible for the management of their own affairs. If students have concerns about the delivery of their university courses, they should first raise them with their provider. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for HE to consider their complaint. Recommendations can include practical remedies as well as financial compensation where that is deemed appropriate.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue guidance to universities that they are not to require (a) healthcare students, (b) social care students and (c) any other students to be vaccinated against covid-19 as a condition of education.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
There is no requirement for students to be vaccinated to access education. However, we strongly encourage all students to be vaccinated as soon as possible, unless they are medically exempt.
On 31 January 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that the legal requirement for health and social care staff to be fully vaccinated is to be removed, subject to consultation and parliamentary approval. The outcome of the consultation will be published soon.
While the legal requirement on vaccinations as a condition of deployment is set to be revoked, those working in health and social care are still strongly urged to get vaccinated and boosted as a professional responsibility.
We will continue working with DHSC, Health Education England and NHS England as this policy area evolves to make sure messages on vaccinations are communicated clearly to students.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Government contracts for the provision of school breakfasts.
Answered by Will Quince
The government is committed to continuing support for school breakfast clubs in England and is further investing up to £24 million to continue our national programme for the next two years. This funding will support around 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas in England, including opportunity areas. This means that thousands of children from low-income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn.
The breakfast clubs programme is operated by our provider Family Action.
Throughout the current contract we will be working with this provider to monitor different aspects of the current programme and its effectiveness on school breakfast provisions. We will consider the best opportunities to share information as it progresses.
The department made a £38 million investment in the National School Breakfast Programme between March 2018 and July 2021. This has helped to set up or improve breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools in disadvantaged areas and to sustain them in the longer term.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the cost-effectiveness of the Music and Dance Scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department has a long-term commitment to ensuring that high-quality dance and music education is not the preserve of the elite, but the entitlement of every single child.
The Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) allows exceptionally talented children to attend specialist music and dance education providers. The scheme provides bursaries and grants totalling around £30 million per annum to children and young people with exceptional potential, regardless of their personal circumstances, to benefit from world-class specialist music or dance training.
The department regularly assesses the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of all programmes, including the MDS. The department is working with MDS providers to improve the information collected from them each year, so future assessments can be improved.
Following the Spending Review, the department will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years, though our music, arts and heritage programmes, and this includes the Music and Dance Scheme.