Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of projected inflation rates on real-terms funding for schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
This government continues to deliver year on year, real terms per pupil increases to school funding, with the total core school budget increasing to £56.8 billion by 2024/25, a £7 billion cash increase, compared with 2021/22.
Future increases in funding have been frontloaded to rapidly get money to schools, so that in 2022/23 alone core schools funding will increase by £4 billion compared to 2021/22. This means that the total funding allocated to schools and high needs will see a 7% cash terms per pupil boost in 2022/23, compared to 2021/22. As part of this investment, mainstream school funding for 5-16 year olds is increasing by £2.5 billion in 2022/23, compared to this year. This is equivalent to an average 5.8% cash increase per pupil.
More information on school revenue funding from 2010/2011 through to 2022/2023, including the department’s latest statistical release from January 2022, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to increase access to specialist higher education facilities for people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This government believes it is important that disabled students receive an appropriate level of support wherever and whatever they choose to study and is committed to ensuring that all students with disabilities receive the support they need to enable them to study alongside their fellow students on an equal basis.
The government expects all higher education (HE) providers to fulfil their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to be making reasonable adjustments for all disabled higher education students.
Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their HE provider.
The support students need will relate to their impairment or impairments. The attached table shows numbers of disabled students by impairment type in the 2020/21 academic year.
Disabled Students’ Allowance is available in addition to the reasonable adjustments made by HE providers for the provision of more specialist support such as British Sign Language interpretation.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 efforts to recruit and retain new social workers.
Answered by Will Quince
The number of full time equivalent (FTE) child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England is increasing every year. On 30 September 2021, there were 32,500 FTE child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England. This is an increase of 2.0% compared to 2020, and an increase of 14.1% compared to 2017.
While the department recognises this may not be the picture some local authorities are seeing on the ground, we are working closely with local authorities and using central programmes and funding to respond to their needs.
The department is supporting the recruitment and retention of social workers through our investment in fast track initial social worker training programmes, and in professional development programmes to improve leadership. We are also seeing some innovative practices from local authorities that are driving down agency rates and stabilising their workforces.
Our COVID-19 Recovery Action Plan aims to stabilise and strengthen children’s social care as we transition out of the pandemic, so we deliver well for children and young people and provide a strong foundation for longer-term reform, informed by the Care Review.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure there are high levels of staff retention within the social work sector.
Answered by Will Quince
The number of full time equivalent (FTE) child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England is increasing every year. On 30 September 2021, there were 32,500 FTE child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England. This is an increase of 2.0% compared to 2020, and an increase of 14.1% compared to 2017.
While the department recognises this may not be the picture some local authorities are seeing on the ground, we are working closely with local authorities and using central programmes and funding to respond to their needs.
The department is supporting the recruitment and retention of social workers through our investment in fast track initial social worker training programmes, and in professional development programmes to improve leadership. We are also seeing some innovative practices from local authorities that are driving down agency rates and stabilising their workforces.
Our COVID-19 Recovery Action Plan aims to stabilise and strengthen children’s social care as we transition out of the pandemic, so we deliver well for children and young people and provide a strong foundation for longer-term reform, informed by the Care Review.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of a profession-led review of the assessment system used in primary schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
In 2017, the government carried out a consultation into primary assessment in England, with the aim of creating a settled policy in this area. The consultation received over 4,000 responses from a diverse range of backgrounds and specialisms, providing a broad and informed range of views that informed policy on the current primary assessment system.
The department is now reaching the end of the programme of reform to the current primary assessment system that arose as a result. As such, the department has no current plans to undertake further major reform.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on primary education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the appropriateness of the (a) phonics screening check in year 1, (b) autumn term phonics screening check in year 2, (c) key stage 1 SATs in year 2, (d) multiplication tables check in year 4 and (e) key stage 2 SATs in year 6 as a form of assessment.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is taking forward a full programme of primary assessments to take place in the 2021/22 academic year. The assessments will help parents, schools, and the department to understand more clearly the impact of the pandemic on pupils, and how this varies between particular groups of pupils (for example, disadvantaged pupils), schools, and local authority areas.
At a local level, the data will provide vital information to parents about their child’s attainment, support transition to secondary schools, and identify where additional support is best targeted to individuals. At a national level, the data will help inform policy decisions about support for schools, enable analysis to underpin education recovery initiatives and understand their effectiveness, and to track system progress as we emerge from the pandemic.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the £30 million programme of SAFE taskforces will be allocated to be spent on (a) looked after children and (b) all other children.
Answered by Will Quince
Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (SAFE) Taskforces will be led by mainstream schools in serious violence hotspots to support those most vulnerable to serious violence to re-engage with their education.
At a national level, 0.7% of pupils in state-funded secondary schools were looked after at any point in academic year 2018/19. We know that children who are looked after are more likely to enter the youth justice system. For example, between 6% and 8% of children aged 10-17 years in care enter the youth justice system, more than double the percentage of children in the general population. Each SAFE Taskforce will undertake quantitative and qualitative assessments of their area’s own specific local needs, to inform which cohorts they will focus on. This assessment will include information such as the social care background of pupils.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of the £15 million from the Treasury’s shared outcomes fund to support a two year programme to keep pupils in alternative provision will be allocated to be spent on (a) looked after children and (b) all other children.
Answered by Will Quince
The alternative provision (AP) specialist taskforce programme is working in 22 serious violence hotspots in England and is designed to support pupils in AP settings most at risk of involvement in serious violence. AP specialist taskforce funding will be spent according to the identified needs of pupils in each AP setting. At a national level, of the pupils with sole or main registration in state place-funded AP in academic year 2018/19, 8.1% were looked after by a local authority at some point in the year. This compares to 0.66% of pupils in all state-funded schools.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of progress in improvement to special educational needs and disability provisions in Birmingham since the introduction of a SEND Commissioner in October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
Since his appointment, the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Commissioner, John Coughlan, has been working closely with Birmingham City Council and its key partners and stakeholders, including schools, to understand the system challenges that contributed to the local area’s failure to make sufficient progress in all previously identified areas of significant weakness, to assess the council’s capacity and capability to improve services at pace.
Ensuring children and young people with SEND in Birmingham receive the right support when they need it is a priority. The SEND Commissioner is preparing his final report, including recommendations, for the improvement of SEND services. I will consider this carefully upon receipt.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will amend the School Admissions Code to ensure that faith schools give priority to (a) looked after and (b) previously looked after children when considering applications.
Answered by Robin Walker
Schools designated by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, as having a religious character (more commonly known as faith schools) may use faith-based oversubscription criteria and allocate places by reference to faith where the school is oversubscribed. As with all other publicly funded mainstream schools, faith schools must offer every child who applies, whether of the faith, another faith or no faith, a place at the school if there are places available.
The School Admissions Code already requires admission authorities of all mainstream schools to give priority in their oversubscription criteria to looked after children and previously looked after children.
Where a faith school adopts faith-based oversubscription criteria, they must, as a minimum, give priority to all looked after children and previously looked after children of the faith, before giving priority to other children of the faith.
Where any element of priority is given in relation to children not of the faith, they must first give priority to looked after children and previously looked after children not of the faith above other children not of the faith.