Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children are not hungry at school.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department provides a range of support designed to ensure that children in schools are provided with healthy and nutritious meals throughout the school day.
The department is investing up to £35 million in the National School Breakfast Programme until the end of July 2025. This funding is supporting up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from low-income families are being offered free nutritious breakfasts at school to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.
In addition to this, the department spends over £1 billion a year on free school meals, including £600 million for Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM). Under the benefits-based criteria, two million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for free meals. Close to 1.3 million additional infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the UIFSM policy in 2014. In total, over one third of pupils are in receipt of this crucial support, which is up from one in six in 2010.
Furthermore, the department provides over 2.2 million children in reception and Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.
The department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools through ‘The Requirements for School Food Regulations’ (2014), which require schools to provide children with healthy food and drink options and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to help teachers reduce vaping in classrooms.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises. The department supports head teachers in taking proportionate and measured steps to ensure good behaviour in schools. To support schools to do so, the department has strengthened the Behaviour in Schools guidance which is the primary source of help and support for schools on developing and implementing a behaviour policy that can create a school culture which has high expectations of all pupils. This guidance outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour and the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour, including vaping anywhere in school.
Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include e-cigarettes or vapes. School staff can search pupils for banned items as outlined in the department’s searching, screening and confiscation guidance available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation.
On 1 June 2023, the Prime Minister announced an intervention which will take steps to prevent children obtaining e-cigarettes illegally. The government consulted on measures to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children. The consultation response will be published in the coming weeks.
The department is planning to include a specific reference to the dangers of e-cigarettes in the amended relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum. The RSHE statutory guidance sets out the curriculum topics and already states that in primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks. This includes smoking, alcohol use, and drug taking. To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department published a suite of teacher training modules, including drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes. The RSHE statutory guidance is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of difficulties in the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in Birmingham, Hall Green constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The most recent School workforce census shows that, as at November 2022, there are over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
Teacher numbers at a school level are published in the additional supporting files. This can be found in the School workforce census 2022 publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england#dataBlock-d32da738-358d-4c1f-955b-6c6f83552d65-tables. The department also produces national targets for postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) for each subject based on estimates from the Teacher Workforce Model to ensure focus on the right subjects each year. These are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets.
The department knows that some schools face challenges with recruitment and retention, particularly in some secondary subjects, and action is being taken to increase teacher recruitment and retention.
The department is offering a financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for those starting ITT in the 2024/25 academic year, including bursaries worth up to £28,000 and scholarships worth up to £30,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing. The department is also offering a £25,000 tax-free bursary for biology, design and technology, geography and languages (including ancient languages), and a £10,000 tax-free bursary for English, art and design, music and RE.
The department is providing a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within education investment areas (EIAs). For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be investing approximately £100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This builds on knowledge gained from similar pilots and will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.
There are 97 schools in the Birmingham local authority area eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, including nine schools in the Birmingham, Hall Green constituency. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
Earlier this year the department accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years and delivers the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers across England.
To support teacher retention across all school phases, the department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the education staff wellbeing charter. More than 3,000 schools have signed up to the wellbeing charter so far. The wellbeing charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. The workload reduction toolkit is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. As part of the pay announcement for 2023/24, the department also convened a workload reduction taskforce to explore how to further support trusts and school leaders to minimise workload.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of children getting a place at their preferred school in Birmingham.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities have a statutory duty, under Section 14 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that there are sufficient primary and secondary school places for all children living in their area, with a view to securing diversity of provision and increasing opportunities for parental choice and special educational provision for pupils who have Special Educational Needs. The department’s Pupil Place Planning Advisers engage with local authorities on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, they offer support and advice. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. This funding is based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. Local authorities can use the funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.
The funding is not ringfenced, subject to the conditions set out in the published Grant Determination Letter, nor is it time bound, meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities.
The department has announced Birmingham City Council will receive just over £51 million to support the provision of new school places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the 2022/23 and 2025/26 financial years. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just over £345.7 million.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to introduce mandatory training on (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism for secondary school teachers.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department considers all teachers as teachers of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including autism, and is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers.
The Teachers’ Standards set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils. To be awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), trainees must demonstrate that they have met all the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. The standards are also used to assess the performance of all teachers with QTS under the School Teachers’ Appraisal Regulations (2012). Therefore, most teachers need to adhere to the standards throughout their careers.
The Teachers’ Standards require teachers to adapt teaching to respond to the needs of all pupils, and to have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs.
To support all teachers in meeting the Teachers’ Standards, the department is implementing high-quality teacher training reforms which begins with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and continues as their careers progress. The department’s Universal Services programme, backed by almost £12 million, provides SEND-specific training to the school and college workforce, with over 100,000 professionals undertaking autism awareness training since 2022.
The department is exploring opportunities to build teacher expertise through a joint review of the ITT Core Content Framework and Early Career Framework. The review, due to published in early 2024, has an aim to support trainees and Early Career Teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND, including autism, both through engaging with the most up to date evidence to inform their practice, and applying this in the contexts in which they work as new teachers.
In May 2023, the department published guidance for accredited ITT providers and their partners, to support the involvement of special schools and alternative provision in ITT. The guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1157879/ITT_-_special_schools_and_alternative_provision_May_2023.pdf#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20produced%20to%20help%20accredited%20Initial,units%2C%20and%20mainstream%20schools%20with%20SEN%20resource%20units.
The department’s reforms to teacher recruitment and retention will support all teachers, including teachers of children with SEND.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to improve the safety of teenage care leavers living in semi-independent accommodation.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Every child growing up in care should have a stable, secure environment where they feel supported. That’s why the department has introduced mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for previously ‘unregulated’ independent and semi-independent accommodation for sixteen and seventeen year-old looked after children and care leavers.
The introduction of national standards and Ofsted registration requirements is vital to ensure that sixteen and seventeen year-olds in and leaving care have access to high quality accommodation and support, and action can be taken where provision is not good enough. The department has published guidance for the sector on the new requirements, which is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1187743/Guide_to_the_supported_accommodation_regulations_including_quality_standards.pdf.
Within the current spending review period, the department is providing £99.8 million of funding to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme. Going beyond this, the department is also providing an additional £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme. A further £3.2 million is being given to local authorities this year to provide extra support to care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.
The department is committed to actions set out in Stable Homes, Built on Love to ensure an increase in the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and a reduction in care leaver homelessness by 2027.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of the proportion of eligible school children who do not receive free school meals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming free school meals (FSM). FSM eligibility has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. Over a third of pupils in England now receive FSM in schools, compared with one in six in 2010.
The department wants to make it simple for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility. To support this, the department is providing an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department has also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM, and provided guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the uptake of T-level qualifications.
Answered by Robert Halfon
In order to raise awareness of T Levels, and to ensure that as many young people as possible benefit from these qualifications, the department has invested around £11 million in national communications campaigns. These campaigns will continue into at least 2025.
The department continues to work with the Careers and Enterprise Company and Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme to ensure students make informed decisions about qualifications at 16. In addition, the department has provided additional funding for all T Level providers to help them to promote T Levels locally in this financial year.
To support providers in scaling up their T Level provision, the department announced a 10% increase to the national funding rates for T Levels for the 2023/24 academic year. The department has also committed over £450 million in capital funding to ensure T Level students have access to high quality facilities and equipment. To help staff prepare to deliver T Levels, the T Level Professional Development programme continues to offer free support, with over 18,000 individuals in further education providers and schools benefitting.
Industry placements are a critical part of the T Level and the department is committed to ensuring a strong pipeline of employers across all sectors are ready to offer placements. The department has introduced a range of flexibilities to ensure that industry placements are deliverable across all industries. Since 2018/19 over £250 million has been invested in capacity funding to help providers build relationships with employers and secure high-quality industry placements. The department has also recently introduced a £12 million Employer Support Fund to support employers with the costs incurred when delivering placements in the 2023/24 financial year.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an estimate of how many newly qualified teachers work abroad because of (a) pay and (b) working conditions.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not collect data on teachers teaching outside England.
One of the department’s top priorities is to ensure that we continue to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers we need to inspire the next generation.
On 13 July 2023, the department announced that we are accepting the School Teachers Review Body’s (STRB) recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and headteachers. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received the highest pay award in over thirty years and it delivers our manifesto commitment of at least a £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country.
The department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development for all new teachers underpinned by the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction.
The department has also launched a new and updated suite of National Professional Qualifications for teachers and headteachers at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high-quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts.
There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The department’s reforms are aimed not only at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, but also at ensuring teachers stay and thrive in the profession.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has for extending the provision of funding for school breakfasts beyond July 2021.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Up to £24 million will be available to extend our support for school breakfast clubs until 2023, to make sure thousands of children in disadvantaged areas have a healthy start to the day.