Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequate provision of nursery places across England following changes to the number of children eligible for free nursery hours.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In the Spring Budget announcement of 15 March 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children, and the economy. By 2027/28, the government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
Our reforms include:
The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity.
We will also continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable at 1.3 million places since August 2015.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
We will continue to work closely with the sector on the implementation of these reforms and explore how we can support the sector to deliver the additional places that will be required. The department will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to increase teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As at the last school workforce census (November 2021, published in June 2022), the number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 24,000 more than in 2010.
The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession. The Department announced a £181 million financial incentives package for those starting initial teacher training in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing. The Department has expanded the offer to international trainees in physics and languages.
Additionally, the Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 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.
The Department has recently raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching.
To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the Department has rolled out the Early Career Framework nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching. This is backed by over £130 million a year in funding.
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.
The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside headteachers to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of how many children are at increased risk of domestic abuse as a result of being severely absent from school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Regular school attendance is vital for pupils’ educational attainment, wellbeing, and wider development. For those pupils most at risk of harm, it is also an important safeguarding factor.
Most absence from school is accounted for by illness. Pupils who miss more than 50% of possible school sessions in a school year are considered to be severely absent. In the 2021/22 academic year, the severe absence rate was 1.7%.
As part of the drive to improve school attendance, the Department published the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance last year, which makes clear the importance of addressing the barriers to attendance through strong, multi agency working at school, multi academy trust, and Local Authority level. This includes a specific focus on identifying and supporting those pupils most at risk of persistent and severe absence from school to tackle absence early and put plans in place to improve attendance.
Schools and Local Authorities should agree a joint approach to supporting severely absent pupils, recognising that their needs are often more complex, and they are more likely to need support from a number of agencies locally.
The statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018)’ emphasises that safeguarding is the responsibility of all professionals who work with children. Where a professional has concerns about a child, they should make an immediate referral to Local Authority children’s social care. It is the responsibility of Local Authority children’s services to assess children’s risk of harm. The latest data from 2021/22, shows that domestic abuse remains one of the most common factors identified in Children's Social Care Assessments.
While there have been no specific discussions with my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, on severe absence, the Home Office and the Department for Education have regular discussions on areas of joint interest. This includes the Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (SAFE) taskforces in mainstream schools and the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces, which involve specialist support for children disengaged from education to improve their attendance and reduce their involvement in serious violence. The Secretary of State for Education chairs an Attendance Action Alliance of leaders of key frontline services that support families. Members from education, health, justice, the third sector, and parent organisations meet regularly and have collectively committed to use their roles and organisations to undertake activities to improve attendance and tackle persistent absence from school.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has a target for reducing the number of pupils who are severely absent from school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Regular school attendance is vital for pupils’ educational attainment, wellbeing, and wider development. For those pupils most at risk of harm, it is also an important safeguarding factor.
Most absence from school is accounted for by illness. Pupils who miss more than 50% of possible school sessions in a school year are considered to be severely absent. In the 2021/22 academic year, the severe absence rate was 1.7%.
As part of the drive to improve school attendance, the Department published the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance last year, which makes clear the importance of addressing the barriers to attendance through strong, multi agency working at school, multi academy trust, and Local Authority level. This includes a specific focus on identifying and supporting those pupils most at risk of persistent and severe absence from school to tackle absence early and put plans in place to improve attendance.
Schools and Local Authorities should agree a joint approach to supporting severely absent pupils, recognising that their needs are often more complex, and they are more likely to need support from a number of agencies locally.
The statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018)’ emphasises that safeguarding is the responsibility of all professionals who work with children. Where a professional has concerns about a child, they should make an immediate referral to Local Authority children’s social care. It is the responsibility of Local Authority children’s services to assess children’s risk of harm. The latest data from 2021/22, shows that domestic abuse remains one of the most common factors identified in Children's Social Care Assessments.
While there have been no specific discussions with my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, on severe absence, the Home Office and the Department for Education have regular discussions on areas of joint interest. This includes the Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (SAFE) taskforces in mainstream schools and the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces, which involve specialist support for children disengaged from education to improve their attendance and reduce their involvement in serious violence. The Secretary of State for Education chairs an Attendance Action Alliance of leaders of key frontline services that support families. Members from education, health, justice, the third sector, and parent organisations meet regularly and have collectively committed to use their roles and organisations to undertake activities to improve attendance and tackle persistent absence from school.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the safeguarding of children who are severely absent from school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Regular school attendance is vital for pupils’ educational attainment, wellbeing, and wider development. For those pupils most at risk of harm, it is also an important safeguarding factor.
Most absence from school is accounted for by illness. Pupils who miss more than 50% of possible school sessions in a school year are considered to be severely absent. In the 2021/22 academic year, the severe absence rate was 1.7%.
As part of the drive to improve school attendance, the Department published the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance last year, which makes clear the importance of addressing the barriers to attendance through strong, multi agency working at school, multi academy trust, and Local Authority level. This includes a specific focus on identifying and supporting those pupils most at risk of persistent and severe absence from school to tackle absence early and put plans in place to improve attendance.
Schools and Local Authorities should agree a joint approach to supporting severely absent pupils, recognising that their needs are often more complex, and they are more likely to need support from a number of agencies locally.
The statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018)’ emphasises that safeguarding is the responsibility of all professionals who work with children. Where a professional has concerns about a child, they should make an immediate referral to Local Authority children’s social care. It is the responsibility of Local Authority children’s services to assess children’s risk of harm. The latest data from 2021/22, shows that domestic abuse remains one of the most common factors identified in Children's Social Care Assessments.
While there have been no specific discussions with my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, on severe absence, the Home Office and the Department for Education have regular discussions on areas of joint interest. This includes the Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (SAFE) taskforces in mainstream schools and the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces, which involve specialist support for children disengaged from education to improve their attendance and reduce their involvement in serious violence. The Secretary of State for Education chairs an Attendance Action Alliance of leaders of key frontline services that support families. Members from education, health, justice, the third sector, and parent organisations meet regularly and have collectively committed to use their roles and organisations to undertake activities to improve attendance and tackle persistent absence from school.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schoolchildren were persistently absent in the 2021-22 academic year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the number of pupils who were persistently absent is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on childcare funding.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department’s ministers and officials have regular discussions with HM Treasury on matters relating to early years funding.
On 15 March 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that the hourly rates for the entitlements will be substantially uplifted, on top of additional investments announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review and on 16 December 2022.
The department will provide £204 million of additional funding this year, increasing to £288 million by 2024/25, for local authorities to further increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers, with further uplifts to follow each year. This will include an average of 30% increase in the two-year-old rate from September 2023 and mean that in 2024, the average hourly rate for two-year-olds will be more than £8 per hour and around £11 per hour for under twos. The average three to four-year-old rate will rise in line with inflation, to over £5.50 per hour from September 2023, with further uplifts beyond this.
This funding is in addition to the £4.1 billion that the government will provide by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of the new free hours offer, under which all eligible working parents in England will, by September 2025, be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's Condition of School Buildings Survey, published in May 2021, what recent assessment she has made of the safety of school buildings.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department published a high level Condition Data Collection (CDC) Key Findings Report in 2021, which estimated the cost of remedial work to repair or replace all defective elements in the school estate in England to be £11.4 billion. The report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
The Department is currently updating the data on school building condition in the successor programme, CDC2, which is due for completion in 2026. A full assessment of the remedial costs to repair or replace all defective elements in the school estate cannot be made until completion of the programme.
The Department has allocated over £13 billion since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in 2022/23. This is informed by consistent data on the school estate. The School Rebuilding Programme will rebuild or refurbish buildings at 500 schools over the next decade, prioritising schools in poor condition and with potential safety issues. 400 schools have been announced to date, including 239 in December 2022.
It is the responsibility of the academy trusts and Local Authorities which look after school buildings to maintain them and keep them safe. In 2021, the Department wrote to every responsible body signposting them to available support, reminding them of their responsibility to maintain the safety of their buildings, and inviting them to contact the Department regarding any serious structural issues in their buildings. The Department has been following up individually with the schools that responded to this, steering them towards available funding routes and guidance, and, in some cases, sending a technical adviser to visit the school.
The Department has also sent a questionnaire to all responsible bodies asking them to provide information on Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in their school buildings. The Department has engaged buildings professionals to work with schools who have reported they suspect RAAC is present to verify its presence and assess its condition. Where the presence of RAAC is confirmed, the Department helps schools with appropriate support.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding allocated to the maintenance and renewal of school buildings in the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Over £9 billion has been allocated between the 2018/19 and 2022/23 financial years for keeping schools safe and operational and improving the condition of the school estate, including £1.8 billion in 2022/23. These allocations are informed by consistent data on the condition of schools.
The figure for 2022/23 includes annual School Condition Allocations for Local Authorities, larger multi academy trusts and larger voluntary aided (VA) school bodies to prioritise improving the condition of their schools. It also includes funding for the Condition Improvement Fund, into which smaller and single academy trusts, small VA bodies and sixth form colleges can bid for specific capital projects each year, and Devolved Formula Capital allocated to each school to spend on their own capital priorities. The Department provided an additional £447 million to schools in 2022/23 for capital works, prioritising energy efficiency.
In 2020 the Department announced the School Rebuilding Programme, with a commitment to transform buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the next decade, prioritising those in the worst condition and with evidence of potential safety issues. 400 schools have been announced to date, including 239 last December.
Where the Department is alerted to significant safety issues with a building that cannot be managed with local resources, additional support is provided on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to ensure adequate funding is available to ensure the safety of school buildings.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Over £9 billion has been allocated between the 2018/19 and 2022/23 financial years for keeping schools safe and operational and improving the condition of the school estate, including £1.8 billion in 2022/23. These allocations are informed by consistent data on the condition of schools.
The figure for 2022/23 includes annual School Condition Allocations for Local Authorities, larger multi academy trusts and larger voluntary aided (VA) school bodies to prioritise improving the condition of their schools. It also includes funding for the Condition Improvement Fund, into which smaller and single academy trusts, small VA bodies and sixth form colleges can bid for specific capital projects each year, and Devolved Formula Capital allocated to each school to spend on their own capital priorities. The Department provided an additional £447 million to schools in 2022/23 for capital works, prioritising energy efficiency.
In 2020 the Department announced the School Rebuilding Programme, with a commitment to transform buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the next decade, prioritising those in the worst condition and with evidence of potential safety issues. 400 schools have been announced to date, including 239 last December.
Where the Department is alerted to significant safety issues with a building that cannot be managed with local resources, additional support is provided on a case by case basis.