Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of returning to a 26 weeks from the request for assessment for local authorities to finalise Education and Health Care Plans, as was the case for the previous statementing process.
Answered by Will Quince
The education, health and care plan (EHCP) needs assessment system was introduced as part of the new special educational needs and disability (SEND) Regulations in 2014 and is different from the assessment for a statement of special educational needs that had previously been in place.
The time limit of 20 weeks was set to reflect the changed process of assessment as well as responding to the need to ensure a smoother and swifter system for determining special educational provision for children and young people.
The department is currently looking at the EHCP process as a whole as part of the SEND Review.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a centralised system that pays for bursaries for trainee educational psychologists.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.
The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking with universities to increase the number of places on training courses for educational psychologists.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.
The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the capacity of local authorities, educational settings and health and care services to provide a high level of support and choice for families, as set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
Answered by Will Quince
The department closely monitors a range of data and intelligence to assess the operation and delivery of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. This includes data on:
The government recognises that the current SEND system does not deliver the outcomes we want or expect for children and young people with SEND, their families or the people and services who support them. The SEND Review is seeking to improve the outcomes for children, with high expectations and ambitions. We need to build a financially sustainable system, where there is clear accountability. The Review will publish as a green paper for full public consultation in the first three months of 2022.
The department, with SEND advisers and NHS England advisers, provides support and challenge to 89 local authority/health/social care areas who, following their Ofsted and CQC inspection or revisit, were required to produce a written statement of action (71 local authorities) or accelerated progress plan (19 local authorities) to improve the local areas’ ability to meet their statutory duties as set out in the SEND Code of Practice. In addition, the department commissions specialist support from delivery partners and delivers training programmes to local authorities, health and social care staff across the country on their statutory assessment duties.
We recognise that pressures on high needs budgets have contributed to some local authorities finding it difficult to manage their dedicated schools grant funding.
By financial year 2021-22, annual funding allocations to local authorities for high needs will have increased by more than £2 billion, or one third, since 2019-20. As a result of the recent Spending Review, overall funding for the core schools budget, from which high needs funding is drawn, will increase by a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to previous plans, representing further real terms per pupil increase each year. We will announce how that increase will be split between mainstream schools and high needs in due course.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate the Government has made of the proportion of Education and Health Care Plans that have been issued within 20 weeks nationally.
Answered by Will Quince
The number and percentage of education, health and care (EHC) plans that have been issued within the statutory timescale of 20 weeks is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9641146e-f32a-4f3f-925c-bde4cc238be0.
The latest published data shows that 58.0% (31,446) of EHC plans issued in 2020, excluding exceptions, were issued within 20 weeks.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will provide additional support to local authorities to meet increased demands for statutory assessments for Education and Health Care Plans for children, beyond specific support from the Department for Education and Ofsted to manage historical backlogs.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities is responsible for local government funding, including funding necessary to support local authorities to meet their statutory duties with regards to all children's services, including special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.
This year, local authorities have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including SEND services. Local authorities have the flexibility to spend according to local needs and priorities, including to undertake education, health and care needs assessments.
The autumn 2021 Spending Review delivered an additional £4.7 billion for the core schools' budget by financial year 2024-25. That includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in financial year 2022-23, on top of the funding we announced last summer. The department will confirm in due course how this additional funding for 2022-23, and for the two subsequent years, will be allocated for schools and high needs. Increasing funding for schools should help to reduce the demand for statutory assessment, thereby reducing the burden on local authorities.
We have introduced the ‘safety valve’ intervention programme for those local authorities with the very highest percentage dedicated schools grant deficits. The programme requires the local authorities involved to develop substantial plans for reform to their high needs systems, with support and challenge from the department, to rapidly place them on a sustainable footing, including appropriately managing demand for education. The department will help these local authorities with additional funding over time to contribute to their historic deficits, contingent on delivery of reforms and targets set out in published agreements.
The department will continue to work with other government departments, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to ensure the Spending Review reflects the needs of children’s services.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to publish the outcome of discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care on providing an exemption to the student finance equivalent or lower qualification rules for paramedicine.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Department for Education continues to work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on the possibility of extending the equivalent or lower qualification exemption to those studying paramedic science degrees.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department is issuing to universities on continuing study abroad programmes for students for the academic year 2021-22.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
For any forthcoming international mobility in education, regardless of how it is funded, we expect all universities, colleges and schools managing these to follow the relevant Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice for the destination country and to highlight this to their participants, being aware that the situation can change.
We suggest anyone who may be affected discuss their placement with their provider, being conscious that their placement may not be able to continue as originally planned, but there may be opportunities for it to start at a later date if the situation changes and this is feasible. Participants should be ready to comply with local isolation, testing or quarantine requirements, and will need to rely on the local health system.
Turing Scheme and Erasmus+ mobilities will both be in operation during the 2021/22 academic year.
Current government guidance for Turing Scheme, Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps travel is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#travel-guidance-for-erasmus-and-european-solidarity-corps-exchanges.
FCDO travel advice per country can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when applications will open for students to apply for postgraduate student loans for the academic year 2021-22.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Student Loans Company launched its application system for postgraduate loans for the 2021/22 academic year on 28 June 2021.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that students taking GCSEs and A Levels have access to set texts for upcoming assessments.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Students should have confidence in their grades this year. Awarding organisations have provided assessment materials, guidance, and training to support centres to make fair, consistent, and evidence based decisions which are without bias. Ofqual has also published information for centres about making objective judgements this year.
For the 2021 summer series, reasonable adjustments for disabled students and access arrangements should have been in place when evidence was generated. Where they were not, centres should take that into account when coming to their judgement. Teachers have had the flexibility to substitute or discount evidence where reasonable adjustments were not applied. For all assessments completed in the summer term, centres should have ensured students had access to reasonable adjustments. Special circumstances that may lead a teacher to disregard a piece of evidence or to replace it with another piece of evidence would cover instances where students were not provided with their approved access arrangements or reasonable adjustments when completing their work. This also applies where temporary illness or injury, bereavement, or some other event outside of the student’s control might have temporarily affected their performance.
This year, teachers have assessed their students based on what they were taught, not what they missed. Regarding the use of set texts, the Department expects students to have been assessed on the specific texts taught by their schools. Schools should follow their own processes for ensuring students have access to set texts, as they would in any other year.
Centres should follow the schools operational guidance on equipment when using classroom based resources, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#system-of-controls.
Where schools have taught remotely, they should follow the guidance on remote education, which refers to the provision of resources, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#system-of-controls.
Where only some of the text has been taught, teachers had the flexibility to focus their assessments on the proportion taught.
Deadline for centres to submit their teacher assessed grades was 18 June so centres have therefore completed their assessments for the 2021 series.